Pepsi's
TV ad campaign for
Christmas 2000, currently being shown at least all over
Europe.
For the lucky people who haven't seen this monstrosity yet, I will describe the "idea" behind this commercial.
Picture Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Now picture a very badly animated Rudolph with snowboarding gear and a "cool" hiphop outfit.
The new street credible (slope credible?) reindeer apparently likes to snowboard his way down Korvatunturi and write graffiti all over Santa's workshop. And instead of Saint Nick's famous catch phrase "ho ho ho", the new and improved Rudolf utters "yo yo yo" while flying through the air with his rad board.
All this to a soundtrack which sounds like speeded up rockabilly with a B-grade Elvis impersonator on the vocals, and insightful lyrics mostly consisting of "Rudolf rules, Rudolf rules..." ad infinitum.
Trust me, the commercial looks and sounds a lot worse than what you can imagine from my description.
Now let me ask you a question.
What the hell were they thinking?
Seriously.
This is PepsiCo. A huge multinational company and Coca Cola's competitor. Can't they do any better? This ad looks like it is made with 100FIM for a small Finnish convenience store instead of one of the largest soft drink manufacturers. Granted, the Coke commercials aren't that special either, but at least I don't feel seriously offended (not to mention nauseous) after seeing them.
I really hope this ad is a complex joke I don't get. Maybe a subtle exercise in self-irony?
Marketing something to kids is one thing, but I'm sure even a 10-year-old child will see how pathetic this attempt to reach youngsters is.
Hopefully they'll try harder next December. Campaigns like this make me ashamed to admit I like Pepsi Max.
By the way, "Rudolf" with an f instead of ph isn't a typo. That's how it's spelled on the campaign's logo.
As I expected, we got to witness Rudolf's triumphant return on Xmas
2001. This time with
GSM ringtones.