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Pepsi, Pepsi, No Coke!

According to the Hollywood Reporter, After a decade, Pepsi has announced it will no longer sponsor the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The soft drink giant plans to focus spending in digital, as broadcast TV audiences continue to dwindle. Pepsi bought the rights in 2012 as part of a marketing deal worth over $2 billion. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/pepsi-super-bowl-halftime-show-new-nfl-sponsor-1235153393/

On March 18, 2002, the Pepsi World Cup-themed commercial featuring Britney Spears was posted online. It featured the song Right Now (Taste the Victory), originally released in 2001 as part of the promo single Ask for More. The video was directed by Wayne Isham (I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman, Piece of Me) and choreographed by Wade Robson, while the photoshoot was done by David Leslie Anthony. It was recorded on January 2002. A special DVD edition of the album Britney contained a clip of the song made up of behind the scenes footage: Thanks to Britney-Online for the clips. Regarding the song, Joshua Schwartz talked on The Original Doll podcast about the process of creating it along with Brian K and Steve Lunt. You can check that out here.

On February 03, 2002, during the Super Bowl XXXVI, Britney Spears' commercial for Pepsi titled Now and Then (or also known as Pepsi Generations) was first aired during the first quarter of the game. It features Britney in different eras of pop culture, from the 1950s through to the 1980s, and then jumps to the 2000's with an updated version of the Joy of Pepsi song. It was created by BBDO New York, Pepsi's long-standing advertising agency. Through Yahoo!, web users were able to choose their favorite "generation" from the first ad, and it was turned into a 30 seconds isolated ad, which aired during the fourth quarter of the game. In 2018, Britney Spears talked about it for People magazine: At the time, the commercial broke the Record Guinness for Most expensive advertising campaign on television, at $90,000 per second.

On January 26, 2004, the premiere of Pepsi's Gladiator commercial took place in London. The ad was filmed at the Coliseum in Rome and featured Britney Spears, Beyoncé and Pink as gladiators who perform a new version of Queen's classic We Will Rock You. Enrique Iglesias played the role of the evil emperor, and Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen also made cameo appearances. Brian May said about the commercial: "I will die happy, I think in the end, it will be a good piece of art. There is more money and more talent per second in an ad than in anything else. It was incredible to work with the three of them, and hear the song come to life in a new way. Freddie would definitely have enjoyed it". Britney said about this collaboration: "It's amazing to work with artists like Pink and Beyoncé. It's really, really cool. You want to pinch yourself. This was a thrill beyond belief." Several promo singles were released featuring the track from the commercial, plus some songs by the three divas and Enrique. The general one featured: We Will Rock You (Pepsi "Gladiators" Sound Track Remix) - Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Pink Trouble - Pink Me, Myself & I (Remix) (Grizz's Main Mix) - Beyoncé Me Against the Music (Remix) (Dragon Man Mix) - Britney Spears Addicted (Remix) - Enrique Iglesias Sky Away - Solange Everything You Want -JC Behind the Scenes And then there were the Britney Exclusive, Beyoncé Exclusive and Pink Exclusive promo CD's