by For decades we thought Edvard Munch’s The Scream was a depiction of existential dread, anxiety and alienation, all the while the artist just wanted a bottle of Coca-Cola. The new ad, titled Masterpiece, takes us on a tour of some of the world’s most famous paintings and sculptures, and it’s brilliant. It is also partly created with AI.
This new ad comes a year after the brand dropped the ball with its Coca-Cola Dreams campaign and rival Pepsi trolled the soft drink in its own Better With Pepsi ad. But Coca-Cola’s new Masterpiece commercial (below) is real.
Masterpiece follows a Coca-Cola bottle’s journey from one iconic painting to the next on its journey to a thirsty student in need of inspiration. The Electric Theater Collective VFX team (opens in new tab) and creative agency Blitzworks used a mix of live-action footage, digital effects and AI to create the commercial and its complex transitions. So we have Finally found a good use of AI?
Coca-Cola’s new addition is a who’s who of the world’s greatest artists and artworks, including Utagawa Hiroshige’s Drum Bridge And Setting Sun, JMW Turner’s The Shipwreck and Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arle. With the French painter Aket, contemporary artists are also taking part in the journey (opens in new tab)‘s Divine Idyll will be screened alongside works by Vikram Kushwah, Stefania Tejada and Fatma Ramadan.
While some mock a soft drink brand with famous artwork to promote their brand, it’s a little awkward to see girl with a pearl earring crack open a bottle of Coca-Cola (I always thought she was a Pepsi drinker). , Still loving this new commercial.
The ad begins with a nod to Andy Warhol’s commentary on mass consumption, as a hand from Aket’s Divine Idyll reaches down from the canvas to grasp the Coca-Cola bottle from Warhol’s screenprint A Coke is a Coke as she sinks into it transforms style to match Aket’s bold graffiti style. (Read our feature on how street art influences artists for more details.)
The beauty of this new Coca-Cola ad is how each artwork that passes the bottle of the drink adapts to the style of the artist who created it, including a moment where the character from Wonderbuhle’s You Can’t Curse Me grabs the bottle and falls into the bed of Van Gogh’s bedroom in Arle – changing imagery and tone.
Coca-Cola curated the art used in the ad, as well as interviews with the featured contemporary artists, on its Masterpiece Gallery website (opens in new tab). South African artist Wonderbuhle said the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks of Coca-Cola is “joy and cool”.
The Coca-Cola Masterpiece campaign is not limited to the two-minute commercial, but also includes 3D billboards and digital collectibles. This campaign is great for celebrating art, but as a way to introduce new contemporary artists to the world, Masterpiece is fantastic.
If you’re inspired by the work of contemporary artists like Wonderbuhle, Arket, Stefania Tejada, and Fatma Ramadan, then check out our guides to the best colored pencils, the best watercolors, and the best painting easels, and start painting.
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