Britney Spears’s new Pepsi commercial will be unveiled during the first quarter of the Super Bowl on Sunday (February 3). The 90-second ad, dubbed “Now And Then,” will take viewers on a ride through Pepsi’s advertising history-the Pepsi Generations. Spears stars in Pepsi commercials with ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s themes, rocking all the way up to 2002 with her updated version of the “Joy Of Pepsi” song. The spot was created by Pepsi’s longtime advertising agency, BBDO New York.
Spears said of the Pepsi commercial, “Commercials are always the best on the Super Bowl, so hopefully my commercial will be able to fit in there with all of the other ones. But you know what? So far, I mean, I’ve had a blast shooting this commercial.”
Pepsi and its marketing partner Yahoo! are offering Web surfers a chance to choose which Pepsi Generation from the new Spears ad they’d like to see run as a 30-second spot during Sunday’s big game. Fans can log on to http://pepsi.yahoo.com/britney/ to view behind-the-scenes videos and choose their favorite era.
Spears picked her personal favorites, which include “Doo Wop” and “Surf’s Up,” and fans’ votes will narrow her picks down to one. The winning Pepsi Generation will air during the second quarter of the game. Voting ends at 12 p.m. PT on Friday (February 1).
Spears added that the latter-day Pepsi Generation was also one of her personal favorites. “With the modern-day Pepsi, I’ll definitely do my thing.”
As an added bonus, Pepsi and Yahoo! are making items from Spears’s Pepsi commercial shoots available to fans through a charity auction and a sweepstakes. Items that Spears wore and used in multiple commercial shoots will be available to for bidding through Yahoo! Auctions (auctions.yahoo.com) and also through a sweepstakes. The first phase of the auction includes items from Britney’s 2001 “Rooftop” commercial shoot. The second phase of the auction, offering items from the “Now And Then” shoot, will begin at halftime during Sunday’s game. Items that will be available through the auctions include selected outfits and jewelry worn by Spears, as well as autographed Pepsi products. All proceeds from the auction will support the Britney Spears Foundation.
Dave Burwick, a senior vice president at Pepsi-Cola North America, said, “This program capitalizes on the success of the previous promotions we have developed through an extraordinarily successful relationship with Yahoo! and we’re glad that we’ve been able to bring another program featuring Britney to Yahoo!’s global audience.”
Pepsi and Yahoo! have also developed a high-impact promotional campaign on the Yahoo! network that includes several events. Pepsi will take over My Yahoo! (http://my.yahoo.com) on Thursday (January 31) and will be the first advertiser on Yahoo! to use a floating component in a “super banner” unit, which will comprise Pepsi’s logo and photos of Spears. When the commercial premieres during the Super Bowl, the spot will also debut online on the Yahoo! home page, introduced by a floating graphic of Spears. Additionally, next Tuesday (February 5) Pepsi will be the first advertiser to take advantage of Yahoo!’s “back page” ad unit, which invites consumers to click on the top corner of the Yahoo! home page to reveal another page that invites users to download an audio file of Spears singing the “Joy of Pepsi” song.
