An undercover ‘laughter coach’ travelled on crowded subway trains and suddenly began laughing aloud. His mission: turn subway faces into smiling ones. After the laughing session, a Coca-Cola team distributed samples and leaflets with the message “Happiness starts with a smile. What are you waiting for?”

We chose the metro as medium. Together with the undercover Coca-Cola promo team and undercover film crew, a laughter coach jumped on 79 trams in the city of Antwerp. The coach started laughing whilst watching his iPad between 2 popular stops. After a laughing session, a Coca-Cola team distributed samples & leaflets to claim the laughing session with the message: happiness starts with a smile. What are you waiting for?

The laugh mob was executed on 21 and 22 May. The social video was immediately posted afterwards. Almost one year later, people all over the world still share the video.

We choose the Antwerp metro during peak hours at popular stops to do the stunt. The online video was posted via de Belgian Coca-Cola Facebook pages (Dutch & French)

The laugh mob was a local stunt as briefed. The social video went viral (see results).

Response rate & impressions

The laughter coach jumped on 79 trams reaching about 4000 commuters in Antwerp. Many commuters directly responded to the laughter coach by simply laughing and talking about what has happened. The online response exceeded expectations by far with more than 100 million views, 500.000 likes and 1 million shares of the video content on Facebook worldwide.

Consumer awareness & change in behavior

De Coca-Cola Laugh Mob has become ‘public domain’. Many blogs and people from all over the world shared the video content with clear social message to laugh more often and to choose happiness. After the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, the laugh mob had a new peak in likes and shares. The video partially became a call-up to pick up life as it was before the bombing. The video comforted in a way.