Talking Rainbows, Boulders and Trees

Click on image to enlarge. Source: popsop.com

"High fructose corn syrup" is the new ingredient to watch out for. Move over "trans fat". It's fructose that we hate now. Food and drink labels all over the nation are being scanned for the F-word.

According to onenews.com "People are concerned that high fructose corn syrup is more harmful or more likely to cause obesity than sugar, perceptions for which there is little scientific evidence. The shift has caused a slump in soft drink sales and a rise in sales of juices and teas, which are perceived as healthier than soda. The nation's makers of high fructose corn syrup are even asking the government if they can start referring to the sweetener as "corn sugar" to change perceptions."

Fighting the sudden decrease in demand, PepsiCo's Sierra Mist Natural (lemon-lime soda) is floating a new campaign consisting of TV, print, digital, radio and OOH. A little bird tells me the budget is 4x the quarterly spend. They
have added "natural" to the name and also modified the packaging design. All fine strategies.

Soda ads usually go for humor, hot models/celebs, computer graphics etc. Sierra Mist Natural's campaign is unlike anything you have seen before. They feature talking boulders, trees and rainbows for starters.You can view some of their ads at popsop.com. It's funny and interesting till you reach the tagline - "The soda nature would drink, if nature drank soda." Wait a second, what?

What does that even mean? This is a case of a good product, good execution and plenty of advertising dollars being overpowered by a kooky tagline bordering plain stupid. I don't know how it will impact sales, but as far as creativity goes, it could have been so much better.