Happiness Machine

Why it works

A Coca-Cola vending machine was slipped into a student cafeteria at St. John's University in Queens overnight, watched by hidden cameras and rigged to give far more than a drink: extra bottles, flowers, balloon animals, a hot pizza and a sandwich six feet long. None of the reactions were scripted. Coca-Cola posted the film to its YouTube channel in January 2010 with almost no push, which the team told Mashable amounted to a single Facebook update and one tweet, and it passed two million views within months; a 30-second edit later ran during the American Idol season finale. It is studied as the template for the branded act of kindness: a small, filmable surprise that turns a slogan like 'Open Happiness' into something literal and lets the audience do the distribution. It won a Gold Clio for interactive work and Ad Age's Small Agency Campaign of the Year.