Pepsi’s ‘Generation Next’ Ads Apparently Fall Flat With Boss

PepsiCo Inc. may replace the chief marketing executive at its Pepsi-Cola Co. beverage business amid dissatisfaction with the unit’s advertising campaign, industry analysts said Monday.

Pepsi-Cola’s Brian Swette, 44, approved the creation of the company’s “Generation Next” campaign.

The ads, featuring skydiving and a teenager with pierced nose, ears and eyelids, are designed as a contemporary version of the “Pepsi Generation” spots that 30 years ago helped Pepsi gain on rival Coca-Cola Co.

Philip Marineau, head of PepsiCo’s North American beverage business, is unhappy with the new ads, contending they don’t appeal to a broad range of Pepsi drinkers, analysts said.

Marineau, who joined the company in September after 23 years at Quaker Oats Co.’s Gatorade division, is seeking to revitalize Pepsi with new products and more restaurant contracts.

“Their marketing has been off the mark,” said Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Martin Romm. “Phil Marineau is going to put his own team in place.”

Swette could not be reached for comment.

New York agency BBDO Worldwide, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc., developed the “Generation Next” campaign in 1997.

The advertising competition between Pepsi and No. 1-ranked Coke is intense. Last month, Coca-Cola Chief Marketing Officer Sergio Zyman resigned after almost five years in the post.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola Co. said it has ended a one-year test of a curvy can modeled after its trademark bottle in four of five markets, delaying a national roll-out as it seeks ways to trim the higher cost of the special can.

The can was withdrawn from cities in Indiana, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in the last two months. It remains in El Paso.

The can was introduced in March 1997. The world’s largest beverage company has been seeking a signature can for at least five years that it hopes will boost sales by mimicking the contoured bottle designed in 1915.

So far, though, selling the can nationwide has been out of reach because it costs about three cents more to make than an ordinary can and sells for the same price, cutting bottlers’ profits.