New Pepsi Ads
Some pics of the recent ads around Miami from the Refresh Everything campaign:
Banner on Miami Herald building
From a design perspective, I like the ads and the website. They’re simple and eye-catching, although I don’t think they’re very original (placing the round logo in place of the “O”).
Let’s dig a little deeper: The website is great, and takes a simple idea (people can post videos on the Pepsi YouTube Channel and address them to the President — best ones will be shown on the Pepsi website) to get people involved and create buzz. The reaction seems to be mixed, however, and Pepsi is treading a thin line by giving the site and the ads a political feel. There’s some positive feedback from “The New Advertising” blog that touches on Pepsi’s desire to target the Optimistic Millennials, where it says,
“They’re the generation that, whenever we do research with them, expresses an enormous longing for the optimism of the sixties.They envy the generation’s protest, music, dress, sexual mores and so much more. They believe they missed a critical period in relatively recent history.”
In the meantime, 24ahead.com points out that the numbers don’t look good (the number of videos being viewed is really low), while other right-wing blogs are calling for an outright boycott of all Pepsi products.
Here’s the recent Pepsi New Year’s Eve video that launched the campaign.
What do you think?
UPDATE – FEB. 1st
Here’s “Refresh Anthem” which aired during the Super Bowl:
I like it! It’s definitely gotten my attention in Dallas with billboards, and now seeing this spot, I DO Feel happier, more positive, etc. I think this is a great strategic move to put more of a good feeling around Pepsi, like Coca-Cola has always done and now is synonymous. Also, the fact that the logo looks like Obama’s O is, I think, a good thing. The WORLD is optimistic about Obama and for an older brand like Pepsi to embrace the new with a new campaign and look is perfect timing.
But I’m an optimistic millennial, so of course, I’m positive. ;P
It’s true, as I was driving one of the bus stop ads today, I was thinking that it does have that “feel good” 60′s kinda vibe to it. Strategically, Pepsi has spent years positioning itself as the hip alternative to Coke – “The choice of a new generation.”
Looking back on Pepsi in recent years, they’ve changed their logos every decade, and we’re almost in 2010. What better time than now with all the considerable changes the world is going through?
The new logo itself has gotten a LOT of reactions – just check the comments on Chris Brogan’s blog. There’s lots of opinions about Pepsi’s ego, the taste of the soda, the logo redesign itself, etc. One thing that seems to go unnoticed though, which you briefly pointed out, was that “I DO feel happier, more positive.”
And maybe that’s just it. As much as we tend to analyze ads, the quick, undeniable feeling you get may be the most important thing. To quote Faris Yakob’s recent post,
“Make people feel something nice, link that association to your brand. “