Pepsi To Cease All Advertising... Now What?

Did you hear the news? Pepsi is putting an end to all of its advertising and marketing forever. No more movie product placements, no more billboards and no more commercials. And with no mention of a social media budget, they are basically shattering not only the traditional media stigma, but every stigma known to the marketing and advertising industry.

Ok. So that’s not entirely accurate. Though a crazy concept, that idea simply comes from the ever-satirical (and never serious) online newspaper, The Onion. The “news” story can be found here and is worth reading in its entirety, but, for now, it has inspired a serious discussion in the Deep Bench office and we’d love to hear your take on it.

What WOULD happen if Pepsi pulled its entire, $1.3 billion (yes, BILLION) marketing budget and stopped running ads? Would their sales and profits plummet to depths not even Alvin could reach in search of the Titanic? Would Pepsi’s sales merely remain consistent or only slightly below where they were before? Or would sales, by some strange phenomenon, skyrocket (and steadily maintain that skyrocketed…ness)?

The questions are nearly mind-boggling. In the event that sales plummeted, would companies increase their marketing/advertising budgets after seeing how important marketing is? If Pepsi’s sales remained the same as they’ve been, would companies take note and cut off high budget media buys and traditional media efforts knowing the sales don’t drop?

Other questions could also be discussed. Would social media fall into the $1.3 billion budget cut or would Pepsi be able to aim an unprecedented and unparalleled focus at the social media space? What chaos would that incite? Would it finally be an opportunity for PR pros to earn their proper respect by demonstrating the true power of weapons like free media coverage and word-of-mouth efforts?

Or would Pepsi simply fall off the face of the earth entirely, left to suffer the fates of OK Soda and Pepsi’s gone-but-never-forgotten offspring, Crystal Pepsi?

What do you think? Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below or join the discussion on our Facebook page. The topic is a fascinating one to us and we’d love to hear your insight on the concept.

Photo by laverrue.

This post was written by me and originally appeared on my work blog at www.thedeepbench.com.

Awesome look at AT&T's (accurate) predictions of the future...from 1993...

via core77.com

AT&T had some pretty solid foresight as to what the future would look like. Although, as Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada worded it on Twitter, "ATT predicts the future with remarkable accuracy 16 years ago, doesn't predict lousy coverage." So they do still have that issue to overcome.

This also reminds us of a post we did back in March (http://j.mp/1bIh5i) on Microsoft's vision for what they can achieve by 2019. As accurate as AT&T was with these predictions, hopefully Microsoft can pull it off too. Because Microsoft's predicted future looks amazing.

This post was originally posted by me on my work Posterous account at http://www.deepbench.posterous.com/.

AMAZING Photos From the Hubble Space Telescope

These pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope (or whatever its proper name is) are stunning. Therefore, I recommend you take a look at them. I'll also post one of the many brilliant and gorgeous images that you can click to get to the rest of the photos. They're all worth viewing. Fo realz. Enjoy...

Good Morning...

Don't know how many haters I actually have, but I love the sound and general message of this one from Cham.

I'll take a tattoo of a Captain America's shield – just for a week...

The questions to this plink are as follows: If I could get any tattoo for just a week, what would it be? Where would it be? Would you consider getting it permanently?

It's a good question. And I'm happy with my answer.

It's funny this is brought up, mostly because I thought about a tattoo no less than half an hour ago. Fact is, I'd never get one. Not that I have ANY problem with those who do, I just have no desire to do so. At all.

However, if I HAD to get a tattoo for just a week (or permanently), I'd get a very small replica of Captain America's shield, similar to the one in the included image. Captain America has always been a long-standing hero of mine and the shield symbolizes so much more (both personally and pop culturally) than so many options I could choose to slap on my body.

As to where I'd place it...that's a good question. I'd probably want to go with one of my pectoral muscles. That way, I wouldn't see it all the time or all day, but when I did see it, I'd stop and think about why it's there.

In my head and my heart (and the heads and hearts of many others), Captain America's shield is a sign of strength, courage, bravery, pride, and a true adoration for this country and what those before us have have done to fight for our freedom.

It's powerful. And all of that symbolism can be encapsulated in one small, striped shield with a star in the middle.

That's what I'd go with.

Are You Making The Most Of Now?

A few months ago I came across a song that made me stop and think. It’s not the greatest song ever, and it’s not the deepest song ever, but it has some thought-provoking lines and an upbeat tune, and sometimes that’s all it takes to rock my world.

Watch (or just listen to) this video. After that, I’ve got a question for you.

SUCH A TIME

My question is this: Do you make the most of every day?

In the first verse, Adams states,

“Some make it happen and they make the most, and some get shot down, forced to close…as long as I’ve got this breath to breathe, I’ve gotta get to livin’ my legacy…”

When you get to work on a Friday, is the above thought your mindset? Or is it simply a matter of “only a few more hours until the weekend?” When Monday rolls around, do you walk in the door to “live your legacy,” or are you simply hoping to survive the week?

The song’s title is “Such A Time.” The chorus simply states, “For such a time as this…right here, for such a time…”

This is a time when anybody with a blog or a Twitter account can change the world. So…will you take advantage of such a time as this, or simply spend your life “surviving each week?”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m doomed, I wanna give up, wanna go home soon… I lose my faith and jump off the track, don’t wanna wait I’d rather overreact now… Think ‘bout the next man and his joys and prize, and lose my voice and forfeit my pride…render me useless in a world of wax, but deep down I know I’m not all about that, no.”

I'm not really all about that either. How about you?

What do you do to keep your excitement and passion high? Is it the clients you work with, the projects you undertake, or simply the people you interact with on a daily basis? I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback, so leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter.

NOTE: This post was originally posted on my work blog at www.thedeepbench.com.

-Mike

Via Plinky: What I just found in my backyard that I'm so excited about...(though 'tis only a dream...)

My latest plink on a prompt that took me about 1.2 seconds to answer and needed no revisions whatsoever. My happiness and joy in its purest form, with no hesitation.

Marvel comic books. Old ones. From the 60s and 70s. A whole stash of them, buried in some kids 7th grade time capsule and clearly long-since forgotten. It's filled with various copies of early Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Avengers comics from a time when comics were pure and characters were being shaped and molded into the eternally-living icons they have now become. Heroes at a time when the world needed heroes, and humans at a time when heroes needed a touch of humanity. The wonder and awe of my childhood wrapped into the yellowing pages of modern mythology.



They may not be metal themselves, but I'm glad that kid left them in a metal container. Good work, little metal detector...