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About three years ago, Pepsi started a campaign called Uncle Drew where NBA superstar Kyrie Irving takes the persona of an elderly man who goes to different parks to "school" people in the game of basketball.
The whole campaign is extremely entertaining and clever because it appeals to both younger and older audiences who watch basketball. In the beginning, Uncle Drew (an old man himself) refers to players such as Oscar Robertson around the 1960's and 1970's. The pickup game also takes place on an old playground with wood baskets. The campaign is using nostalgia to attract older viewers who can better identify with playground courts and old NBA legends who appreciate basketball because it was a game of skill not a game of athleticism. The ad also sends the message that older generations can be cool just like younger generations. The ad appeals to a younger crowd because everyone else in the ad is around their 20's-30's, including the players and those watching the pickup game.
Throughout the four different episodes, they feature other NBA and WNBA players dressed up as elderly people. It was pretty cool to see these players that I watch currently (I won't spoil who appears).
The whole campaign follows a simple plot: Uncle Drew is trying to find his fellow high school teammates and put the team back together. What is most interesting to me about the whole plot is Uncle Drew constantly saying the most important thing about basketball is "getting buckets"(It basically means scoring). However, this basketball slang term has a pretty huge effect on the younger generation of basketball players. A bit after the first episode came out, I would constantly hear from kids wanting to "get buckets." After paying more attention to the commercials, I realized Pepsi pretty much created this term and it somewhat went viral throughout the basketball community.
When I first watched this about three years ago, I believed that the people in the audience were real and not actors. Now, I am pretty skeptical that this is true. One peculiarity is that the plot is so interesting and the filming is so well done I lost sight of what the commercial is about. My dad also loves the commercials, I asked my dad yesterday what product the ad was trying to sell, and he had no idea. This is because he became so engrossed in the ad. This is great for the viewer, but I am not sure it is the best way to sell Pepsi Zero.
Wow, these were funny. I agree with you about the appeal of the ad, it is to both old and young basketball fans. I don't think the audience were real professional actors. No doubt some of them were paid to be drinking Pepsi and hype up whats going on but some of the crowd were blurred out, which lead me to believe they weren't aware of what was really going on and didn't want to be in the ad after they learned what it was. The subtle messages you get from seeing Pepsi as part of the fun atmosphere I thought were pretty effective, but I do agree it may not be the best advertising technique.
ReplyDeleteI agree with McKinley in that people were paid to be there drinking Pepsi Max to get some product placement in their own ad. I don't think a basketball court would just have a bunch of nicely dressed people drinking soda.
ReplyDeleteOh! I never looked at the marketing campaign this way. This is really interesting and is unconsciously attracting youth as well as older generation towards the sport as well as pepsi.
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