With its latest campaign, ‘Share a Pepsi’, Pepsi has put a delicious twist on the personalization trend. Gone are the days of scanning shelves for bottles tagged with your name. Now, your Pepsi might say pizza, wings, or burgers—a move that signals a subtle yet bold pivot from identity to appetite.
Food First, Feelings Later
Where Coca-Cola’s iconic ‘Share a Coke’ campaign carved out space in the emotional landscape—names, emojis, memories—Pepsi is zeroing in on a more universal connector: food.
Their bet? That people are more likely to bond over a shared craving than a shared name.
It’s not about who you are—it’s about what you’re eating.
A Bite-Sized Comeback to Coke
The timing is no accident. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola dusted off its famed campaign, rebooting it with Gen Z flair and a mix of digital activations and IRL personalization across 120+ countries.
Pepsi’s response doesn’t try to mimic—it sidesteps. And then serves.
By choosing food over first names, Pepsi stakes its claim on the dining table instead of the digital profile.
And it’s not the brand’s first food-forward stunt.
From last year’s Pepsi Chase Cars—where delivery drivers were intercepted to add Pepsi to pizza orders—to BBQ Crashers, which literally replaced rival colas at cookouts, the brand has been quietly building a world where Pepsi is the drink you don’t forget to invite to dinner.
Read more: Earned Ink: The Slow, Steady Hustle of Print PR
The Endgame: Mealtime Monopoly
Beneath the mischief lies a strategic truth. Pepsi wants to own meal occasions, not just moments of thirst.
It’s a recalibration—away from identity marketing and toward contextual placement. After all, a name on a can might start a conversation, but a burger and a Pepsi? That is the conversation.
In this ongoing cola rivalry, where every move feels like part echo, part escalation, Pepsi’s latest chapter is less a comeback—and more of a course correction. One that puts food center stage, and Pepsi right beside it.
Because in 2025, the brand isn’t just chasing Coke. It’s chasing hunger.
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