Pepsi Max, a diet cola marketed toward men, drew both cheers and jeers for its Super Bowl ad featuring guys getting involved in various violent accidents before proclaiming bravely, "I’m good."
To those in favor, the ad was classic slapstick. To those opposed, it was just stereotypical violence for violence’s sake.
Both those who liked and hated the Super Bowl ad might find more humor in another series of Pepsi Max ads, which feature American actors but are currently only running in Europe.
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| Pepsi (click image to view ad) |
In one ad, a guy walks into a job interview, sits down and then, for no apparent reason, starts pretending that his would-be boss is beating him up.
He ends the charade by hurling himself into the waiting room, thus scaring off all the other applicants -- except his buddy, who eventually gets the job.
In another, a guy on a beach is attempting to ask a skeptical girl out when he is interrupted by what looks like a man being attacked by an octopus.
He heroically rescues the victim, gets the date and then limps off into the bushes -- where it’s revealed that his pals set up the fake rescue to impress the girl.
The "I’m good" ads struck us at too obvious and ham-handed to be truly funny. These European ads do a better job of using fake violence as a witty plot point.
Perhaps more importantly, the Pepsi Max drinkers in the European ads come off as smart pranksters plotting gags to help out their buddies. In short, they are the kind of guys many people would wish to be, and they have the kind of friends you’d like to have your back.
In the U.S. ad the guys come off as dolts who are either too dimwitted to avoid being beaned in the head, or are surrounded by friends who can’t seem to avoid maiming their buddies.
The octopus and job interview ads are set to expand into Asian markets, but Pepsi says it has no current plans to air them in the U.S. Click here and here to watch them.
