new coca cola ad featuring Sg migrant workers + cool drone

[sundaymorningstaple]

Oh, the Utube clip was uploaded not by an ad agency but by Coke.

I still like it.

[sundaymorningstaple]

you guys are ruining it..tsk tsk! this should be a drone thread.. oh wait theres a drone of some different sorts going on here..
But yes this wont fix a single thing about the mistreatment and the conditions of labor for these guys.

While it won't fix a single thing, it may just get others to start thinking a little more about those people who made this island. Yeah, it might be a feel good clip, but if it lights a spark, like "I'd like to teach" did in 71 (okay, most of you were still in short pants back then (or weren't even a gleam in you parents eyes yet), it had a pretty big impact on a lot of folks of my generation. Sometimes it only takes a spark. You all call ME cynical? (not talking about you there, Raj)

[QRM]

I doubt a drone like that would be able to lift 6 cans of coke!?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Some of those camera assemblies are pretty heavy as well.

This drone is a lot smaller and only 4 rotors and can handle a 6-pack so I think what coke did with the bigger more powerful drones is fully capable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KcEqMCIn7c

[Beeroclock]

you guys are ruining it..tsk tsk! this should be a drone thread.. oh wait theres a drone of some different sorts going on here..
But yes this wont fix a single thing about the mistreatment and the conditions of labor for these guys.

While it won't fix a single thing, it may just get others to start thinking a little more about those people who made this island. Yeah, it might be a feel good clip, but if it lights a spark, like "I'd like to teach" did in 71 (okay, most of you were still in short pants back then (or weren't even a gleam in you parents eyes yet), it had a pretty big impact on a lot of folks of my generation. Sometimes it only takes a spark. You all call ME cynical? (not talking about you there, Raj)

Yeah.... I was actually going to write a very cynical post at the start there, but then thought about it for a second, and it seems also not really fair to Coke and the ad companies. They're damned if they do / damned if they don't. As per the initial responses here, most people's first reaction to this short film is positive, so I reason it's a good thing they have created this. I really just wish the Coke brand presence was much more subtle or in fact invisible, it would be far more effective for the social message and also for their own advertising if they did it "anonymously" (people would find out their involvement anyway and sing their praises, which actually achieves the outcome much more powerfully and without all this cynicism).

[rajagainstthemachine]

you guys are ruining it..tsk tsk! this should be a drone thread.. oh wait theres a drone of some different sorts going on here..
But yes this wont fix a single thing about the mistreatment and the conditions of labor for these guys.

While it won't fix a single thing, it may just get others to start thinking a little more about those people who made this island. Yeah, it might be a feel good clip, but if it lights a spark, like "I'd like to teach" did in 71 (okay, most of you were still in short pants back then (or weren't even a gleam in you parents eyes yet), it had a pretty big impact on a lot of folks of my generation. Sometimes it only takes a spark. You all call ME cynical? (not talking about you there, Raj)

i knew you weren't referring to me here

[JR8]

From ZZMs linked article:
'What benefit whatsoever has that stunt brought these indentured workers?'

I disagree. You don't plan to ... influence... the course of a vehicles
direction, by strapping ten sticks of dynamite to it's door, before even
stepping in.

I was reminded of this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib-Qiyklq-Q -
'Coca Cola Commercial - I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing'. 1971. Consider the geopolitical background to that, it wasn't far short of political
activism, and the message came over loud and clear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'd_Like_t ... ld_to_Sing 'The popularity of the jingle led to it being re-recorded by The New Seekers* and by The Hillside Singers as a full-length song, dropping references to
Coca-Cola. The song became a hit record in the US and the UK.' - How many people thus got to hear the song, and consider it's lyrics? Most of us will be familiar with the song even 40 years later. From 'Little acorns' and all that? ...


* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jr9hPbYmBo New Seekers - I'd Like ToTeach The World To Sing

[movingtospore]

Honestly, I think the only good thing about this video is that it is a very telling story of everything that is so f--ked up about this place. "We wont talk to you or even look at you in the street; we'll pay you slave wages and make you live in apalling conditions; we'll subject you to racial abuse on regular basis; we'll thank you for building OUR city, but never invite you to be part of it. But wait, we'll write you a note and send you a $1 coke via a drone." Give me a break.

Right. I've half a mind to send a note to various award organizers letting them know exactly how crass this is.

However, if it helped one of the locals open their mind for a minute I suppose that's something.

[Brah]

Back in the day, I kind of liked this but after 40 years of it, it got old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2KECJv9XrQ

It still has nostalgic value though via shameless commercialism which ran counter to that generation.

The 7-Up one was cooler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE4ZcYvcioo

I searched for that for years, it finally appeared on YT a few years ago.

