Now Pepsi's place is in your face, kid; Media and Marketing (London) Times/Sunday Times (c) 1996 Times Newspapers. All rts. reserv. 08639225 Now Pepsi's place is in your face, kid; Media and Marketing Times of London (TL) - Wednesday, January 25, 1995 By: Alan Mitchell Section: Features Word Count: 670 TEXT: In the continuing 'cola wars', Pepsi is striving hard to match its better-known rival. A "global roadblock" of advertising begins next weekend as Pepsi goes global in the cola wars for the first time. A raft of 17 new commercials, including two featuring Cindy Crawford, the brand's new celebrity, will reach 300 million consumers in 30 countries as Pepsi tries to repeat its success in America where Coke once outsold Pepsi three to one but is now neck and neck. There, the famous Pepsi "taste challenge", together with "advertising that blasts through the clutter to grab consumers and hold on to them", really convinced America to join the Pepsi generation, says Larry McIntosh, Pepsi's advertising supremo. Now, he hopes, the rest of us will follow. He has got a long way to go. In Europe Coke still outsells Pepsi three to one, and in 1993 (latest figures) only 5.6 per cent of Pepsi's profits came from international drink sales, compared with 78.7 per cent of Coca Cola's. While everyone has heard of Pepsi and knows what it is, there is still an obstacle, admits John Swanhaus, Pepsi's international vice-president for marketing: nobody needs it.Water is better for people, fruit juice is more nutritious, whisky packs a bigger punch. So the only way to sell colas is to offer convenient, good value, quality products "genuine innovation" "and surround it all with in-your-face excitement". One example of innovation is Pepsi Max, a diet cola sold as a tough young guy's drink and "the single most important new product in Pepsi's history", according to Wayne Mailloux, president of Pepsi-Cola International's Europe Division. Its secret ingredient? In-your-face advertising (of course), plus an artificial sweetener called acesulfame-K (manufactured by Hoechst AG, the German chemical company) that avoids the tell-tale "diet" taste of diet colas. Pepsi Max could soon be the third-biggest cola brand in the world, says Mr Swanhaus. More "breakthrough products" including Atlantis (a mineral water), Miranda (an orange drink), and LiptonIce (an iced tea sold through a joint venture with Unilever) are on their way, he promises. But what about Pepsi's new, global in-your-face advertising? It includes a commercial showing the all-American Cindy Crawford sacrilegiously staining her beauty by wearing braces on her teeth, young men jumping off sheer cliffs and "living life to the Max", and a few ads which might just run foul of comparative advertising laws by suggesting that a depicted can of Coca Cola is the older generation's drink. There is also a gaggle of teenagers frolicking in a waterfall and a voice-over going on about being "nothing but real". This new slogan for 7Up will, the company hopes, gain 7Up the global "megabrand" status it deserves. It provides the link between 7Up's "key product attributes (clear, not artificial, natural and refreshing) and important teen motivations (to be myself, to be with my friends and to do my own thing)", gushes the blurb. "Teens don't want to be clones. They aren't sold on glitz. They want what's real and genuine," it continues. Yet behind all this glitzed genuineness, there's hard commercial calculation. Pepsi's expansion plans are threatened by new competitors like Sainsbury's Classic and Virgin Cola, which are cutting the ground from under its feet. In countries like the UK, Pepsi has had to cut its prices to keep sales up, admits Mr Mailloux. But on the plus side, every 1 per cent of market share Pepsi gains in Europe translates into $200 million worth of sales, he points out. To gain extra revenues like this, over the past five years Pepsi has spent $2 billion developing its international bottling and distribution network. So what about all that hype? "We always position it as cola wars, because as a matter of fact, 'the cola wars' are good for the soft drinks business," admits Mr Swanhaus. " It's really a strategy that gets attention. Consumers are interested in it and both brands are able to grow."