The 'Pepsi'-tacular Pepsi world of 'PepsiMan' - Brought To You By The Good Folks at 'Pepsi'!

Alejandro L. Ruata
Feb 19, 2018
2 min read

Updated: Aug 17, 2020

'Pepsi Man', a successful advergame on the basis that its developers and sponsor (Pepsi... if you couldn't tell - it's very subtle like that) simply allowed themselves to go hog wild in associating the Pepsi brand (how many times will I type the word Pepsi today... who knows!) with fun, lighthearted, and on the nose entertainment. The game stars the titular Pepsiman running from one end of a level to another (4 levels total, divided into smaller chunks) spreading the joys of Pepsi to the good people of the world (the real world) - sometimes taking a swig himself, sometimes using it to put out fires... anything you can imagine possibly being done with Pepsi, it's done at some point (also an American trucker man pops up from time to time to gush over how super cool Pepsiman is). The game is very bare bones; not much plot, not much gameplay (a simple on rails runner where you avoid obstacles coming toward the screen at the player, occasionally the camera would change perspectives, throwing off control and forcing players to adapt or die)... because it simply doesn't need it! This game succeeds on the most important level a low budget game like this needed to succeed in... making Pepsi look fun and appealing to mass audiences. Even now people look at this... honestly bizarre video game with nothing but good humored laughter and fun commentary on the game and the product it was pushing (again, it was Pepsi... just in case you didn't get that).

To push a game like this today... really the only thing that would have to change would be the game content. Games are expensive nowadays, and as amazing as the marketing was for this game [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIpJ4tS_vM8 - seriously, these commercials complied are amazing!] by which I mean the marketing of the product through the Japanese Exclusive mascot (and by extension the advertising of the game itself), the game would need to be worth a consumers time of day. It would need replayability, possible add ons, an online community, etc.... basically, more than 4 levels that equate to less than an hour of hard gameplay.

[case in point - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C33Xo1hE9XE]

The game itself would need to be marketed; as I said, the product (Pepsi... in case you're still lost here) was what was marketed here, not the game. The legacy of this character and this era of the Japanese Pepsi brand would push units, to be sure - but hiring talented individuals like the creator of the following video will bring the wonders of Pepsiman to a world in desperate need of a true hero.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_9SsX7HJhE]

Long live the protector of Pepsi City (or whatever)! Long Live Pepsiman!!