[earthfriendly]

Yeah, it is for advertising, highly commercialized. But this will not discount the fact that there is a real person writing those notes (attached to the cans). People took the time to think about and write to these construction workers, the "invisible" workforce. Even if it only takes 5 mins. So many many cans were delivered?

Do you know how tough it is to make my kids sit down and write those thank-you notes for the gifts they have received?

[zzm9980]

I doubt a drone like that would be able to lift 6 cans of coke!?

http://www.dji.com/products

The Quad-coptor drones have ranges rates in KM and speeds that would exceed speed limits in Singapore. The one in the video was a six-rotor model which is even more powerful. Pretty much the limiting factor would be battery life on these things from the payload. I'd be surprised if it could fly more than 6-8 minutes with a six-pack of Coke, but no doubts at all that it could do it.

Also, you can plot routings for these things with an iOS or Android app, and it essentially flies itself.

[rajagainstthemachine]

Yeah, it is for advertising, highly commercialized. But this will not discount the fact that there is a real person writing those notes (attached to the cans). People took the time to think about and write to these construction workers, the "invisible" workforce. Even if it only takes 5 mins. So many many cans were delivered?

Do you know how tough it is to make my kids sit down and write those thank-you notes for the gifts they have received?

what do your kids have to do with any of this? The behavior of your kids is not an accurate representation of the behavior of many sgers.
do you have first hand evidence that all messages were hand written ? They could have well been printed, nobody would have given a f$#&* this will be forgotten in 10 days and their lives of misery will go on.
if this was a way to acknowledge the workers contributions, it would be to deliver a cans of beer using a drone to little India on a Sunday cause at the moment what little happiness they had has been snatched away from them after that riot act.

[earthfriendly]

I do not mean to project my kids or my family's lifestyle onto SG or the world. What I was trying to say, people are so caught up with life itself that they do not take the time for the little things in life. I do not know how many of the notes were handwritten. Care to enlighten?

So what it will be forgotten in 10 days? There is only so much storage in our memory bank. Somebody took action and did something for the workers. And the workers being interviewed appreciated it.

[rajagainstthemachine]

I do not mean to project my kids or my family's lifestyle onto SG or the world. What I was trying to say, people are so caught up with life itself that they do not take the time for the little things in life. I do not know how many of the notes were handwritten. Care to enlighten?

So what it will be forgotten in 10 days? There is only so much storage in our memory bank. Somebody took action and did something for the workers. And the workers being interviewed appreciated it.

somebody ( ad agency ) took undue advantage at the expense of the workers plight. Also if memories are short then this is why something long lasting needs to be done to address their concerns not some cheap ad stunt.
these guys don't live on YouTube or the internet like you or me, this ad is likely to be watched by some guy on a bus/train thinking amazing, everything is just fine, lets all move along, in reality their conditions never change.
like SMS suggested a change at heart is also needed.

[JR8]

I agree with EF. One could argue that SG is still a 'settler colony' (to an the extent the US, AUS-NZ etc also are). A lot of people are highly focused on their personal advancement, and that of their family. Here it can be expressed as a facet of kiasuism, 'Got to chope that cafe table before someone else does'.

IMHO one does not tend towards benevolence to the less fortunate until you yourself have arrived at some point of 'domestic comfort'. So, throw in a youngish population, with lots of immigrants, and it's little surprise it can be dog-eat-dog.

Furthermore, to arrive at said point of 'domestic comfort' takes hard graft and long hours. Within a packed day, this leaves little room for benevolence. You're so engaged, distracted, or tired-out it's easy to just not register that that does not immediately and directly impact you.

Both SMS and I immediately made the connection to the 'I want to teach the world to sing' ad, and that is from 40 years ago. So I don't think it's correct to suggest that these things are quickly forgotten.

@ RATM. I don't think they're taking advantage: Though perhaps you could suggest the ad will achieve mutual advantage.

When that 'IWTTWTS' ad came out, it was seemingly preaching in front of a shut door. But it brilliantly caught the feel of the time, and look at the strides multi-culturalism has taken since then (at least, in the West). I'm not for a moment suggesting the Coke ad spawned it, but it helped raise the issue to a very broad audience, for consideration. For example both me and my sister are married to people who are from ethnic minorities. For 'a respectable family' (:)) that simply would not have been socially acceptable 40 years ago.

Coke are trying to help yield something 'long lasting', by about the only acceptable means possible. Even then it still strikes me as quite a bold subject to take on.

As suggested 'From little acorns...'. This ad is capturing a popular feeling. Don't be surprised if some way, perhaps a long way ahead, the treatment of Workers here changes for the better.