Pepsi takes a risk on men with new advertising campaign

by Julia Pearlman,, Brand Republic 02-Feb-05, 12:00

LONDON - There might be a chimp behind the wheel in Pepsi Max's new television campaign but at least there's no sugar as the drinks giant looks to target the growing number of health-conscious men in its quirky new advertising.

The multimillion-pound campaign is being launched for Pepsi Max with the creation of two ads, titled "glue boy" and "taxi", featuring fresh-faced early twenty-something office workers in cartoon humour situations.

From a chimp racing around the city in a taxi with a young male passenger in tow, to a "daredevil" office worker turned wall acrobat making a sticky descent down a skyscraper, both ads share the line "Are you sure?" with the answer "Don't worry, there's no sugar".

BBDO (CLM/BBDO) in France created the campaign with the feeling of having fun, along with the attitude that "it's all about taking risks".

In "taxi", we see a man jumping into a cab where he is thrown a can of Pepsi Max by the front seat passenger as it is revealed that the driver is a chimpanzee. The passenger then shows the chimp how to get to the airport by using a sketch of a plane. The terrified-looking man takes a swig of his drink as the monkey speeds off recklessly through the city.

In the second spot, "glue boy", a group of four young office workers are hanging out on a skyscraper window-cleaning trolley where they force large glue balls on their colleague's hands and legs, give him a swig of Pepsi Max and leave him dangling helplessly on the side of the building as the platform moves away.

The screaming worker then begins to scale down the side of the building where he ends up facing a group of astonished businessmen in a meeting.

The campaign is to drive home Pepsi Max's no-sugar content after drinks giant PepsiCo found that many consumers were not picking up on that element of the soft drink.

Caroline Diamond, Pepsi's UK marketing director, said: "We feel confident the new ads will appeal to the 16-24 age range of young males who are seeking a healthier alternative to sugar drinks.

"The whole idea is to communicate the unique taste without the downside, to do it in a fun way and to keep the unique attitude of Pepsi."

Media planning and buying for the campaign were handled by MindShare.

The ads were filmed by director Matthijs Van Heijningen.

Last year, PepsiCo shifted the $37m (£19m) US Diet Pepsi account out of its long-time advertising agency BBDO New York to sister Omnicom Group agency DDB New York.

Fans will be able to see the new ads on the Pepsi Max website, which includes two additional Pepsi Max ads that can not be seen on television.

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