Pepsi's at it again. trying to crack Coca-Cola's monopoly at certain fastfood chains. In its latest salvo, it sent out fleets of undercover cops – and cups – to smuggle Pepsi into restaurants that don't stock it.
The stunt was timed to coincide with National Fast-Food Day in the US yesterday, but 'Every burger deserves Pepsi' is just the latest push for what's become an ongoing theme that Pepsi has been brandishing almost like it's a political issue. With its challenger brand status getting tried, it's having to go to more extreme and less subtle lengths to get attention. Mind you, it's not as desperately bad as the Coca-Cola AI Christmas ad.
Pepsi's moaning about not being served at places like McDonald's and Burger King started subtly, with the brand trying to subliminally insert itself in the form of Pepsi-shaped optical illusions in fastfood packaging. Those ads raised a smile. But it got more personal (and juvenile) when it started poking the fun at the Coke logo – specifically the fact that word 'Coke' contains the letters 'OK'.
The latest campaign feels like the most desperate yet, showing comic Pepsi cops swooping on fastfood restaurants to swipe customers' drinks and replace them with Pepsi cunningly disguised in cups bearing redesigns of famous fastfood logos. The McDonald's golden arches become golden 'P's, Wendy's red hair is now streaked with Pepsi blue and the Burger King logo is simply altered to read 'This is Pepsi'.
But while the campaign is clearly tongue and cheek and all a bit of fun, it doesn't tell us anything about why Pepsi is supposed to make burgers taste better. And it's not like customers are themselves trying to smuggle the forbidden Coke alternative into restaurants. The Coca-Cola vs Pepsi advertising war has almost all been one way, and to date there's still only one time that Pepsi trolled Coca-Cola and actually made us laugh. The overall result is making Pepsi a permanent challenger brand.
