ABOUT ADS OF THE WEIRD

With Ads of the Weird, MSNBC.com takes a look at some of the oddest, most eye-catching, controversial and just plain interesting advertising out there today. Primary writer Allison Linn covers the retail and advertising industries for MSNBC.com. The Ads of the Weird team is always interested in hearing what ads have caught your attention, whether it's online, on television or in print.


Wal-Mart and Coke make music together

Posted: Monday, December 08, 2008 5:00 PM by Allison Linn
Filed Under:

Wal-Mart commercials have definitely improved since the days of the tacky flying smiley face and uniformed employees, but let’s face it: The retailer’s ads are not usually the stuff of creative wonderment.

That’s one reason we were pleasantly surprised by a new holiday commercial from Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola.

The ad, currently playing in movie theaters and online, features a young, geeky guy wandering through his own holiday party with a reusable Wal-Mart tote bag, handing out bottles of Coke while singing a little ditty about his guests.


Wal-Mart (click image to play ad)

There’s a nice zeitgeist element to the ad, with its references to modern families ("my surprising cool stepmother/ and the two kids that she had/ before she even met my dad"), modern dating ("my best friend and his online date") and modern communication ("my MySpace friends/and Twitter list").

There’s also an element of completely G-rated romantic intrigue to add to the mix, when our hero wanders by: "the first girl that I ever kissed/you’re beautiful/I love you."

It’s a simple, feel-good ad that offers a bit of distraction from the much more worrisome realities many of us are facing these days. Yes, it’s a little cheesy, and no, it’s not at all realistic -- what twentysomething has such a huge house, for starters? -- but it’s still catchy in a cute, wholesome way.

We also appreciated that the companies resisted the temptation to do more than show the brands they are seeking to promote. After all, with the barrage of advertising we usually get from these two companies, we really don’t need one more reminder that Coke is a soda and Wal-Mart is a discounter.

Click here to view the ad. The mini-musical feel also reminded us of a similar, but much racier, ad for AMP Energy drinks that aired last spring.

Update: My colleague Gael Fashingbauer Cooper over at Test Pattern is lamenting that there aren't more good holiday commercials these days. Click here to see the post.

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Comments

I don't care if they have upgraded their ads and changed how they spell their name, Wal-Mart or Walmart, is still a blight on the retailing land scape and should be boycotted.

Stuart, West Virginia (Sent Monday, December 08, 2008 8:40 PM)

Coke has been suffering an identity crisis for a long time and it seems they finally got back to the real thing.  This commercial represents everything good about advertising and it does so while actually promoting the product.  My whole family loves it!

Charles Vickers, San Antonio, Texas (Sent Monday, December 08, 2008 10:38 PM)

It's not soda,it's pop! or Soda pop!

I C (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 8:23 AM)

As it is in any retail environment, individuals have options regarding their shopping habits regardless if it's Wal-mart or Macy's. Right now, we have more important issues regarding our economic and world issues to deal with.

Jeff S, Minneapolis, MN (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 10:07 AM)

I like it, even though I'm no fan of Walmart.  It's better than the assortment of ads telling us that any guy who doesn't want to be single better cough up for something with diamonds in it!

Sara, Oklahoma City (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 11:12 AM)

WOW!!! What an ad! It, in in way, sums up the holiday season! Finally Coke and Wal-Mart team up to bring us the best ad this holiday season. This should win an award for the team that came up with it.

Rusty, Batavia NY (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 11:16 AM)

I liked it. It was a nice way of showing the modern meaning of community and although I know it is trying to sell something, the products are in the background.

doug baker fort collins colorado (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 11:27 AM)

Im always amazed at the ritualistic bashing of Walmart.  Our country is based upon being able to start a business and grow it if you can.  I really believe the vast majority of the anti-walmart crowd is just jealous that a single businessman from Arkansas came up with a successful idea and they did not.  Sour grapes.  Get over it.

Peter - Dallas (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 11:28 AM)

It's SODA!

denns doe nashville (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:05 PM)

Walmart is one of the few good places we have to shop here in western NY. The prices are right, and I don't see anything else going out of business around it! I love the commercial-it seems to be all about the real spirit of Christmas. No more trying to keep up with everyone else-what I have has been paid for with cash for years now!

Dar Fredonia ny (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:40 PM)

If I were able to afford it, I would shop at Macy's. But im in the low part of middle class, so mostly I shop at Wal-Mart. Plus the fact that I live in an extremely rural area, the closest thing other than a Wal-Mart is a 4 hour round trip. I like that I can afford my groceries, and my style may not always be the best or most up to date, but I am also a thrifty shopper and believe that you should only pay what something is worth. Not for the name on it.

