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Pepsi's new 'Pepsi Thi, Pi Gaya' ad is a remixed version of an old 'Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby - Aha!' TVC from the 1990s.
A year before last, Pepsi came up with the 'Pepsi Thi, Pi Gaya' ad - an extension of the 'Oh Yes Abhi!' or 'live for the present as tomorrow is too late' philosophy. With that, the brand was trying to own the instinctive space.
Taking the same thought forward, Pepsi recently released another ad, 'Pepsi Thi, (Kaun) Pi Gaya?'. It has fetched over 5 million views within a week of going live on YouTube.
Curiously enough, after a brief hiatus, the TVC went on air once again during the JNU student row around March last year.
The current ad, which has gained a large amount of traction online, is interesting effort, visually, because it's not till the Indian guy walks in that one realises it's an Indian spot. Today, ads are consumed across screens and platforms, often without volume; this Pepsi ad, which looks 'international' - (a 'global' ad?) - can easily be consumed and understood on a digital medium, with or without volume.
Talking about the resemblance, Mark McDonald, head of creative at DigitasLBi, India, says, "Why would Pepsi redo a well-known 20 year old ad that featured a young Tendulkar and Kambli? To appeal to a new set of viewers who were perhaps too young to remember the first edition? For anyone who's seen the original though, this one lacks novelty. You know where this one is going the moment you see a single Pepsi bottle in the fridge. So it does lack originality."