Well, that didn’t take long.
With Bridgestone bailing on the sponsorship of the Super Bowl halftime show, Pepsi has returned, according to Terry Lefton of SportsBusiness Journal.
Pepsi reportedly hopes to use the sponsorship to link “its sports and music platforms,” via what the marketing types call a “season long music and sports platform that could be leveraged at retail throughout the season and would culminate in the usual Super Bowl halftime appearance by a major musical act.”
In English, this apparently means that Pepsi and the halftime act and the NFL will work together to craft a multi-platform strategy for hyping the event, and along the way getting maximum exposure for the Pepsi brand.
For the privilege of sponsoring the Super Bowl halftime show — and, from the sound of it, having greater say in who the act will be — Lefton reports that Pepsi will pay “upward of” $7 million per year.
So if the speculation that Van Halen will be named the Super Bowl XLVII halftime act is accurate, count on David Lee Roth to invite viewers during the show to “have a Coke and a smile.”
A really creepy, weird smile.