LaShay, Idabel, Oklahoma (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:50 PM)

This was a funny, current and snazzy ad that I enjoyed.  Love how Coke always seems to come up with the cool-themed ads and Wal-Mart is trying too.... So, let's ring in the New Year and Holidays with JOY!!

MamaZepp, Wheatland, CA (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 2:01 PM)

I was in at the movie theater when this commercial came on. Almost everyone got quiet and listened to it. I'd been trying to talk to my sister and forgot what I was saying, because this one was just so much fun to watch. I know that a lot of people think it's lame, or they hate Wal-Mart, but I really loved the ad.

Rachel, Bend, OR (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 3:33 PM)

How do you bring JOY from shopping when people get killed in your store?

John Doe Seattle, Wash.); (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 3:39 PM)

Regardless of what you think of these two Titans, the song and singer certainly wove an accurate and vivid tapestry of the new milenium's realities - and in a happy joyful way!

Harry Houpis, Portland, Oregon (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 3:40 PM)

"It's not soda,it's pop! or Soda pop!"

Sorry...if you're in the South...it's "Coke", no matter who the manufacturer was!!!

Diet Coke Addict (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 3:43 PM)

This commercial was on last year. You're a year behind the times.

Jane Doe, Orange County, CA (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 4:37 PM)

Um, why are we arguing about "soda" vs "pop"?  Don't get around much.  It's a regional thing.  If you call it pop on the east coast, no one will even know what you mean, but here on the west coast that's what everyone calls it. There's no right or wrong here, folks.

Phil, Portland Oregon (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 5:28 PM)

A great ad.  Notice how it's almost one continuous shot?  Appealing characters, good sound, wait-for-it element about whose ad it is - better than the movie it preceded in the theater!

Bob Weiss, Brooklyn, NY (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 5:33 PM)

Loved it!  Anything that promotes joy and love and caring about each other is the right message.  Way to go Walmart and Coke.

JKG Albuquerque (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 6:41 PM)

I'd like to teach the world to slave in perfect harmony.

They should substitute some poor chineese workers for the actors. I can see it now some 12 or 13 year old sweating away in a labor camp, you can see the sadness on their faces. They start to cry, but all of a sudden a soccer mom pops up with a coke hands it over. Then she says " Here's a coke, it sucks to be you but now get back to work I need more cheap poisonous crap."

Jason Torrace CA (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 7:02 PM)

That was awful.  Eerily similar to the guy with bad credit ads.  Not clever or funny.  Just annoying.  I look forward to skipping over this one on the DVR...

Jim, CA (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 7:09 PM)

hey portland, don't say east coast because it is pop in n.y, new england and canada

j. fitz, St. Louis, Missouri (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 8:19 PM)

Walmart abuses their employees by not hiring enough help, hence, your cheaper prices. Employees are told not to talk, on the clock, to each other, unless it's regarding work. They are actually watched/monitored by security hired to check their productivity. Yes...that's right, even on the first and second shifts. They are watched regarding how long they spend talking to, helping customers. They are told to get it over with as quickly as possible and get back to work.
Customers of Walmart, some, are lower class, hence they behave like lower class mongrels. They rip open packages that have clear packaging. You can see the product through it. They rip open boxes, pull the merchnandise out, leave it on the floor, for other customers to trip on. They open food and eat it in the store, then don't pay for it. Customers have been seen blowing their kids noses on the clothing sold there.
Once old grandma demanded the store clerk take off her 5yr. old grandsons tee shirt and put on the new one she was going to buy. When the clerk got closer to the boy and put her hand on the tee he was wearing to take it off, she smelled vomit and had her hand right on the vomit as the grandma smirked at her.
The managers show favoritism to the younger prettier girls. They get the easy jobs, often, and some are making twice what new hires get, yet do hardly any heavy work.
I hate Wal-mart. It's practices are unfair.
IF you are sick with something minor such as the flu, a nauseaus migraine, you are forced to fill out "leave of absence papers" for missing 3 days or more. You have to go in there while your sick. They do this so that they may have the option of terminating ppl. This means that if you need a surgery during the year....need a REAL leave of absence for something serious, you can't take it. You are only allowed one a year.
IF an older employee needs to do extensive ladder work, such as putting 129 boxes of heavier merchandise on the top shelves, the managers won't give them another employee to "save their knees". This tears up the ligaments when you are working fast. IT twists, tears, puts weight on the knee ligaments. Another employee would be able to stand below the ladder and hand up the merchandise. It would get done twice as fast and save illness and permenant injuries.

LILy Simone Sarasota Florida (Sent Wednesday, December 10, 2008 12:58 AM)

It depends on where you grew up to what you call it: In NY and NJ it is soda, in OH it is pop.  Food and drink have have regional names.

