The game of vending machine one-upsmanship between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo continues with Coke’s “Friendship Machine”.
To celebrate International Friendship Day last August, Coca-Cola in Argentina planted machines that appear to be about 12 feet tall and require that you ask a buddy for a boost to use it. As a reward the Coke machine dispensed two Cokes instead of one.
The “Friendship Machine” plays off of Coke’s “Happiness Machine” viral video, which shows a Coke machine spitting out free soda and pizzas to a group of delighted students. Coke also updated that idea in February with a “Happiness Truck” video that features a Coca-Cola truck giving out Cokes along with surfboards, beach toys and sunglasses.
PepsiCo this week has responded to Coke’s experiments with their very own “Social Vending Machine” that lets you gift free Pepsis to friends and strangers via a text message.