Five best advertising campaigns of Pepsi
We reviewed Pepsi’s five best advertising advertisements throughout its history.
The history of Pepsi begins in 1893 in New Ber, North Carolina. Caleb Bradham, a pharmaceutical chemist, devised this drink to help digestion and act as a stimulant. Known at the beginning as the “Brad Drink”, it was a mixture of carbonated water, sugar, pepsin, nut extract, vanilla and “strange oils”. In 1898 Brad would rename his star drink combining the words of Pepsina and Cola. The Pepsi-Cola was born.
After some crisis and changes of ownership, during the Great Depression it became the second most famous soft drink in the world behind Coca-Cola. Thanks to aggressive promotions such as offering double the Pepsi-Cola for the same price (a 12-ounce bottle for only 5 cents) it got a very positive response from consumers.
It was not until 1949 that Alfred Nu Steele, CEO of Pepsi, created a marketing and advertising department to promote Pepsi-Cola. The idea was a refreshing drink, light and low in calories. It was the actress Joan Crawford, wife of Steele who promoted the “product placement” in his films, as well as perform as a model in the first advertisements of the brand. Today, almost 70 years later Pepsi is considered along with Coca-Cola and Nike one of the big companies that based their success on the trust in advertising.
Today we are going to make the almost titanic effort to review the five best advertising campaigns of Pepsi. A totally subjective list that we encourage you to complete with your contributions in the comments. Let’s see the five best Pepsi advertising ads.
5. Ray Charles Pepsi Diet (1991)
At the time of the 90s, Pepsi put emphasis on linking a celebrity with the brand. Advertising is very marked by the charisma of the protagonist, so it was a time when he alternated large ads with more mediocre. This with Ray Charles singing the Pepsi jingle seems like a good way to open the list of best Pepsi ads. Good music and good feelings.
4. Cindy Crawford (1992)
Pepsi revolutionized the world in 1992 during the break of the SuperBowl by using a young Cindy Crawford to present the new Pepsi can. An ad that started the trend of sexualizing women and treating them as an object to attract the male community. A type of advertisement that would be considered obsolete with the controversy of Carl’s Jr. In it, two guys highlight the attributes of the can over the model.
3. New Generation con Michael Jackson (1984)
Pepsi wins a lot using Michael Jackson in one of his ads. It was in 1984, two years after the premiere of Michael Jackson’s sixth studio album: “Thriller”, the best selling of all time. The ad was revolutionary for many reasons, one of which was to change the trend established by MTV to promote only white artists.
After the ad, the company had raised its sales with profits of 7.7 billion dollars. The perception of the brand changed and Pepsi was the face of youth, while Coca Cola was the “old” face.
2. Pepsi – Dinner (1995)
In the telling, advertising agency we have love the stories. A good storytelling is marked by fire in the consumer’s brain and makes his bond with the brand more emotional. In 1995 Pepsi began a series of controversial ads based on comparative marketing, a practice that was only allowed in the United States at the time and was considered high risk since you advertised the competition in a way that could be considered “disloyal” . The story of the two delivery drivers was a success that strengthened the perception that Coca-Cola and Pepsi were on par.
In 2010 a “second part” of the Dinner ad was made to promote “Pepsi Zero”. These had as protagonists the same dealer of Coca-Cola and a younger delivery boy of Pepsi.
1. Joy of Pepsi
As the best Pepsi ad we have chosen this one: “Joy of Pepsi”. An announcement that Coca-Cola had withdrawn due as abuse of the brand. As we have seen before, Pepsi started a comparative marketing policy, reaching a thin line that here completely exceeded. Coca-Cola felt denigrated and took to the courts to Pepsi, to which they ordered to withdraw this announcement. Anyway, the ad itself seems wonderful and shows us that Pepsi also knows how to advertise with history, without having to resort to the celebrity of the day.
And here’s our special about the five best Pepsi ads. As we have repeated, it is a totally subjective list voted in the agency. If you have any other favorite Pepsi ad, we discuss it in the comments or on social networks. We leave you with our special of the best Coca-Cola ads.
Related: Five best advertising campaigns of Coca-Cola
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