Pepsi Nixes Super Bowl Ads

MILWAUKEE: After 23 years of advertising during the Super Bowl, Pepsi is shifting its ad dollars, mostly to online, and will not take part in next year’s football event on CBS, according to local reports. 

Pepsi, which has advertised during the Super Bowl every year since 1987, was one of the biggest advertisers in this year’s game. Frito-Lay, a unit of parent company PepsiCo Inc., will still have Super Bowl commercials in the 2010 game. The company spent $33 million during the 2009 Super Bowl advertising products like Pepsi, Gatorade and Cheetos, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Pepsi accounted for $15 million of that. 

Pepsi spokeswoman Nicole Bradley commented: "In 2010, each of our beverage brands has a strategy and marketing platform that will be less about a singular event and more about a movement."

FedEx also said it will not advertise again in the Super Bowl due to costs, the same reason the company gave for sitting it out this year.