Super Bowl Ads:  Pepsi’s on the sidelines but Pop Secret’s in the game.  Who wins?

By Steve Wolfberg on 01/27
tagged: Dr Pepper, FedEx, GM, Pepsi Refresh project, Pop Secret, Super Bowl, Super Bowl commercials

Ahh, the Super Bowl.  The one time of the year when people don’t run screaming from the room to avoid the product we give our hearts and souls to create.   The DVR goes off and the bathroom goes unused as people actually watch commercials.  Nearly 100 million people will watch the Super Bowl on February 7th  -- more than half for the commercials alone.

And, for the first time in 23 years, not one of them will see a Pepsi spot.

From 1999 to 2009, Pepsi spent over $142 million in the Super Bowl.  But in 2010, they will spend just $20 milion with a social media program called “The Pepsi Refresh Project.”  Pepsi is hoping that its new strategy will garner attention, participation and a deeper connection with its audience that has been missing for some time, consumers 18-34. Pepsi will award millions in grant money for community projects proposed and selected by consumers, and hopes to start a movement where others will begin funding community projects in the same manner.

Meanwhile, Pop Secret will air its first Super Bowl commercial featuring pop corn kernels doing impressions of movie stars who get so agitated they “pop.”  Other rookies in the game include Boost Mobile (featuring a new version of the Chicago Bears’ classic Super Bowl Shuffle) and Dr. Pepper.

Sitting on the bench along with Pepsi are long-time Super Bowl advertisers FedEx and GM. 

So it’s game on:  The chance to build a closer, personal relationship over time -- or the opportunity to reach millions and millions of people in one fell swoop.  Who wins?

Colts, 27-21.

Bill Field said on 01/27/2010

The Super Bowl ads aren’t what they were 20 years ago but still provide entertainment.  Given the intro of the iTablet and or iSlate (or whatever the name), Apple could rewrite history with a 1984 type ad.  Gene Simmons and Dr. Pepper don’t cut it.  He’s from the Island of Lost Performers.  Pop Secret makes sense - snack/game food but who are the “movie stars.”  Soon to be contestants on “Celebrity Apprentice”?