Hasta La Creative!

The town of Clifton in central England hasn't had a grocery store for almost 15 years, so a local engineer invented a giant vending machine that dispenses milk, eggs, bread, toiletries, pet food and even umbrellas for the village.

Refrigerated compartments keep perishables cool and a "basket" system allows bottles and egg cartons to be dispensed without breaking or spillage. Located in a parking lot, the unit's brick motif and awning make it look somewhat like a traditional English village shop. It takes cash and credit cards and boasts various security features (alarms and such).

Creator Peter Fox hopes the machine is the first of many. It carries no advertising, but that's probably just a matter of time.

Via Design Taxi and Daily Mail.

Concerned that technology is keeping us all apart, Milka chocolate created a unique vending experience this summer that made Argentine strangers work together to score free sweets. Local agency David placed a cow statue across from a vending machine and challenged people to connect the two by holding hands in order to get free chocolate bars. Each time they cashed in, the cow moved farther away, requiring more people to hold hands until they spanned across the public square. The resulting video, with more than 1 million views, is another example of how one smart idea on a small scale can quickly go global. Considered alongside Milka's current "Dare to be tender" campaign in France, where missing squares of the chocolate can be paid forward to loved ones, it’s not all that shocking that a comfort food would latch onto the comforting notion of bringing people together. Of course, it's togetherness fueled by a good old-fashioned bribe. 

Vending machines have been developing unique personalities for some time. We've had generous ones, sadistic ones, patriotic ones. Now, we've got an exceedingly empathetic one. Check out the video below from a South African airport, where coffee roaster Douwe Egberts rigged up its vending machine with facial-recognition software to dispense free cups of coffee to anyone who yawned. It's a nice stunt that turned those yawns to smiles. The fittingly named agency behind it: Joe Public. Via Foodbeast.