If you were watching the Superbowl in 2010 when the Packers beat the Steelers, you may have noticed that Pepsi commercials were absent from the ads that were vying for the attention of millions of viewers. Instead, Pepsi announced Pepsi Refresh, a project to take the $20 million dollars it would have spent on Superbowl advertising and give it to a good cause. They used a vast social media campaign to involve the public in voting for which cause would get the money.
Pepsi's good deed did put $20 million dollars into the hands of organizations working to solve global problems, but Pepsi got something back too -- loyal consumers. The campaign was a splashy example of a new strategy called "cause marketing" that plays off a growing trend of corporate social responsibility. But this money comes directly out of Pepsi's brand marketing budget, not their philanthropy arm.
"There are some really revealing statements in the industry literature from executives at Pepsi saying very explicitly what they were trying to do," explained Lori Dorfman, Director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group. "And one of the things they were trying to do is get the attention of and favorability of millennials," she added.
Dorfman and her colleagues have been digging into the nitty-gritty of the beverage industry to draw comparisons between the marketing strategies of big tobacco and those of soda companies, who have recently come under attack for the role their sugary product is playing in rising obesity rates.
The article that Berkeley Media Studies Group published in PLoS Medicine is part of a broader series launched by the international public health journal to look at the immense cultural and political power of "big food." They use the term "big food" to talk about multinational food and beverage companies and to draw the analogy to big tobacco.