[Orchids & Onions] Coca-Cola puppy love and the Toyota Etios Cross half-Onion...

© Refat Mamutov – 123RF.com

It may not have been the intention of Coca-Cola, or its agency FCB Joburg, to pin their new summer "Share a Coke" TV ad to February 14, but that is what is going to happen because it is full of optimistic, romantic silliness.

And, if the romance doesn't get your "awww..." going, then the sight of Bobby, the handsome and street-smart Border Collie who starred in the popular original "Share a Coke" campaign, sure will.

In the advert, the adorable canine is himself looking for love and his search takes him all over the vibiest places in the country, meeting some of the coolest youngsters.

Wherever he wanders, he has a can of Coke in his mouth, but we can't see the unique name written on it. (Remember, the original campaign saw thousands of different names festooned on Coke cans across the country - reminder embedded below...)

In the end we see Bobby's secret revealed when he meets the "b***h" of his dreams. His Coke can says "Kiss Me".

It's sweet and cheesy all at once and sometimes we need things like that to counter-balance the negative atmosphere in which we live.

And Coke as a brand has always been about the positive.

If it makes you feel good, you want to share it.

Orchids to Coca-Cola, FCB Joburg and Velocity Films' Keith Rose... oh, and to Bobby, too.

If you want to make your brand seem energetic and sexy, twin it with sport or, even better, with some high-octane adrenalin pastime.

That is something automotive brands have been been trying to do for decades, with varying degrees of success.

Some of the most brilliant have come from the VW-Audi stable.

Who can forget the Mk 2 Golf GTi racing a snow skier? Or the Audi Quattro scrabbling its way up an enormous ski jump.

It would not surprise me if the GTi ad somehow stuck in the minds of the forever schoolboys who put together the Top Gear show.

They've had races against toboggans, parkour runners, rock climbers and BMX riders.

The latest Toyota Etios Cross ad looks to me as though the concept was lifted lock, stock and wheelies from Top Gear: an Etios races a top South African cyclist through an tough urban environment.

And it wins... not only getting across the line first but also as a preferred mode of transport at the end, when both the cyclist and the driver have to take their girlfriends out on a date.

It is quite an engaging advert and it does put a polish on what is, in reality, a tarted-up, entry-level econobox car.

The Etios also has quite a big boot. In fact, big enough to cart away other people's (Top Gear's) ideas.

And the car's green, too, because it recycles other people's shows.

So you get a half Onion for lack of originality, but not a full one... because the advert is still appealing in its way.

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