Yes, apparently it’s true: Ronaldinho has lost his massive
income from a Coca-Cola advertising deal for being seen with a Pepsi. This is a
disaster: for Coke. He could easily have said someone just handed him a Pepsi,
and he accepted it to be nice. But now that he’s been dropped, he could say
this: “I never liked that Coke crap! I only pretended to drink it because they
paid me! I took the Pepsi Challenge years ago, and Pepsi won!” And that might
make Coke look a lot worse than if
they had done nothing. Plus, now Pepsi will probably sign Ronaldinho to join
all the other soccer greats in their current ad campaign (Messi, David Villa,
Kun Aguero, etc.), and he’d end up landing on his feet anyway.
(Full disclosure: I like Coke better, but I don’t drink any soda anymore, except maybe club soda.
And come to think of it, where are all the hot star-filled ads for club soda?
They could have some exclusive night club called “Club Soda”, and everyone,
even famous celebrities, are waiting behind the velvet rope to get in, and once
inside, they all get a nice big refreshing glass of club soda! Or isn’t that realistic
enough? {Actually, when you think about it, it’s not really any more disingenuous or hyperbolic than the other soda ads, now is it?})
Here’s the silly soda jerk story:
And here’s that Pepsi soccer ad:
