Pepsi's 2008 Presidential Election Ad Campaign
Posted by Victoria Solomon
Pepsi's idea for their most recent ad campaign was the ride on the Obama's winning of the 2008 Presidential Election. Obama's own campaign used the line "Yes, we can!" and Pepsi used this to their benefit and used the line, "Yes, you can!" They even redid their logo which was very similar to Obama's web design and logo. (Of course Pepsi uses similar colors but they updated their logo to look more bold and modern). Pepsi's ad campaign featured copies such as "One for all", "Yes you can!", "Howdy!", "LOL", and "Pop Pop Pop". Their ad was less about the soft drink and more about the youth generation and movement and about capturing the current youth of the U.S. by using phrases, lines, and abbreviated words." Bright colors also accompanied these lines. For one of their copies, they quoted, “Every generation refreshes the world. Now, it’s your turn.”
I thought Pepsi's advertising campaign was 'refreshing', new, bright and a perfect way to show their patriotism. Often Coca-Cola is more associated with America. I get old 1950's images in my head of a dusty old gas station, and men popping open glass coke bottles. Pepsi opposes this image by showing a more liberal, new, refreshing outlook. While they might have lost some customers by showing a more liberal, democratic party perspective with their ad campaign, their main point was to gain more young consumers, especially those around the ages of 18-30.
I personally don't see the effectiveness in soft drink campaigns between Coca Cola and Pepsi. Mainly because people will like either Coca-Cola or Pepsi and they are usually committed to which ever one they favor. An ad campaign will not change that. However, I think this campaign definately improved Pepsi's brand image and had people thinking about Pepsi as a brand and 'new' soft drink.
You can find more information on their ad campaign below:
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2009/01/new_...
Posted: September 20, 2009 11:25 pm | 4 comments
Tags: advertising, Obama, Pepsi
Comments
clever marketing move on Pepsi's behalf
said Khalida Al-Sulaiman
I think that this campaign will work really well attracting younger consumers. I saw some of these ads at South Station and I thought they were really cute!
said Emily Mills
I think it is very interesting...the parallels between the Pepsi campaign and the Obama campaign. I had never thought of that before, but it makes a lot of sense. I also agree that soft drink ads are not very convincing, no matter how good Coke's ads are, I always choose Pepsi!
said Brienne Black
wow that is intense advertising
said Ashley Morris
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