If you find yourself unable to function without several hits of caffeine throughout the day, you may find some common ground with the narrator of this spellbinding animation.
Coke Habit, by New York-based production company, Dress Code, tells the true story of Mike – a studio director who developed such a fondness for Coca-Cola as a teenager he experienced migraines, tunnel vision and dizziness when he finally tried to kick the habit.
Told against the backdrop of animator Marcin Zeglinski’s compelling visual style, Coke Habit’s dream-like animation echoes Coke’s classic branded colouration to follow Mike’s journey from an eight-can-a-day intake to total caffeine abstinence.
Dan Covey, Dress Code co-founder and creative director, said the film had exploded after being selected to feature on Vimeo’s staff pick premieres earlier this month.
“Some of our other work has 50 or 60,000 views, but it takes a little while for that to pick up,” he said.
“With [Coke Habit] we went from that to 300,000 views in a week.”
For a relatively small production company such as Dress Code the opportunity to gain so much exposure for original content is a coup, considering that it’s commercial work which pays the bills.
Part of the obvious appeal lies in Zeglinski’s ability to mix the surreal with Mike’s troubling narrative in an animation style reminiscent of MC Escher’s mathematical woodcuts or Frank Miller’s film noir-influenced comic book style.
“We definitely have a bunch of references we liked a lot,” Dan said.
“Sin City, the beautiful black and whites – we each had our own favourites.”
After two years of graft on Coke Habit, Dan and fellow Dress Code co-founder Andre Andreev now hope to continue producing animation shorts alongside their commercial work.
A spokesperson for Coca-Cola Great Britain said: “Millions of people around the world have enjoyed drinking a Coca-Cola for more than 130 years. All of the ingredients in our drinks are safe and can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet.”
