Purchase-headquartered PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) announced the upcoming premiere of its new Super Bowl advertisements starring comic actors Steve Martin and Ben Stiller.
The advertisements highlight the new Pepsi Zero Sugar beverage and are presented under the title “Great Acting or Great Taste?” In the advertisememts, consumers will be challenged into judging on social media whether Martin’s and Stiller’s professed on-camera love for the taste of new Pepsi Zero Sugar is just acting, or if the soft drink is genuinely great tasting, by using the hashtag #RealorActing as the commercials that air during the game.
This marks the first time in three years that the Pepsi brand is being featured in a Super Bowl advertisement. Sunday”™s game is also the first time since 2012 that PepsiCo is not sponsoring the Super Bowl Halftime Show ”“ the company opted not to renew its contract with the NFL last May, with Apple Music taking over the sponsorship role.
“Consumers today are skeptical towards advertising, often unsure of what is real and what is just acting, which is magnified on advertising’s biggest night, the Super Bowl, when brands bring in actors and celebrities to help pitch their products,” said Todd Kaplan, chief marketing officer for Pepsi. “Since we just launched our upgraded Pepsi Zero Sugar product with a new and improved taste, we wanted to flip this norm on its head, stoking a conversation about what is real and what is acting with two iconic actors in their own right.”
