Pepsi’s Christmas campaign dwells on what’s really important

At Christmas time, offices, libraries and fitness clubs become ghost towns as people focus on the more important things in life, like family, food and fun. And Pepsi’s latest ad celebrated this annual shift.

Pepsi's 2024 holiday campaign, ‘Everything Else Can Wait. It's Christmas After All’ was created by PepsiCo’s in-house agency, Sips & Bites, and produced by Outsider. It encourages audiences to embrace the festive spirit by putting aside life's mundane responsibilities. The campaign features a mix of traditional and digital media formats across 29 markets.

Directed by the team at Outsider, the 60-second ad pans around scenes of empty offices, gyms, and libraries as the tagline suggests that joy and togetherness should take precedence over work, workouts, and studies.

It concludes with families and friends gathered at home, enjoying the season with cans of Pepsi Max, as a modern rendition of ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ by British artist Poppy Ajudha, erupts into a more joyful segment.

The campaign extends beyond TV to digital platforms, out-of-home (OOH) ads, and experiential events, including a pop-up in London offering festive-themed games and giveaways.

This festive effort underscores Pepsi Max's ethos of being "thirsty for more" by celebrating the spirit of prioritising joy during the holidays.

Our take

Complete with seductive shots of droplet-covered cans of fizzy beverage, and multicultural/multigenerational holiday togetherness, Pepsi’s advert cleverly highlights the USP of Christmas time by contrasting it with scenes of dutiful day-to-day mundanities.

There’s a warm festive glow to the production, and a well-timed and familiar bit of music underscoring it all. We also like how the slower, humorously drab scenes of offices and libraries take on a comically oppressive air before the fast-cut group bonding and partying scenes take hold.

In a year when its rival, Coca-Cola puts out an AI advert, we reckon this very human offering will win out in the hearts of holiday viewers.