{"id":3985,"date":"2022-07-03T12:13:55","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T06:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlykutts.com\/?p=3985"},"modified":"2022-07-06T08:47:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T03:17:14","slug":"iconic-ads-pepsi-cindy-crawford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlykutts.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/03\/iconic-ads-pepsi-cindy-crawford\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Ads: Pepsi – Cindy Crawford (& the Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi spinoffs)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lee Garfinkel remembers how one idea inspired a series for 3 different brands.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of an innocent kid watching a sexy fashion model or actress drink a Pepsi started out as a vehicle for a Pepsi tie-in with Macaulay Culkin and Home Alone 2. The original idea was to have Macaulay spellbound by either Claudia Schiffer or Kim Basinger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to sell the concept to the Culkin family and his agent, I had to act the commercial out, playing the roles of both Macaulay and Claudia Schiffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I presented it, Macaulay\u2019s agent, the world-famous Sam Cohen, stared at me and said, “that was too sexy, you can\u2019t have Macaulay look at such a sexy woman.” I said, “that was just me acting as a sexy model, just to give you an idea of how the commercial could work.” “No, too sexy. We can\u2019t do that commercial.” So I filed the basic idea away and did a different commercial for Macaulay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months later, Don Schneider and I got the assignment to do a Super Bowl commercial for a new redesigned Pepsi and Diet Pepsi bottle and can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought “who cares about a new label design? What can we do to make it fun and create some talk value.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when I remembered the Macaulay Culkin script. I thought it would actually work better with two real kids watching a model rather than a famous child actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea evolved into two little boys, somewhat like the kids in the famous Little Rascal movie shorts of the 1930s. In a classic Little Rascals film, the kids are mesmerized by a new sexy teacher and just stare at her with their mouths open. I thought that the Little Rascals performance was kind of timeless and would work for this spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we needed a great song and a sexy actress or model. The song I used to act out the commercial was “Just One Look”, and I got so used to hearing it in my head that I just knew it had to be that song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the choice of an actress, I wasn\u2019t sure anymore who it should be until I went into a pharmacy with my wife and saw a Cindy Crawford calendar. I asked my wife, “what do you think if we could get Cindy for the Pepsi spot?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She shook her head, “I don\u2019t think so.”  Which I interpreted as, “She\u2019s too sexy, I don\u2019t want you spending time with her.” I thought that meant she would be perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepsi was able to get Cindy and “Just One Look”. And then we hired Joe Pytka to direct. Joe and I had done several Pepsi commercials together and had a fairly good relationship. I\u2019m pretty sure Joe added the Lamborghini to the commercial. I don\u2019t remember if we originally had a limo or a sports car. But it turned out that the Lamborghini driving up was a perfect way to get the kids’ and the viewers’ attention. And then we grab their attention even more as Cindy gets out and walks to the Pepsi machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only slight disagreement I had with Joe was the facial expressions and performance of the boys. I had the Little Rascals in my head. Joe thought it would be corny and that we should play it straighter. We shot it both ways, and I think we got good performances that were real and funny at the same time. A slightly more realistic version of the Little Rascals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editing the spot was intense. We really cut that commercial frame by frame because the addition or subtraction of even one frame would make Cindy sexier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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