Disclaimer- Only covering Indian ads. Also, while some of the brands are under either PepsiCo or Coca Cola, I’m still analysing their ads separately.

PART 1
Come summertime, and we all know who dominates the ad space on television. It is time for The Cola Wars, a long standing feud where one soft drinks giant tries to one-up the other through witty commercials that sometimes border on the insulting. But hey, it makes for good viewing, and who doesn’t love a good campaign war?
I’m gonna be doing this in three parts. The …

It’s April 23, 1985. The Coca Cola Company has just announced to the press that there’s going to be a major announcement concerning a change in the products formulation. They’ve built up the hype and the expectations to a nadir, and they’ve even got their upstart rivals, Pepsi, on their toes. The company has been working on “Project Kansas” with the utmost secrecy, to test and perfect the flavour for New Coke. And so, with much fanfare and gusto, the new flavour is finally introduced to the world. Curious consumers …

Waka Waka fever has gripped the world and people from across the globe are tuning in every day to see who would go on to raise the FIFA World Cup trophy on the 11th of July, 2010. Given the magnitude of the event and the global reach of every game, it is a marketer’s delight. In any such event, the coveted ‘official tournament sponsors’ position usually draws stiff competition. However, every tournament of this magnitude also draws a number of so-called ‘unofficial’ sponsors – the ‘ambush marketers’. Call them smart …

All of a sudden, everybody is after the humble nimbu paani. It started with PepsiCo and Parle Agro launching Nimbooz and LMN respectively in 2009. Recently, Coke has jumped into the fray with the lemon version of Minute Maid, calling it Nimbu Fresh. While LMN and Nimbooz enjoyed a fair bit of advertising last year with their launch (and nearly equal success in the market), surprisingly, Parle Agro has not launched any advertisement for LMN this year. Nimbooz has come up with a couple of TVCs and Minute Maid Nimbu Fresh …

This year, PepsiCo launched Aliva, a baked savoury cracker, something entirely new to the Indian market. The launch of this product had the whole marketing world abuzz, as this was the first launch by PepsiCo in the food industry since it launched Kurkure nearly ten years ago.
According to Frito-Lay India Director (Marketing) Deepika Warrier, this is being positioned  as a new product category in the Indian market. Like many other snacks, this is also being positioned on the health plus taste platform, since consumers are very health conscious nowadays, as …