With 25 Super Bowl commercials under their belt, Pepsi is one of the true veterans on the field. Looking back through the years, there are plenty of great clips, a few awkward moments, lots of celebrities and, well, some misses.
This year will be the fifth year in a 10-year contract that the soda mega-company is sponsoring the halftime.
Some ad highlights from over the years:
This 1992 gem features Cindy Crawford in daisy dukes and a chest-hugging tanktop. We see two neighborhood kids going gaga as they watch Crawford gulp down a can of soda on a hot summer day. The punchline: One boy turns to his friend and says, “Is that a great looking new Pepsi can or what?”
In their 2001 Super Bowl ad, Bob Dole spoke a little too frankly with us. First about viagra, and then about how Pepsi itself made him feel “useful, vigorous and vital again.” A little awkward - it’s true.
2005 saw P. Diddy rolling up to the red carpet in a Diet Pepsi delivery trucks and quickly turned the clunky trucks into the coolest ride around. Riding around in a souped up Diet Pepsi truck does look pretty fun.
Over the years, Pepsi has featured quite a few celebrities (mostly singers) in their Super Bowl spots. From Elton John starring a grumpy king in this 2012 ad to Ozzy Ozbourne in 2003 dreaming that his kids have turned into the Osmonds.
The following year, in Pepsi’s 2004 Super Bowl commercial, Britney Spears, Pink and Beyonce starred as gladiators in a somewhat long and bizarre commercial.
Pepsi - Crowdsourcing Geniuses!
But the big win goes to Pepsi for their effective use of regular people in their ads. They’re great at putting to use the collective power of social media and their well-known name. To countdown to Beyonce’s performance in the 2013 Super Bowl, they used footage from 100,000 fans to create this memorable clip.
In 2014, to create early buzz for their halftime show, Pepsi arranged for a surprise performance by country music star Lee Brice in Milligan, Nebraska (population 312). They described the town as “halfway between California and New York.”
In honor of Super Bowl’s special 50th anniversary in 2016, the soda-giant aired a fun musical medley that took us on a journey through the lat 50 years. Beginning in the 1960s, we watched star Janelle Monáe dance her way through the years to classics by The Contours, Madonna and more.
