Coca-Cola happiness goes a long way

I wish every vending machine was as magical as the one featured in Coca-Cola's first viral video campaign. The "Happiness Machine" clip above features a Coca-Cola vending machine transformed to deliver small "doses" of happiness for unsuspecting college students, in the form of everything from flowers and pizza, to 6-ft. subs and balloon animals.

Filmed on the Queens, N.Y., campus of St. John's University, a production crew secretly installed a Coca-Cola vending machine overnight, along with several hidden cameras strategically placed to capture all the happiness in action.

"We were looking for a creative way to connect with teens outside of the typical TV commercial or online game," said A.J. Brustein, global senior brand manager, Coca-Cola. "We wanted to give them something that would spread a bit of happiness and something they could pass on to their friends to keep the happiness flowing."

And it's certainly working! Only a few days after its launch on YouTube, the video has attracted over 700,000 views -- and I'm sure that's just the start of it. Coca-Cola is scoring some big branding points with this one and I'm just loving it.