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Featured era: 2010
Coca-Cola Happiness Machine
“A vending machine that gave out flowers, pizza and a 12-foot sub.”
- Featured era
- 2010
- Peak era
- 2010
- Company
- Coca-Cola / Definition 6
- Category
- Viral Videos
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On Video
Coca-Cola's "Happiness Machine"
Plays from YouTube when you press play. Views, length and date from YouTube, October 2026.
About This Video
- From:
- Coca-Cola
- Added:
- January 12, 2010
- Length:
- 2:03
What Was It?
"Happiness Machine" is a hidden-camera video made by Coca-Cola with the agency Definition 6 as part of its "Open Happiness" campaign. A Coke vending machine in the Marillac cafeteria at St. John's University in Queens, New York, was secretly rigged so that students who pressed the button got far more than a drink.
Out came extra bottles of Coke, flowers, pizza, sunglasses, a balloon animal and a twelve-foot sub. Five hidden cameras filmed the unscripted reactions over two days, with a hidden wall built behind the machine.
Posted to YouTube on January 12, 2010, it spread fast and won a CLIO award. A 30-second edit later aired during the American Idol season finale, and a UK sequel followed that September.
Things You Probably Forgot
- A pizza box sliding out of a Coke machine
- The twelve-foot sub
- "Open Happiness"
- The 30-second edit during the American Idol finale
The Story
- 2009 Hidden cameras filmed the rigged machine at St. John's University in December.
- 2010 The video was posted to YouTube on January 12.
- 2010 It won a CLIO award, and a 30-second edit aired during the American Idol season finale.
- 2010 Coca-Cola released a UK sequel, shot in London, in September.
Its Legacy
Coca-Cola's upload is still on YouTube. The idea proved popular enough to earn a UK sequel, shot in London the same year.
Memories
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