Somebody out there drinks Pepsi, right? Grub Street knows precisely one person who does, but some people somewhere have kept this brand on the map, always nipping at Coke’s coattails for over a century. Now the perpetual bridesmaid of the beverage industry is prepping another big new ad push with big-name stars, dubstep, and the King of Pop, brought back from the dead.
PepsiCo Inc., which first partnered with Jackson back in 1983, is launching an ad campaign later this month in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Bad, and in a move that is sure to grate on just about everyone, twenty-something dubstep fans included, they’re going to be releasing three exclusive remixes of Jackson’s song by the likes of Skrillex, Diplo, and A-Trak, which you can download via QR code on cans of soda. So savvy! So hip!
Also, Nicki Minaj has signed on to rep the brand, as Billboard reports, and her two-year-old single “Moment for Life” will be used for a new Pepsi ad that airs May 7.
Jackson infamously sustained second-degree burns during a shoot for a 1984 commercial for Pepsi, but they’d prefer to focus on Jackson’s later ad work in this month’s nostalgic campaign. “Bad” was featured in an epic four-part Pepsi ad in 1987 which you can watch below, and in which Jackson escapes from a relentless horde of paparazzi first by chopper, then by Lamborghini, then by jumping into a painting in a museum, then by jumping into a television, then by ski jump, then by parachute. We really, really hope Pepsi decides to re-air this ad as-is, but we suspect that is too much to wish for. So here you go.
Pepsi Brings Back Michael Jackson In Promotion [AP]
Pepsi Teams With Nicki Minaj, Preps Michael Jackson Project With Skrillex, Diplo [Billboard]
