At the end of last year Pepsi announced they pulled their ads for this year's Super Bowl. The brand that showcased celebrities like Cindy Crawford, Britney Spears, Will.i.am and Michael Jackson (flaming hair & all), decreed that the Super Bowl of consumer advertising didn't taste right.For weeks marketers have wondered what's next. On February 1 Pepsi launched The Pepsi Refresh Project, a social marketing grant campaign to make the world a better place. Instead of pouring millions of dollars into the sinkhole of Super Bowl advertising, Pepsi is spending its money on projects that help communities across a range of issues, including health, culture & arts, food & shelter, the Earth and neighborhoods.
Projects are submitted by regular folks to The Refresh Project website (http://www.refresheverything.com/). Site visitors vote for their favorite projects and the top vote getters receive funding from Pepsi.
This echoes a campaign that American Express has used the last two years. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples of feel-good social marketing -- Ronald McDonald Children's Charities and Target House come to mind first.
What's most gratifying is the bold move made by Pepsi to redirect $20 million to a broad swath of smaller scaled projects that anybody can feel good about. At the time of this posting, 729 projects had been submitted to the website. Each project sponsor will no doubt launch a mini-campaign to get friends, family & neighbors to visit the Pepsi site to vote for their pet project.
Hard to knock a program that offers so many winning propositions for everybody involved. Think I'll crack open an ice cold Diet Pepsi and peruse the projects before casting my vote on this Election Day.
