PEPSI COMMERCIAL IS OUT OF THIS WORLD
By Adnews Staff
U.S.-based Pepsi-Cola Co. is will be running the world's first commercial filmed in space. The spot, scheduled to air in 1997, shows cosmonauts Yuri Ivanovich Onufrienko and Yuri Vladimirovich Usachev - and a large blue Pepsi can - floating around the Mir space station. The spacemen started filming during the past weekend. The spot will be part of the international marketing push launched in April by the soft drink company, named Project Blue because it centres around a new blue can adopted by Pepsi. The can in the commercial is actually a replica made of space-grade nylon and aluminum, tethered to the space station. EMCI of Stamford, Connecticut and Space Marketing of Atlanta, Georgia put their heads together to come up with the idea for the TV spot. BBDO Worldwide of New York is writing the script. Pepsi says the blue can commercial is the first of a number of "joint initiatives" it will undertake with the space station, and the money it puts into these projects will help support future experiments in space. A Pepsi spokesperson told Adnews yesterday that these projects will be more than just commercials, but she would not give details. In a release issued this week, Pepsi claims a "historic association" with space. The basis for this claim is that a Pepsi beverage dispenser was aboard the Shuttle Challenger in 1985 and the company aired three commercials with a space theme in 1984 and 1985.