Pepsi and Pop Music

Pepsi’s Music Heritage:
Pepsi and Pop Music
Through the Years
1957
Louis Armstrong
50’s
jazz singer
Pepsi sponsors Julie Andrews’
starring role in Cinderella,
the only Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
musical ever written for TV.
Broadcast on CBS, it was seen
by more than 100 million people,
60% of the US at the time.
Mary Martin
actress/singer
1953
Polly Bergen
actress/singer
Singer/actress Polly
Bergen, who starred in
a series of commercials
during the 1950s, quickly
became known as
“The Pepsi Cola Girl”
Julie
Andrews
actress/singer
1960’s and 1970’s
Pepsi and Pop Music
Through the Years
1972
70’s
Roberta
Flack
“Killing me Softly” singer
Roberta Flack is tapped for
Pepsi radio advertisements
Radio
Bobby Bloom
Radio
B.B. King
Radio
Three Dog Night
Radio
1970
Four Tops
Radio
Martha & the
Vandellas
Radio
Joanie Sommers
actress/singer
1961
1966
Hondells
Radio
Tammy Wynette
Radio
Lou Christie
Radio
60’s
The Turtles
Radio
1967
Jackie
DeShannon
Radio
With the rising prominence of pop radio stars
(and jingles) in the 1960s and 70s, Pepsi worked
with some of the biggest names in the business
to put their own spins on Pepsi jingles.
Three Dog Night and BB King sang along to
“You’ve Got a Lot to Live / And Pepsi’s Got a Lot
to Give,” The Turtles (famous for their smash hit
“Happy Together”) sang “Pepsi Pours It On” and
Motown’s Martha Reeves and the Vandellas sang
“You’re in the Pepsi Generation”
1980’s
Pepsi and Pop Music
Through the Years
80’s
1989
As a sign of support for his
commitment to a clean and
sober lifestyle following treatment for a history with drinking,
Diet Pepsi sponsored Ringo
Starr’s 1989 “Concerts for All
Generations” tour and supplied
him and his band with constant
refreshment for the road
Ringo
Starr
Michael
Jackson
1984
One year after the release of “Thriller”,
Michael Jackson and PepsiCo strike a
$5 million partnership shattering the record
for celebrity endorsement deals, linking Pepsi
and Michael for a decade and setting the bar
for integrated marketing campaigns.
1989
Rod
Stewart
In 1989, Rock singer
Rod Stewart signed with
Pepsi to appear in ads
that appeared across
Latin America
On Jan. 27, 1984, Michael Jackson films a Pepsi
commercial at LA’s Shrine Auditorium in front
of 3,000 fans. On the sixth take, a mishap with
pyrotechnics leads to injuries for the star and
a $1.5 million payment, which Jackson donates
to a burn center named after him.
Robert Palmer
1985
A year after the success
of Lionel Richie’s second
solo album, Can’t Slow Down,
Pepsi taps Richie for a series
of TV advertisements
David Bowie
Lionel
Richie
Menudo
(Pepsi Hispanic
Market)
If “video killed the radio star” (as the
Buggles sang in 1979), then it was to
Pepsi that some of them turned when
starring in some of the most popular
music video-styled commercials of
the 1980s
1988
Tina Turner and
David Bowie join
forces to advertise
Pepsi, in an ad
featuring a reworking
of Bowie’s hit
“Modern Love.”
Tina Turner
Chayanne
(Pepsi Hispanic
Market)
1990’s
Pepsi and Pop Music
Through the Years
1990
Aretha Franklin
In a series of commercials
for Diet Pepsi, Ray Charles
exclaims: “You got the right
one, baby, uh huh!”
1998
Ray Charles
(Diet Pepsi)
1999
1991
In a popular television ad,
MC Hammer’s Pepsi is
replaced with a Coke and
he temporarily loses his
mojo until a fan from
the audience passes
him a Pepsi
90’s
Janet Jackson
(International)
MC
Hammer
Young MC
1993
The Pepsi Chart was a networked Sunday
afternoon Top 40 countdown on UK radio that
began airing in 1993. The Pepsi Chart show
carried an emphasis on fun and was the UK’s
first personality-led chart show, incorporating
big competitions and an official top 10
countdown based on record sales.
2000’s
Pepsi and Pop Music
Through the Years
2002
Beyonce
Knowles
Beyonce Knowles,
Britney Spears and
Pink star as “Pepsi
Gladiators” in a spot
filmed in Rome to the
music of “We Will
Rock You”
Apple
2004
Pepsi partners with
Apple’s launch of iTunes
to give away 100 million
free music downloads
Enrique
00’s
Pink
2001
Pepsi signs on 19-yr old
pop sensation Britney Spears,
sponsoring her tour and placing
her in a starring role in the
2002 Super Bowl ad campaign
around “The Joy of Pepsi”
2003
Shakira
2004-2009
Britney
Spears
Pepsi
Smash
Pepsi Smash - Originally debuting as a televised summer concert
program, the Pepsi Smash concert
series evolved to include an online
video partnership with Yahoo!
Music and live concerts that
traveled the country, even
appearing before the Super
Bowl in 2009 with headliners
Rihanna and Fall Out Boy.
2000’s
Pepsi and Pop Music
Through the Years
Missy Elliott
2006
Mariah Carey
Christina
Aguilera
Rihanna
2008
2005
Fergie
John Legend
In an evolution of the Pepsi Chart program,
Pepsi Música traveled to Latin America as a
radio show in the early 2000s, and eventually
ended up in the US as a televised two-hour live
show airing on Telemundo, featuring live musical
performances, celebrity guests, user-generated
content and a weekly video countdown with the
hottest English and Spanish-language videos
battling for the top spot.
Black Eyed
Peas
2007
2012
X Factor
Pepsi announces it will feature
the winner from FOX’s THE X
FACTOR in a Pepsi commercial
spot during Super Bowl XLVI.
Combined with a $5 million
recording contract from Sony
Music/Syco, it will be the
largest guaranteed prize
package in TV history.