The King of Pop
On Thursday, June 25, 2009 the world of pop culture received a jolt of massive proportions as its king, Michael Jackson, passed away. Since then the entire world has been consumed with the sudden death of a mega superstar and everywhere you look people are discussing his immense impact on the world. He was the most successful musician of all time and sold reportedly more than 750 million albums worldwide. To put that in perspective, he sold one album to 11.82% of the world’s 6.7 billion person population. It is simply amazing how he impacted the culture of our world and it was astonishing to watch his fall from superstar to superfreak. Jackson is going to be remembered for many things from music, to almost dropping his child from a balcony, to his impact on the advertising industry.
In 1984, PepsiCo singed ultra-cool Mr. Jackson to a then-record $5 million sponsorship deal. It was a deal unlike any other out there in advertising and helped pave the way for the commercials of today. Back in 1984, the entertainment world frowned upon celebrity endorsements as many in Hollywood thought the practice was ridiculous, but that all changed when the King of pop agreed to promote Pepsi soda pop. Jackson did not just want to make an appearance in the commercial and collect a hefty fee; he wanted to contribute in the creative development of the spot as well.
MJ upon meeting with the advertising executives at Pepsi, refused to use a pre-developed jingle and instead developed his own campaign idea. He reworded his hit song at the time “Billie Jean” to feature lyrics about Pepsi. The spot which features a little boy who unexpectedly bounces into Jackson on the street while imitating his dancing can be viewed here. An interesting side note on this advertisement is that the little boy in the ad is none other than Alfonso Riberiro, better known as Carlton Banks from the hit television show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. For as long as I can remember controversy has always followed Michael Jackson and his work with Pepsi was no exception. One day in 1984, while filming a different Pepsi commercial with his brothers, his hair accidently caught on fire. News of the accident spread like wildfire throughout the country and Pepsi reaped the rewards as more people than ever paid attention to their brand and immensely popular advertising campaign.
Michael Jackson helped pave the way for Pepsi to have a number of large celebrity endorsers over the years including Michael J. Fox, Cindy Crawford and Britney Spears. In addition, he made it cool and acceptable for the biggest of stars to want to be in commercials, while helping to open a very important revenue stream to both the entertainment and advertising worlds. It will be impossible for another individual to be as big or large as Michael Jackson. He was an icon and currently is back on top. According to Nielsen, Jackson has sold 2.3 million digitally downloaded songs in less than 100 hours since his death, simply amazing.
Tags: Advertising, Michael Jackson, Pepsi
