I wrote about this campaign in 2015. I wish it had not been contaminated and instead had continued. Why do some people feel threatened or challenged by something created to be positive? In my original post I did include all the image files. I'm just adding one to this post. There are just too many for one post.

The site is Go Make it Happy. I was happy seeing a big, consumer oriented company like CocaCola using ASCII art. Even though it’s computer generated – there is a wonderfully large amount of it.

If I were a more sane person I would have split these into several posts. Instead I have left them all (over 90 image files) below the “read more” line. I wanted to not only share them all but, preserve them all too. So this is an archive of the ASCII art I found on the CocaCola Make it Happy site. It’s possible they will add more. I wish I knew. I’d like to see it all saved. Campaigns like this tend to last like a fad and then disappear. I’d like to see the ASCII art survive.

I have a few favourites and I thought to just post those. But, how could I show all the full dorkiness and fun of the collection. Some of it reminds me of the old movies advertising hot dogs and popcorn at the drive-in movies.

Update about the Make It Happy Campaign

Coca-Cola has pulled its #MakeItHappy brand campaign, which it introduced during the Super Bowl, after being tricked by pop culture blog Gawker.

The campaign aimed to dispel negative comments on the Internet by enabling users to tag negative comments with #MakeItHappy, which Coca-Cola then turned into cute, happy pictures using ASCII lettering code.

Coca-Cola responded to this debacle with a statement: “It’s unfortunate that Gawker is trying to turn this campaign into something that it isn’t. Building a bot that attempts to spread hate through #MakeItHappy is a perfect example of the pervasive online negativity Coca-Cola wanted to address with this campaign.”

I remember when all this was going on. It was sad to see what Gawker thought was clever, smart, bold, attention grabbing, whatever. Gawker did not last long after that. Was the Coca-Cola thing part of that... maybe?

I'm starting to get fed up with cookies, especially having those notices half filling my screen and no option to say NO/ deny them. Some sites do let you say no to cookies and then you can go on to see the site. Most do not. Why not, wasn't that the point of being asked? Otherwise why ask at all if the site is still sticking me with cookies I don't want?

The other thing, are sites that try to make me shut off my ad blocker. Yes, they want to make money, fine. But, how can I decide if I care enough to look at their site before I've seen any of it? They could give people an option to at least see the site before they stick me with a bunch of ads which most likely include cookies, tracking and whatever other junk.

Marketing continues to suck the life out of the Internet, like a parasite.

I posted this to the forums on the Curlie site. As someone who reviews, edits, and lists sites (a lot of them) the cookies and assorted marketing junk really get annoying, quickly. Before you think sites are not asking me to list them... you're wrong. I'm reviewing sites which have been submitted to the directory. I'm not usually looking for sites to list, out of the blue.

Also, last night I was thinking about advertising in general. I've written before that marketing and advertising preys on people, finding weaknesses to sell them stuff they likely could do without. Last night I went a bit farther down that idea.

Marketing and advertising finds ways to make us feel incompetent. "You can't do this without buying that." ... "You can't wash your car without buying this or that product because without it you will do a botch job". You get the idea, I hope. Marketing is training people to think they can not succeed at life on their own. It belittles people and softly bullies them. The whole thing about adulting as a verb is a marketing scheme. There is no reason you can't be an adult. Adults are not omnipotent beings. Why make people needy, unsatisfied, neurotic even unless you have the cure/ solution they need for 3 easy payments of $9.99 a month...

AI is set up to "help" us even more because we are just that incompetent. Why can't people make a cake, fix a toaster, etc, etc, etc, as they did twenty years ago? Of course they can. But, they are trained to believe they can not. Think about the ads you've seen lately. How many have told you (not in so many words) that you can't do something? Ads making men look like clumsy fools. Men are not, in general, clumsy or fools. Children are not uncontrollable wild animals and women are not idiot trolls trying to look like Barbie dolls, or whatever the marketing twists people into so it can sell us stuff.

How will people be living in another few generations? If you're not generating money somehow, in order to buy stuff, will people become a nuisance population? Like an out of control population of mice. Will we be herded up like cattle, as some science fiction has suggested? (Even that will dwindle down as supply and demand fall off). Will we be used as sort of living batteries to power the machines, the artificial intelligence? Our abundance of population will only be useful if we contribute to the economy and then... what if the consumer economy tanks?

What happens when there are not enough human consumers to support the industries, the businesses, and services geared to human beings? How much of what exists, only exists for some form of human consumption? Whether physical, mental, or emotional... so much of what marketing sells is based on having a human population with the money to support it. If things keep going as they are and humans become useless, how will that change everything? Quite a lot, I'd think. Hard to even imagine once you start to think about all the pieces falling out of place.

Life after humans... what would it really look like?

A site asks you to allow ads on their site, to make an exception with your ad blocker. Ok, I do. Usually because I like the site and use it often.

What is the very first ad you see? An ad for an ad blocker! Of course!

Is it some form of sarcasm?

After using the site, with ads, you quickly remember why you turned on your ad blocker. The ads take over the content. I either give up using the site, find an alternative, or some other workaround. Or turn the ad blocker back on so I can use the site.

I think people who ask you to make an exception and turn off your ad blocker never go into their own site and look at it with their own ad blocker turned off. It would be a shock for them to see how much the ads take over their site. Like trying to enjoy a garden taken over by massive invading weeds. Not the odd wildflower but aggressive weeds with thorns and prickles.

If you have a site and ask people to accept ads make sure you fully know what you are asking. You could be driving people away from your site, permanently.

Jade Walker posted a quote on Facebook:

"It's not the news that keeps upsetting you. It's what's happening that keeps upsetting you." - Dan Slott

I disagree. Its the way the news is being reported, with lies and propaganda (misinformation, or whatever that trendy word is these days), that's upsetting me. How the news is reported does matter. People are influenced by body language, tones in speech, and the words chosen. The news should be reported without bias, plainly, a little on the flat side. News is serious, not a game, an upsell, or a campaign. Editorials were used to give an opinion about the news.

When did all the news reports become so biased. Like marketing campaigns instead of news reports.

My Mother likes to watch game shows: The Price is Right, Let's Make a Deal, Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, and the odd other. Wheel of Fortune is the only game show I haven't seen anyone jump on the host. But they do scream, sometimes. I don't think it is especially encouraged there. But, all the others seem to work people up into a frenzy.

I'm sure its a marketing thing. Getting people to show all that excitement helps promote the products, whatever they are. A game show can have people jumping all over the place and screeching over winning a pen and paper. Then they drop a car into the mix to keep everyone on their toes and crazy excited.

I can see how it works for the shows and the marketing which is what the shows are really about. Selling stuff to the public.

But, all this rabid excitement, the screaming and jumping, isn't good for people. That level of excitement, in our past, would have been over seeing a large predator about to kill and eat us.

Have you noticed TV shows and movies and even commercials are all about excitement. They are louder, more colourful, bigger reactions (over reactions), far more emotions and being very emotional and sensitive. Its all gone over the top.

What kind of people are they turning us into?

Of course, its great for marketing. The goal of marketing is to make people feel they need more stuff. Marketing preys on people, as I have written before. Not just to sell us stuff but to make us feel we really need all that stuff. What would we be without blinding white teeth?

But, the funny thing, watching these game shows, we look more and more like prey. But, there are no big predators, no monsters, right?