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.
