Computer Graphics World

April/May 2012

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■ ■ ■ ■ Animation New Coke The iconic Coca-Cola polar bears, driven by real-time animation, star in a streamed digital experience Classic It took nearly 70 years for the beloved Coca-Cola polar bear char- acters to migrate from their fi rst print ad to their fi rst CG-animated television spot. It took nearly 20 more years for the computer-gen- erated characters to make the move to real time, but the results were well worth the wait. Th is impressive feat—which merged a live digital stream and social media activity with traditional advertising—took place during one of the biggest events of the year, the Super Bowl. Coca-Cola has made some big moves during the big game over the years, but never with the bears, which have mostly appeared in commercials during the Christ- mas holiday and even during the Olympics. Th at is, until this year, when the characters threw their own Coca-Cola Polar Bowl Party and invited more than a hundred million viewers to join them. Th e lovable iconic bears starred in the multi-discipline ad campaign that spanned television, the Internet, and social media. Th e traditional segment contained three TV commercials—"Argh," "Catch," and "Su- 18 April/May 2012 perstition"—featuring two adult bears, each sporting a scarf represent- ing the team colors of either the New England Patriots or the New York Giants. Th e commercials—conceived by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy and created by Animal Logic—were playful and fun, and done in the recognizable visual style used for the past Coke polar bear commercials. Th e big news, though, was not the actual TV commercials. It really wasn't the social media portion per se, either. Rather, it was the four and a half hours of live-streamed animation that spanned the entire game as well as the pre-game activities and post-game celebrations. Shown on www.CokePolarBowl.com during the evening of the game, the live stream "occurred" from within the bears' cave, as the polar bears, seated on a couch fashioned from snow and ice, watched and reacted in real time to their team's performance. On occasion, they were joined by friends (mischievous penguins) and family (one bear's young son). Not only did the bears and environment look the same in the streamed version as they did in the pre-rendered commercials, but the

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