Brand: Pepsi
Execution: TV
Link: Click Here
Target: Happy People
Rating: **
Reviewer: David

Description:
Jimmy Fallon from Saturday Night Live drinks a can of Pepsi and starts dancing. He is joined by indy actress Parker Posey and they continue dancing and performing ‘Crouching Tiger’ -type stunts as they move through the streets of downtown Manhattan.

What Works:
The Pepsi bottle gets a lot of visibility (although not as much as the can in the Jay Mohr spots does.) Jimmy Fallon is a good choice for this spot as he is one of the few comic actors who actually looks natural in the middle of this silliness. Parker Posey also manages to carry it off even though she does not seem like the natural choice opposite Fallon.

What Doesn’t:
What is the branding purpose of this spot? Does it connect Pepsi with some strong emotional benefit that the brand is already linked to? Happiness? Goofiness? None of these seem like core brand attributes for Pepsi. This advertising blog will allow that brands with strong emotional connections like Pepsi and Coke might want to run advertising purely to enhance those linkages. But we cannot discern a relevant thread that ties this advertising to other Pepsi campaigns or brand attributes.

Then you have to ask why the brand is spending the money for a celebrity spot shot outdoors in a city with special effects. The answer seems to be ‘to get people to notice it.’ They may notice, but they probably will not remember Pepsi or be more likely to drink it.

Branding Bottom Line:
Pepsi and Coke would probably still cost 25 cents without all of this silly advertising.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Pepsi-Cola. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.