“Sunny Side” is meant to be an antidote to our negative culture, and particularly online meltdowns as documented in the vast amounts of YouTube freakout videos created in recent years. In the ad, we get people to sing on a hillside with Jimmy Cliff and learn to “Get Happy.” It’s “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” for the YouTube age.
“Sunny Side” taps into Internet memes by featuring well-known YouTube “celebs”: The Eharmony cat-hugging woman; the sad Packers fan; “Boogie,” the guy who destroys his Xbox because someone called him fat; the baseball coach who throws a tantrum at an umpire; the screaming politician; and the sports mascots who fight each other.
The video features Jimmy Cliff, the most influential living reggae musician (and the only living musician who’s received Jamaica’s Order of Merit) singing the kitschy 60’s classic “C’mon Get Happy” from the Partridge Family. It recalls a simpler, more optimistic time when we didn’t let ourselves get bogged down in little things.