Coca-Cola Releases New 2D Animated Commercial

Coca-Cola and its advertisements have become an American staple over the years (Santa? Polar bears, anyone?) and it looks like Coca-Cola has made animated magic once again. Recently, Indiewire reported the release of Coke’s newest animated commercial, “Man & Dog.”

The animation was done by Duncan Studio, which was recruited by production company Psyop to complete the animation for the commercial. On Duncan Studio’s Facebook page, the studio animators state that they wanted to add traditional 2D animation to Psyop’s body of work. Psyop had done animation before, but only 3D and Flash animation. Working together, Duncan Studio and Psyop took the classic style of hand-drawn animation and married it to modern technology.

The resulting commercial is really beautiful. The animation is beautiful and seamless. Both the dog and his owner have an appealing character design; I can only speak for myself, but by the end of the ad, I found myself loving both characters. What the ad does best, though, is taking us inside the dog’s mind. As soon as the dog and his owner get to the park, the commercial goes back and forth between dog and human perspective, with the dog seeing wondrous things everywhere and his owner seeing just another drab, ordinary day. Of course, the owner’s perspective changes once he gets some Coca-Cola into his system.

The Coca-Cola Company carved their niche in American culture the same way that any product does: through good advertising. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that no other company has had more impact with their ad campaigns. In the 1990s, Coca-Cola started using animation as a substantial part of their campaigns, starting with the famous polar bear commercials. After the success those bears brought to the company, Coke’s ad executives have used animation more and more, resulting in some great commercials (including one of my favorite ads ever).

Ultimately, though, the commercial does exactly what it should: it makes me want a Coke. The warmth and good cheer that pervades the ad is contagious, and it makes me feel the same way toward Coca-Cola. In the end, through animation, Coca-Cola is adding more bricks to an ad campaign that’s making them a remarkable force, not only in the USA but in the whole world.