Pepsi, Coke Give A Touch Of Class

March 25, 1985|By Noel Holston, The Orlando Sentinel

Coca-Cola`s commercials say ``Coke is it.`` And Coke is ``it`` in a new Pepsi commercial, too -- ``it`` as in ``Tag, you`re it.``

Pepsi`s spot is entitled ``Archeology.`` The spot debuted -- not by coincidence -- during CBS` Feb. 26 Grammy Awards telecast, which was watched by millions of the younger soft-drink consumers to whom Pepsi pitches most heavily.

The Pepsi ad set a new standard for tongue-in-cheek taunting of a competitor. By comparison, ``Where`s the beef?`` is obvious and heavy-handed.

``The Future`` reads the inscription at the bottom of the screen as the spot begins. In the shadow of a space-age megalopolis, like something out of The Jetsons cartoon show, an elderly archeology professor leads a trail of students through an excavated ruin. They pass workers gathered around a futuristic Pepsi machine. Some of the students discreetly sip the soft drink.

``This, class,`` the professor says, ``is perhaps the greatest discovery of the 25th century -- a split-level ranch.``

``What`s this?`` a student asks, holding up a petrified baseball.

``A spherical object that they used to hurl at each other with great velocity,`` he replies immediately. Everyone is amused.

Another student shows the professor a battered Y-bodied electric guitar. He explains that people struck it and thus produced loud noises. Everyone has a good laugh.

Then a student finds a rock-encrusted bottle. The professor places it in some sort of chamber that bombards the object with rays, revealing a green, 8- ounce Coke bottle.

``What is it?`` the students ask.

The professor looks uncomfortably baffled. ``I`ve no idea,`` he says.

Long shot of the dig. A ``bus`` with Pepsi placards flies by. ``Pepsi: The Choice of a New Generation,`` it says on the screen.

Oh, that stings.

Ted Sann of the BBDO advertising agency in New York says, ``Archeology,`` which he wrote, was not meant as a put-down of Coca-Cola. He said it just takes Pepsi`s long-time ``new generation`` theme and projects it into the future.

``What we`re really saying is, in the continuing competition, we think we`ll come out on top. It`s done in the spirit of fun.``

Sann said he doesn`t think ``people respond very well to commercials that sort of say, `Our product`s good, your product isn`t,` blatantly, without humor or a smile.``

It`s not as if Coca-Cola doesn`t do its share of needling, either, Sann said. Recent Coke spots featuring comedian Bill Cosby and professional basketball player Julius ``Dr. J`` Erving saying ``two out of two doctors`` agree that Coke tastes best. Cosby plays a doctor on his sitcom The Cosby Show and has a doctorate in education.

Almost six months elapsed between Sann`s earliest conception of the commercial and its ``premiere`` last month at a convention of Pepsi distributors. Filming the 30-second commercial on a sound stage in Los Angeles took five days, and that doesn`t include the post-production work on opticals and special effects.

Sann declined to say how much it cost, but you have to assume the price tag was astronomical. ``Archeology`` took almost as long to shoot as an episode of Miami Vice, which reportedly costs $1 million per episode, and the commercial is far fancier visually.

Sann isn`t worried about retaliation. ``There`s always that risk, I suppose, but I don`t think about it.``