Pepsi As Confused As Ever

As all ad contras know, one of the great pleasures of writing this blog is commenting on the ongoing clown show that is Pepsi.

In our last exciting episode, we bragged about our amazing prediction of exactly what Pepsi would do after the social media disaster that was "Refresh."

Now that we've had a look at a spot from the new campaign, it is everything we hoped for and more. Last year we said... "let's just hope it's really big and dumb so the rest of us can continue to stay 'refreshed.'"

Well, my friends, it's bigger and dumber than we had any right to expect. It is deliciously big and dumb.

But the best part isn't even the spot. It's the bullshit that goes along with it. Here is some background about the new campaign from Ad Age...

"For nine months, a core team of Pepsi execs...scoured the globe for inspiration, looked to the past for insights and sought to understand what precisely made Pepsi different from Coke. There were exhaustive focus groups, in-home ethnographies, quantitative and qualitative studies, and cultural immersions in markets as diverse as Argentina, Australia, United Arab Emirates and Russia."

And what was the result of all this ethno-global-quanti-quali-immersion? The oldest, tiredest formula in the book. Last year we told you exactly what it would be...

"Happy, youthful people of every color from all over the global world are drinking Pepsi while the most expensive pop stars of every color in the global world are singing about Pepsi."

Bingo!


This is a 60-second spot with a strategy that is indistinguishable from every soda and light beer spot done in the past 20 years. It is a perfect amalgam of disposable pop music, ethnically homogenized young people jumping around mindlessly, and worn out special effects.

It is five million dollars worth of bad acting and rotten tomatoes.

One of the Pepsi marketing prodigies had this to say, "Pepsi is not a brand that belongs in a museum." Maybe not, but this spot does.

The president of PepsiCo China asked, "Who doesn't want to work on a brand that promises to capture the excitement of now?" 

I think I speak for the people of Argentina, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Russia and the rest of the civilized world when I say, we don't.