Things Don't Necessarily Go Better With Coke

In the "we try to do as much evil as possible" it seems as if Coke has ripped off some creative guys in Uxbridge, north of Toronto. According to an article in today's Star, the Huizenga brothers created The Winking Circle as a crazy, creative collective ""eccentrifying" the world, urging kids to turn off the television and drop out of consumer culture to star in their own, unique lives." The made a movie about it, and it seems, the Coca Cola company liked it enough to rip it off.

Here's the real version:


And here's the erzatz, fizzy brown water version:


Coincidenza? I think not.

As my regular readers know, I am all for the type of creativity that comes from remixing, recombining, and sharing ideas - after all, together, we're all smarter. What I'm against is the type of idea piracy the occurs when so-called creative agencies co-opt grassroots endeavours without so much as a nod to the originators.

Coke's reputation around the world is already a tad tarnished. Ripping off The Winking Circle goes against the emerging ethos of collaborative creativity, and from the perspective of its target market, is just plain dumb.

[Technorati tags: coke | winking circle | huizenga]