Ann, Dayton, OH (Sent Wednesday, December 10, 2008 10:23 AM)

It's a perfect partnership - Walmart is rotting the US economy and Coca-Cola is rotting teeth.

Trudie, Florence, KY (Sent Wednesday, December 10, 2008 12:05 PM)

I like the ad, I thought it was cute and laid back vs all the buy stuff from us and your life will be better.

As for the soda vs pop thing. Where I live a soda will get you one thing (kinda like a milkshake) a pop will get you something else (fountain drink) and coke a third thing all together...

Rina, PA (Sent Wednesday, December 10, 2008 12:43 PM)

The first kiss comment is priceless.  The reference immediately invoked sweet memories of my "first kiss."  It may have been puppy love, but it's still real to the puppy.  :) Smart messaging in a recession.

KC, Seattle, WA (Sent Wednesday, December 10, 2008 1:50 PM)

When did Wal-Mart become Walmart?

Tim Garry, Mt. Gilead, Ohio (Sent Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:17 PM)

I hate wal-mart I have not shopped there for years.

I love that the Executives make billions and most of their employees subsist on goverment assistance.

Stu (Sent Wednesday, December 10, 2008 10:08 PM)

I've lived all over but now I live in the land of mispronounced and/or incorrectly called things, Minnesota. It was soda in Arizona, soda pop Michigan, Coke in the south and now in Minnesnowta, pop. Minnesnowta, where we serve hot dish, not casserole. It's served everywhere from New Prague (pray-egg combined) to Edina and Medina (E-dinah & Meh-dinah). No bagels here, just Bag-els. And be sure when your friend goes to get them, you go with. And as much as I dislike Coke & Wal-mart, I like this add, you betcha. It makes me smile.

Stationary nomad, Twin Cities, MN (Sent Thursday, December 11, 2008 11:12 AM)

I love Wal-mart and I work for wal-mart. I feel comfortable with how they treat us at work and all they do to make sure as employees we do not loose our jobs in this hard economic times. Just for you to note, It is the only company among the few that is hiring at this time where else others are firing workers they are doing all they can to keep us on the job and keep America going strong. It is better to be offered a moderate pay and stay on job for as long as you can. Wal-Mart is a good company to work for no matter what most people think. The pay is not as hefty as some want but it is enough to keep a roof over your head, provide food for your family and health insurance.  It is better to have something than none at all!!!

serah, Ypsi, MI (Sent Thursday, December 11, 2008 1:59 PM)

I liked the ad...

I think I'll go to Walmart and stand in a long line with a carbonation can...

Kurlee from Another Time and Space (Sent Thursday, December 11, 2008 3:09 PM)

The anti Walmart troglodytes live!So Ninties!I lived in 3 rural areas that Walmart came to.The locals were overjoyed.It meant jobs for locals good things at reasonable prices that they could not otherwise afford and the only businesses that failed were already about to The moronic NY state legislature refused to allow stores to be built unless they provided health insurance to anyone who was already on NY public Medicaide so Walmart didnt build 3 stores depriving locals of a good cheap place to shop and hundreds of salaries that would have been pumped into local economies. Now the save the people Democrats are looking at a 48 billion dollar deficit due their ideas of economics and social justice.Just amazing so many people out there filled with hate towards an institution because its the fashionable thing to do.Certainly says a lot about their mental make up.Reminds me of Marlon Brando in "The Wild One".When asked what he's protesting against Brando replies "What do you got?"

charles lewkowicz Nashua NH (Sent Thursday, December 11, 2008 7:54 PM)

I love shopping at Walmart.  I like the fact that I can go and purchase $100 worth of groceries and it will last me almost a month, unlike my local grocery stores where the same amount is around $150.

I liked the ad.  Better than the lame stupid holiday song by that electronic band that everyone uses(including Walmart)

Mike, Chesterton In (Sent Thursday, December 11, 2008 9:22 PM)

I love Walmart and I shop Walmart. Especially for toys. Why pay more? I also like the ad. By the way, here in California it's SODA.

Sarah (Sent Thursday, December 11, 2008 11:07 PM)

The ad was cute, light-weight, and relevant.  Loved the cultural references to relationships!  I predict-in spite of the singer-that this will be used in the future to flash back to "those days".

No, I don't drink Coke, but I do shop WalMart.  And I am from California (soda) and in Ohio (pop).  Ain't English grand??  At least we don't put the groceries in the boot of our cars while juggling our bumbershoots!!

Edith, Columbus, OH (Sent Friday, December 12, 2008 12:06 AM)

LMAO Trudy... Too true! Too true!

da LesMan (Sent Saturday, December 13, 2008 7:05 PM)

Yes, the prices not bad on canned or boxed items.  But their meat sucks and for God sake will someone teach them how to clean their bathrooms!

gigi (Sent Sunday, December 14, 2008 11:05 AM)

Cleans the bathrooms...clean the whole damn place. Forget the prices, the stores are dumps!. There is filth everywhere and there is too much junk crammed into every nook and cranny. I won't go near them they are so dirty.

