Pepsi has launched a new print campaign, for Pepsi Max, their one-calorie cola. We don’t know if you’ve seen these advertisements, but in case not, here is one of them:
What are you looking at, you wonder? Oh, you know, not much! Just a sad, solitary calorie, doing itself in. Even though the ads are obviously not meant to be taken to heart or at face value, is it really necessary for the calorie to attempt suicide in so many ways in each picture? Frankly, it seems way over-the-top to us.
Call us wet blankets, but we’re of the opinion that they should have gone with some other mechanism to depict the loneliness this calorie feels from being the only one. Like… binge eating! Or alcoholism! (Just kidding!) But haven’t ad execs learned anything from the popularity of Mad Men? Oh, wait — of course they have. Any buzz is good buzz.
Pepsi Opens a Vein of Controversy With New Suicide-Themed Ads [Advertising Age]
