PepsiCo fakes a name change for its first corporate campaign

For 60 years, PepsiCo has quietly assembled one of the largest brand portfolios on Earth, and for 60 years, almost nobody has noticed. Just 18% of consumers associate the company with anything beyond its namesake cola, a statistic the Purchase, New York giant is finally treating as a marketing problem rather than a trivia answer.

Its solution is the company's first-ever corporate brand campaign, and it opens with a manufactured scandal. Social posts, kicked off by Chester Cheetah in a group chat shared on Instagram, hinted that PepsiCo was mulling a name change. "Like, why Pepsi? Why can't the rest of us get some love?" the Cheetos mascot asked, before signing off with an ominous "OK. We're changing PepsiCo to–."

The reveal arrived as a 30-second spot in which the portfolio's mascots and characters, from the potato farmers of Lay's to an oddly convincing Mountain Dew loyalist, each pitch why the company should be renamed after them. Cheetos-Co and Gatorade-Co do not make the cut. The ad closes on the real point: "A family of brands. PepsiCo."

The timing is not accidental. The campaign lands a week after PepsiCo moved its $1.9 billion media account to Publicis from Omnicom, and it rolls out alongside the company's refreshed visual identity across packaging, advertising, and partnerships including the Super Bowl and Formula 1.

Corporate brand campaigns are usually the dullest genre in advertising, a CFO's idea of fun. This one at least understands the assignment: people do not love corporations, they love snacks. PepsiCo is simply asking its snacks to introduce it.