Small World Machines

Why it works

In March 2013 Coca-Cola put two custom vending machines in shopping malls in Lahore and New Delhi and joined them with a live video link. Each machine's body-length touchscreen showed a stranger from across the border; people who waved, pressed hands to the glass or traced a peace sign or smiley face together were rewarded with a free Coke. The screens projected and filmed through the same glass, so the two sides could look each other in the eye, and the award entry says the team had to commission its own internet connection because cross-border traffic was slow and often blocked. It is studied as a global brand stepping, carefully, into one of the world's most hostile borders with nothing more than a shared moment and a can of soda. At Cannes 2013 it took two Gold Lions in Direct and, by Leo Burnett's count, a third in Media among at least six Lions; it also won a One Show Bronze Pencil in 2014.