Pepsi Takes the Super Bowl Spotlight, Redefining the Cola Wars with a Bold Brand Play

• Feb 2, 2026

As the world gears up for Super Bowl LX on Sunday, February 8, 2026 with kickoff at approximately 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, Pepsi has already claimed centre stage in the cultural conversation. At advertising’s most watched event, the beverage giant has engineered a campaign that doesn’t just promote a product, but strategically reframes its brand narrative and reignites a historic rivalry.

At the heart of Pepsi’s Super Bowl campaign is its headline commercial, “The Choice,” directed by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Taika Waititi. The 30-second spot revives the iconic Pepsi Challenge, a blind taste test format first popularised in the 1970s and places it at the centre of a playful, culturally resonant story. In the ad, a cola-loving polar bear, long synonymous with Coca-Cola’s marketing is blindfolded and asked to taste Pepsi Zero Sugar and Coke Zero Sugar. When the bear confidently selects Pepsi, it triggers a humorous identity crisis that unfolds into a whimsical journey of self-discovery, complete with a therapy session led by Waititi himself and a concert scene echoing a widely discussed viral Coldplay “kiss-cam” moment.

Set to Queen’s iconic “I Want to Break Free,” the narrative turns what could have been a simple product comparison into a memorable cultural moment that blends nostalgia, humour and pop-culture resonance. The creative choice to spotlight Pepsi Zero Sugar reinforces Pepsi’s positioning as a modern, taste-led challenger amid shifting consumer preferences toward zero-sugar beverages.

Pepsi’s approach at Super Bowl LX goes beyond traditional advertising, the campaign is a meticulously engineered moment in brand positioning. By resurrecting the Pepsi Challenge on this global stage, Pepsi taps into decades of brand heritage while boldly confronting Coca-Cola’s iconic imagery. The clever use of Coca-Cola’s polar bear mascot, repurposed here not as a holiday symbol but as the unsuspecting hero of Pepsi’s narrative, creates cultural buzz and sparks conversation in a way that simple product messaging rarely does.

This strategy reflects Pepsi’s broader positioning ambitions: to align with consumers who value choice, authenticity and cultural relevance. By emphasising taste superiority through “The Pepsi Paradox”,  the idea that when labels and bias disappear, preference for Pepsi emerges, the brand not only asserts confidence in its product but also reinforces a narrative of empowerment and self-discovery that resonates beyond the soda aisle.

The campaign’s impact is designed to extend far beyond the broadcast. Pepsi’s Super Bowl activation includes digital teasers, social media amplification and widespread media coverage, generating early buzz that has already moved markets with PepsiCo’s stock climbing ahead of earnings week, in part attributed to the campaign lift.

In a crowded field of Super Bowl advertisers, Pepsi’s work stands out not just for its creativity, but for its strategic intelligence. It demonstrates how a legacy brand can leverage heritage, cultural moments and bold competitive positioning to capture attention on the world’s biggest advertising stage, proving that in the Super Bowl of brand battles, smart storytelling is often the biggest win of all.