This article was 1st published on our sister Site, Digital World Native
By: Anxel Pineiro
Last year’s introduction by Google of its Cardboard headset marked the entrance of the Internet giant into the nascent virtual reality (VR) market. Well, something rather unusual has happened, as 2 of the biggest food & beverage multinationals are now following suit. Both Coca Cola & McDonald’s want to immerse the consumer in VR environments, while they pitch their soda & fast food, by employing their packaging.
While Google’s US$ 15 headset may be cheap by the standards of industry leaders like Sony, Samsung or FaceBook’s Oculus, the new VR goggles by the 2 companies are free & just ask you to do a little origami with the product packaging already provided by the products the companies sell. You, then, to stick your mobile phone in them. They appear to have the same purpose in mind as Google, that is to lower the barrier of entry into VR by the average Joe, making it quick, easy & cheap to get into the act.
In fact, Coca-Cola & McDonald’s free offerings take away all of the financial pain, as most folks are going to buy their products anyway, & who isn’t up for a futuristic high tech freeby that is packaged as a hobby kit. While Google’s aim was to spread the adoption of VR for its own sake & maybe somehow sell you more ads, the newer offerings, one would think, will be geared towards immersing consumers in Coca-Cola’s syrupy feel-good ad-world or McDonald’s hamburger & clowns fantasy realms. The latter is more in keeping with the immersive on-line gaming worlds that traditional manufacturers have been hitherto foisting among the public. It stands to see what apps & VR content will actually be made available by these 2 companies, & maybe what is more telling if they establish a trend & other firms in the industry will follow suit.
Check out this Coca Cola video:
If you’re interested in getting your hands (and your head) into one of these, your best bet is to go to Sweden, so far the only place where you can get ‘Happy Goggles’, with McDonald’s popular offering for kids, the Happy Meal. The box that holds the Happy Meal is specially designed to fold out into face-hugging goggles and a pair of included VR lenses into a slot to put your smartphone on. Coca-Cola’s design, which is similar to McDonald`s ,was recently unveiled & will be available shortly.
Image Credit: Coca Cola
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