The Pro Shop

Word came this morning via the Associated Press that PepsiCo will sit on the sidelines during Super Bowl XLIV, for the first time in 23 years. During that time the company has been known for its big-budget commercials featuring big-ticket music stars from Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin to Britney Spears and Will.i.am.

(I hereby confess a lingering fondness for watching the 2008 Justin Timberlake get racked, smacked and sacked by various forms of Pepsi Stuff. That guy can take a flat screen to the forehead like nobody’s business.)



But this year Pepsi is foregoing the big game in favor of a community-based campaign, “Pepsi Refresh Project,” that will launch in January. Instead of paying out millions for seconds of air time, the company will put its resources into social programs proposed by its consumers.

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Burger King’s at it again, courting controversy and grabbing up buzz by the handful.

The chain that brought you the “Whopper Virgin” campaign (loud outcry from the one-worlders who accused it of patronizing colonialism) and the “Whopper Sacrifice” (loud outcry from Facebook, which pulled the app down for violating its un-friending terms and conditions) is backing raising a ruckus. And this time the king and his agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky are dragging SpongeBob SquarePants into the fray. more

OK, I just have to ask: Who at either Southwest Airlines or Sports Illustrated thought it would be a good idea to wrap a Boeing 737 in the airline’s fleet with an image of model Bar Refaeli, the cover girl for the 2009 SI swimsuit issue? more

Long ago, movie heroes wore fedoras, heroines all had accents straight out of Vassar, and smoking was code for sophistication. The days of Paul Henreid lighting two cigarettes, then handing one to Bette Davis, are long gone. Today directors tend to shy away from depicting explicitly inhaling unless they’re trying to set a rebellious, take-no-PC-prisoners tone. Where would Quentin Tarentino be without his Red Apple brand smokes?

But the flap over the use of cigarettes in the chick flick “He’s Just Not That Into You” involves a few new wrinkles in how the media use tobacco. For one thing, no one in the movie is actually seen smoking. One of the stories does turn on smoking cessation as a plot point, however, when Jennifer Connelly leaves her husband in part because he has lied about quitting smoking. more

Look, we’re all under stress. On the personal front, our 401Ks are MIA and our home valuations have put an unfortunate new spin on the phrase “sweat equity.” Meanwhile our workplaces are pressure cookers, with bankruptcy filings, layoffs and salary freezes. (Not here at Promo, of course. We still keep a basket of benjamins by the coffee maker for lighting our lunchtime Cohibas.)

The point is, we as a public are getting cranky, and we may be less prone to put up with some of the things we found fun in 2007 or at least tolerable last year. And that seems to have been part of AT&T Wireless’ miscalculation in firing out text messages to “a significant number” of its 75 million user base, reminding them to tune in to the Tuesday night launch of the eighth season of “American Idol” on the Fox Network. more

About ten years ago I was asked to be godfather to the new son of some in-laws I didn’t know very well. These jobs went in a strict rotation in my then-wife’s family, and it was our turn at the font. I agreed to serve but worried about one problem: I was having the worst trouble remembering the little tyke’s intended name.

(I still have that trouble. Either he was meant to be Jason and I kept calling him Nathan, or the other way around.)

Anyway, I had about two months in which to train myself. I studied hard, practiced often and corrected myself whenever I caught myself starting to give the wrong monicker.

You guessed it. Two months later of rehearsals later, and with basically two jobs during the baptism—give the child’s name correctly and keep his fruity white dress out of the water—I stepped out and in a loud, firm tone, said the wrong name.

So I can empathize with the plight of Dr Pepper, which blew Sunday’s Guns N’ Roses soda giveaway despite more than half a year to prepare. more