Coca-Cola runs one of the most aggressive advertising campaigns in the history of the American economy. They don’t just spend millions on television ads. They buy thousands of inches of newspaper space, billboards on the side of skyscrapers, junk mail outs, elaborate online pop-up ads, radio spots, movie product placements and forehead tattoos that are applied on less than euthsiasitc customers while they sleep. But Pepsi, Coke’s redheaded stepchild, isn’t crazy about that, particular a new ad that premiered the NCAA tournament.
CHICAGO (AP) — PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) is taking on Coca-Cola Co. (KO) in federal court here, but this time it’s not a cola war.
PepsiCo’s Gatorade beverage business filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court against Coca-Cola’s Powerade unit to stop an ad campaign that it claims is false and deceptive.
A new television ad for Coke’s Powerade Option sports drink features a “drag race” between two farmers in Amish dress, riding horse-drawn carts loaded with hay bales — one with ten bales and one with 50. The ad shows the cart with fewer bales easily cruising to victory, and touts that Powerade Option has 10 calories compared to Gatorade’s 50 calories.
Pepsico, who often gets fan mail addressed to Joe Piscopo, claims that the ad implies that since Powerade has fewer calories than Gatorade, that will literally make you run faster. Yeah right, only if you chugged a whole bottle and you’re running towards a bathroom.
The suit asks for a permanent injunction to keep the ad off the air where it can fester on the airwaves and permanently poison the mind and bodies of its customers — just like Coke and Pepsi’s products.
What’s the big hoopla about some dumb little ad about the Amish, and why are Gatorade and Pepsico so worried about its deceptive advertising? The only people it could actually influence are the Amish, and they don’t even watch TV.
2 responses so far ↓
1 PiscopoFanClub // May 22, 2006 at 9:00 am
What have you got against Joe Piscopo, huh? He’s a great guy. He invented the internet and he found the weapons of mass distraction. He is not an Al Qaeda or anything like it. He’s funny, cute and never too pimply to go out with on a weekday night in Muncie, Indiana. Have you seen “Lazy Muncie” yet? It’s a hoot.
What the hell is a hoot, after all? How do these weird cliches get started anyway? Whatever.
Where is Leon Czolgolz anyhow? Do I dare to eat a peach? What if my dentist calls himself a “New Age Dentist”? What does that mean?
Let’s all sing the Joe Piscopo Song, “Happy Joe, He’s My Friend, His Era Will Never End!” which was written by yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
2 Alene // Nov 17, 2006 at 2:58 am
Joe Piscopo has a fan club???
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