Karen Waverly, Plymouth MA (Sent Monday, December 15, 2008 1:22 PM)

i agree Walmart sucks..  proud to say that I have never been inside a Walmart.  never will

christina (Sent Tuesday, December 16, 2008 1:02 PM)

Holiday Ads? Where are the Clydesdales? Bring back the Clydwsdales having a snowball fight! Pitty the ones how have to ask, "What's he talking about", for they have lived a sheltered life. Even the Polar Bears have this one beat!

Ron Dunn, Horace,North Dakota (Sent Tuesday, December 16, 2008 6:27 PM)

First of all (sip) I dont care (sip) what its called (sip).  I'll drink my (sip) Soda,  pop, or (sip) soda-pop.  and just enjoy (Sip) the commercial (sip) and Movie.  (Sip) then go to (sip) Walmart, & (sip) buy me some (sip) more Soda-pop.

Dano, KY (Sent Tuesday, December 16, 2008 8:30 PM)

You should be ashamed of your self. It is SO much easier to critizise advertising than it is to CREATE advertising. These people create these things 24/7/365 so my hat is off to them regardless of any string of annoying efforts.

claude coker La Palma, California (Sent Tuesday, December 16, 2008 10:19 PM)

" This commercial was on last year. You're a year behind the times.

Jane Doe, Orange County, CA (Sent Tuesday, December 09, 2008 4:37 PM)"

Sorry, "Jane", you're way off. Just made in the last 2 months.

Doug, Richmond, Va. (Sent Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:12 PM)

I thought it was neat. The author needs to get a sense of humor, no offense really.

jon jon (Sent Wednesday, December 17, 2008 11:22 PM)

I don't see how a discussion of the latest Wal-Mart or is it Walmart and coke joint ad got turned into a discussion of how bad Walmart is...oh, yes I do...The Walmart haters are still around...Unless you are shopping clothes, the stuff is the same and the prices are better. Despite what most people will tell you, they are looking to get what they want as cheaply as possible. DVDs, CDs, toys, food items, auto products, housewares...you name it, pretty much all the same as what the other stores sell. The same can of sauce Walmart charges me 58 cents for, Publix charges me $1.15 for, the same cereal costs more, the same potato chips cost more, the same oil for my car costs more...the same COKES cost more...so hell yeah I shop at Walmart and when I'm finished there I put the extra into the Salvation Army kettle as I walk out the door...something else Publix does not have...hmmm...Additionally you hate-clowns, no one forces anyone to work at Walmart, they choose to. I know plenty of people who are happy working there...And yes, the ad is a very nice one to reflect on this season...Bet all you Walmart haters are driving cars made in the USA too...yeah,right.

Batman, Atlanta, GA (Sent Thursday, December 18, 2008 1:49 AM)

I don't see how a discussion of the latest Wal-Mart or is it Walmart and coke joint ad got turned into a discussion of how bad Walmart is...oh, yes I do...The Walmart haters are still around...Unless you are shopping clothes, the stuff is the same and the prices are better. Despite what most people will tell you, they are looking to get what they want as cheaply as possible. DVDs, CDs, toys, food items, auto products, housewares...you name it, pretty much all the same as what the other stores sell. The same can of sauce Walmart charges me 58 cents for, Publix charges me $1.15 for, the same cereal costs more, the same potato chips cost more, the same oil for my car costs more...the same COKES cost more...so hell yeah I shop at Walmart and when I'm finished there I put the extra into the Salvation Army kettle as I walk out the door...something else Publix does not have...hmmm...Additionally you hate-clowns, no one forces anyone to work at Walmart, they choose to. I know plenty of people who are happy working there...And yes, the ad is a very nice one to reflect on this season...Bet all you Walmart haters are driving cars made in the USA too...yeah,right.

Batman, Atlanta, GA (Sent Thursday, December 18, 2008 1:49 AM)

Charles of Nashua:

Unfortunately, unlike Brando, my spouse worked for Walmart and saw their business tactics first hand.  And unlike Brando, I won't take a side on an issue unless I can defend it with facts.

Trudie, Florence, KY (Sent Thursday, December 18, 2008 2:57 PM)

I shopped at a walmart once.  ONCE.  Not one person working there knew where anything was in the store.  Not one person working there spoke English.  No commercial is going to help this dump.  I feel for those who have to shop there or have to work there.  I wish I could help.  The money they spend on advertising should go to the people working there.

Rinkrat (Sent Monday, December 22, 2008 7:49 PM)



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