Pepsi’s Kareena-Shah Rukh ad blitz

NEW DELHI: After the Sachin Tendulkar-Amitabh Bachchan blockbuster, Pepsi Foods is launching another mega campaign with film celebrities Kareena Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan.
The Kapoor-Khan television commercial is expected to be aired on all major channels next week, industry sources told The Times of India.
The 30 to 60-second Kapoor-Khan commercial has been made by the company’s official ad agency HTA.
Despite Pepsi’s strategy of taking a dig at rival Coca-Cola with one out of five campaigns, this Yeh dil maange more commercial will be a pure promotional one, similar to the recently launched Big B-Sachin ad. The company has chalked out a strategy of carrying on the Dil maange more campaign with many facets— taking an occasional dig at rival Coke while promoting the message of youth, aspirations and fun.
The Kapoor-Khan campaign will be continued with many changing themes as is being done in the Big B-Sachin ad. Recently, Pepsi has introduced a second theme in the Big B-Sachin ad.
However, sources said that the company is yet to decide on how to position these two blockbuster Dil maange more ads together. They added that with the Kapoor-Khan combination, Pepsi plans to take a lead over rival Coca-Cola in the ongoing summer 2002 campaign war.
Coke has just launched a mega campaign with cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar and rising star Virendra Sehwag to match Pepsi’s Amitabh- Sachin campaign.
However, Pepsi is yet to decide on the next campaign in line with its Rahul Khanna-Fardeen Khan ad, which took a dig at rival Coca-Cola with a punchline Business thanda matlab cola-cola.
On the other hand, Coca-Cola has decided on a strategy to hit out at Pepsi not with the mother brand, but with second-run brands like Thums Up, Limca and Sprite.