It is without doubt that Pepsi has always been a moving force in the Egyptian advertising scene, creating ads that have left a mark in our memory for ages now. For the past couple of years they have been quite idle, leaving Coke to dominate the ad scene and rise to the spotlight, up until last year that is!
Ramadan 2013 was a game changer for the CSD market, when Pepsi brought us this wonderful TVC that took us back to our childhood days and brought tears to everyone’s eyes.
Worked out beautifully for them, Pepsi’s ad was the talk of town and our FB news feeds turned Blue overnight..
What we’re about to witness this year won’t be any different, I am writing this only 1 hour after the release of the new Pepsi Ramadan 2014 ad on Youtube; it hasn’t gone on TV yet; and my news feed is already FLOODED with shares.
I must say so myself, this is a very emotional commerical, well written; well casted and well shot!
Including the biggest and brightest stars of the past, be it Mama Nagwa & Bo2loz, Four M, The Egyptian Squad of 1990, Hesham Abbas & 7ameed or the star of this year; George Sidhom.
For those who don’t know, George Sidhom has been terribly ill for the past 10+ years and was immobile due to his illness, bringing him back was a truly pleasant surprise.
While this is a great creatively and aesthetically; there are 2 things that I don’t quite get about it:
- The ad does not give off the Ramadan feel. So while gathering prominent figures of the Egyptian showbiz scene; none of them have anything to do with Ramadan (with the exception of the Boogi w Tamtam). Last year they got all Ramadan related characters, so maybe this year they ran out of options to cast? Or is the point here to “nekammel lammetna” regardless?
- There’s a big disconnect in the demographic targeting of this ad vs what Pepsi is doing globally. In their global World Cup TVC, they have Janelle Monae singing in the background; a singer only known to the youngsters (and Nikki Minaj in the one before); clearly targeting teens and tweens. In this specific ad they get a band formed in 1979, a crew of a legendary masra7eyya that broke stage in 1981 and a song duo that was a smash-hit in 1992. During my marketing studies, it has been made clear that Pepsi talks to those between 16 to 24 years old, if that is still the case, then let me assure you that this target audience probably has no idea who the people in the ad are in the first place…
So for a 20 year old, Four M had stopped singing by the time he/she was 2 and he/she weren’t even conceived when Egypt made it to the World Cup with this squad. Personally speaking, at the age of 29 I had trouble recognizing Gamal Abdel Hamid or Hesham Yakan..
I had the same comment during last year’s ad, especially that it spoke to the 80s generation.. This year they even took it a step further by talking to the 70s generation. Let’s see, maybe in a couple of years’ time we’ll see a Pepsi ad starring Naguib El Ri7ani and Sharafanta7.
The direction of the company for the past year or so has fallen under their #YallaNow campaign, but maybe #Walla_Zaman works better!
Nevertheless, it is indeed a great ad, that I’m sure will touch the hearts of millions of Egyptians this year..
That said, it doesn’t just stop at the TVC!
The whole objective (which will probably be revealed in days to come) and was apparent in the last 30 seconds of the video; is for you to take a picture of an old “gathering” you had and reenact it with the same people and send it to their website.
Once you do, they’ll collate all the pictures and light up the Fanoos in AbdelMon3em Riad square, very smart if you ask me!
We Said This: So what do you think will we see more people sharing old pictures of themselves or their names written on a Coke can? This is the first year that I cannot foresee a winner!
