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Diet Pepsi will meet you at the Peach Pit

90210 So Diet Pepsi is using characters from Beverly Hills 90210 to illustrate how people prefer it to Diet Coke. But why? Not only is this a forced regurgitation of pop culture, it isn’t even current pop culture. 90210 went off the air seven years ago in a freefall after everyone who made the show popular jumped ship. Maybe I’m being too mean. Yes, the ad ridicules 90210. But even that strategy feels stale. And surely it isn’t time yet for a ’90s pop-culture revival. Maybe the guilty parties here got into Lindsay Lohan’s Panamanian Fairy Dust before putting pen to paper.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

May 7, 2007 in 90210, DDB, Pepsi | Permalink

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They probably used 90210 because their target market is the 30ish overweight women who watched the show religiously when it was on the air.

Posted by: Chris DeGroat | May 7, 2007 10:18:44 AM

but there is more that just one commercial in this pepsi campaing.

have a look: http://www.advertolog.com/tv_spots/2007/05/07/16736/

Posted by: deep | May 7, 2007 12:29:41 PM

but there is more that just one commercial in this pepsi campaing.

have a look: http://www.advertolog.com/tv_spots/2007/05/07/16736/

Posted by: deep | May 7, 2007 12:29:43 PM

It's true the campaign is kind of dumb, but it's a lovable dumb. The "Jingle, Facts, Puppies" spot is totally ridiculous, in a totally plausable way.

Posted by: | May 7, 2007 1:01:49 PM

I think it's a bit silly, but it might stick.

Diet Coke has been going for today's pilates instructors since they were yesterday's Friends-watchers. These people, incidentally, used to watch "niner" back in the day.

"Even if Brenda was kind of a shut-yo-mouth, at least she had some semblance of Midwestern values," in not-so-many words seems the refrain.

Besides, the 80's nostalgia phase is winding down and now the 90's are looking pretty sweet by comparison. What we have here is an example of late-80's/early-90's bleed-over; a time when even limbo itself was in limbo.

It's hard to know where to draw the line, so the show itself just didn't. It was bubble-gum trite in its ripping off of the 50's, just like the 80's itself was. Then it went the extra mile of being completely self-righteous and self-referencing; a key characteristic of early-90's low tide culture, where everyone's a wannabe (and especially those who "are" something).


Oh, and Gen Y also has a healthy appetite for borrowed nostalgia. But the only place I imagine it would stick is with the pilates set, and that might be enough to make them smirk a bit the next time they order a diet coke. i mean, they're already doing it, anyway--and it's not like Kate Moss's career ever suffered because of aspartame.

Posted by: Robert Gorell | May 8, 2007 11:43:24 AM

Great show, but a lame Pepsi ad.

Posted by: Reality TV News Blog | May 8, 2007 1:27:25 PM

Oh no, I AM one of those 30-ish, overweight women who watched 90201 religiously. I'd never switch to Diet Pepsi though. Eww.

Posted by: anon | May 8, 2007 1:46:16 PM

That's funny. I read this piece and even responded to it before I realized this was Pepsi's idea. I wonder if that says more about them or me...

Either way, the campaign seems like a long-shot for them.

Perhaps anon being grossed-out by the thought of Diet Pepsi says the most of all. Maybe that's a good reason for them to do it...

The cola wars only really heating up as the Cold War was ending. But, as any real historian can tell you, it was David Hasselhoff & Priestly who tore down that wall.

This would've all been cleared up years ago if they'd have just been wise enough to offer market the "Diet Pepsi Challenge" as well. Oh, cruel irony! Time to rewind the clock to a time before Alanis ruined the word, and Canadians could do no harm.

Posted by: Robert Gorell | May 8, 2007 3:37:26 PM

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