Advertising magic often hides a simpler trick behind the curtain

For the Coca-Cola Portable Park campaign, Edu Pou's team spent a significant amount of time engineering a vending machine that could recognise when someone was barefoot and automatically deliver a bottle of Coke. The technical challenge proved enormous. At some point during development, someone stepped back and asked a simpler question: what if instead of a fully automated system, they used a remote control operated by a person hidden from view? A team member would spot a barefoot visitor and press a button to release the Coke. That is what they ended up using. The lesson Edu Pou draws from this is straightforward: all magic has tricks. The perceived experience for the audience can be exactly the same whether the mechanism behind it is sophisticated engineering or a person with a remote. Knowing when to use the simpler solution is part of the craft.