Ad-World Insiders on How the Hell That Pepsi Ad Got Made
I spoke with Dayna Evans at The Cut for this story:
“Ad-World Insiders on How the Hell That Pepsi Ad Got Made”
Below is a brief extract from the article. Please visit The Cut to read the full story here.
“Products don’t solve problems.”
“It’s not uncommon for corporations to co-opt things that exist in culture — that happens all the time. That no one thought that this particular one was going to be a problem was where the problem was. In the creative process you get so caught up in the bubble of creating, that unless you show it outside of the bubble, you don’t know it’s going to be wrong. Maybe they didn’t test it or they tested it with the wrong people.
“The younger people are probably the most junior people on the team; for them to say something, they would have to be really confident in themselves. To have a younger millennial account person go up to a senior creative person and say, ‘We’re not going to do this, we think there’s a problem with it’ — that’s an uncomfortable power position to put a young person into.
“Products don’t solve problems. They’re trying to present a product as a solution to a very large, very important, very serious cultural and societal problem. The only way a company can get away with doing that kind of thing is if they’re really doing something. You can’t tell me that you’re doing that, Pepsi.””