As Pepsi winds down celebrations of its 125th 12 months, it has known as in a giant celeb accomplice to “suppose small.”
The cola model tapped longtime accomplice and former Nationwide Basketball Affiliation legend Shaquille O’Neal to entrance a brand new marketing campaign for its mini can. The artistic is each a juxtaposition to the retired 7’2” baller’s top and a intelligent callback to his earlier spots within the Nineteen Nineties because the face of Pepsi’s large “Huge Slam” bottle.
Additional nodding to the period is the hero video, “I Want,” by which O’Neal desires of a world the place he was “a little bit bit smaller”—a reversal of his Huge Slam stance. The soundtrack is a reimagined model of Skee-Lo’s 1995 hit of the identical title, by which he raps about being “taller.”
A montage of O’Neal in numerous size-challenged situations—a couple of harkening again to the 1993 spot—is accompanied by Skee-Lo lyricizing his frustrations in the identical cadence of the unique track: “I want I used to be like 5’4”, ‘trigger once I’m with my tall crew, we might simply match by … virtually any door.”
O’Neal finally channels his personal “Shaq Diesel” rap abilities to shut out the beverage-themed banger, however not earlier than a cameo from Matty Cardarople serving him an enormous burger to enhance his mini can of Pepsi.
The movie ends with one more callback, because the rapper makes an attempt to get his personal can to drink and is jokingly instructed by the baller, “Don’t even give it some thought”—a line first uttered to him 30 years in the past by a little bit boy who was not about to let his fandom get between him and his soda.
The long-form video will likely be accessible on-line, whereas 60- and 30-second cuts will run throughout spots resembling NBA video games airing on ESPN and TNT, and throughout the Nationwide Soccer League’s primetime programming on Thanksgiving.
Pepsi may even run a sweepstakes, from Nov. 20 by Dec. 15, by which followers can publish a photograph of their favourite snack or meal with a mini can and use the hashtags #BetterWithPepsiMinis and #Sweepstakes to win an official NBA basketball autographed by O’Neal.
Huge demand for little cans
Because the model thought of its technique to advertise the mini can in a class that has doubled in dimension since 2018, the chance to make use of an present partnership with O’Neal to cheekily nod to previous collaborations—whereas additionally evolving with shopper preferences—was one it couldn’t move up, based on Pepsi chief advertising officer Todd Kaplan.
