More commercial-inspired thought...

Right now there's an add for diet pepsi featuring Lovin' Spoonful's "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" (thank you AdTunes.com) wherein a Diet Pepsi and a Diet Coke machine are placed side by side, and the coke machine is continuously getting replaced. The commercial is neither bad nor good, a little infuriating perhaps because coke is so much better than pepsi, but it lead me to think of this: When I was growing up, neither coke nor pepsi could use the other's copyrighted imagery in their ads. They had to design their own laughable facsimiles that were close enough so that everyone knew what they meant, but that left some room for ambigouity. This, in a sense, was an entire dimension of the art, and an appreciable factor in the commercial's production quality, albeit one that was taken for granted. Now that it's gone, gosh, is it gone. Will our children's children ever know the glory that was a mock-up prop can labelled "Pipsi", "CooCoo Cola" or the simple classic, "Generic Soda"?


The nostalgia for prop soda cans of days past really wasn't where I meant to go with this. One should never underestimate the cathartic quality of the creative process.


What I did intend to do was to pose this question: Was this some sort of shift in the international copyright law, or is this a change of contract between Coke and Pepsi. Was there a meeting over this?

Coke Guy: So, you've called us here today to the Pepsi Corporate Offices, and I think you know by now that we're more than a little curious as to why.
Pepsi Demon: Mmm, indeed. You want to know why we've called you here to beautiful downtown Tartarus...mwah hahaha.
Coke: Get to it already, Mr. Beelzebub. I want to get home to see my wife and kids.
Pepsi: Indeed. Well, our research shows that consumers are taking our mock-up prop cans for granted. Furthermore, we've found that we can do far more damage to each other's profits if we are allowed to show the actual product which we are slandering.
Coke: Agreed. Our market studies have shown that certain southern states have a high number of people confused about "Pipsi."
Pepsi: So then, it's all fair game from now on? Mmmm?
Coke: Yessir. All's fair in love and brand wars.
Pepsi: Excellent.

Hmmm....*ending pending...ha! that rhymes*

For now...on with it.