RIP: Pepsi Super Bowl Presence

Blame it on the changing advertising landscape, the poor economy, or whatever variable you please, but Pepsi, the second largest Super Bowl advertiser in the last 10 years, will not be advertising its drinks during 2010's game.

The company says it wants to focus the would-be Super Bowl budget on online work and a more "refreshing" campaign.

"In 2010, each of our beverage brands has a strategy and marketing platform that will be less about a singular event and more about a movement," said a Pepsi Co spokeswoman, Nicole Bradley.

This is really a two-fold shame, one because it is a big blow to the world's biggest advertising platform (it has always been thought, "gee, where else can I plan on a guaranteed 40+ Nielsen rating?") and also because Pepsi's spots during the big game are often damn good.

A recent retrospective of some of the best:

2009:


2008:


2007:


2004:


Not to say that online/viral is a bad idea, because it isn't (John is always there to call me on these things). Everyone can benefit from online and new media efforts. My beef is that this is a blow to one of the only platforms where people actively seek out advertising, which is almost a priceless added value (actually not priceless, 30 seconds is going to run about $2.5 million this year).

Is the Super Bowl in trouble? No. They've sold about 90% of available time to this point. They'll sell it out in 2010. It'll be interesting to see how much, if at all, the astronomical cost for these ads drops in coming years because of a waning economy or just because of lack of interest.