"This year's Super Bowl spot from Pepsi uses imaginative repetition to extend 'The Pepsi Challenge' into 2026. However, it has chosen to hijack the Coca-Cola polar bear and send him to therapy after it discovers it, in fact, prefers Pepsi Max over Coca-Cola Zero. Marketers have collectively lost their shit over a brand featuring its main competitor in such a huge ad moment."
"The main pushback around Pepsi's new spot, which System1 has tested, is that using Coca-Cola's DBAs in the ad will weaken the creative by building fewer memories for Pepsi and more for Coke. Or, as the more eloquent LinkedIn posts put it, 'It's a Coke ad!' This should cause marketers great concern and keep creatives up at night. Could the use of competitor DBAs not add more creative strength than take away? Say through attention, fame, emotion, memory formation?"
Pepsi's Super Bowl spot repurposes the Coca-Cola polar bear, revealing a shift in how brands use imaginative repetition and competitive imagery. Marketers reacted strongly online, arguing that using competitor distinctive brand assets (DBAs) will build memories for the competitor rather than the featured brand. The industry has moved from brand image and love toward memory networks and DBA-driven strategies, influenced by thinkers like Byron Sharp. That shift risks oversimplifying advertising, removing emotion and showmanship, and undermining profit-driving potential. Competitor DBAs may also add attention, fame, emotion and memory formation, so limiting creative approaches could be harmful.
Read at The Drum
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