“You could feel the energy in the air this week in Washington, D.C. It was positive, hopeful, and excited. It was constant and it was everywhere. Surprisingly enough, there were more participants this week than simply specators and politicians. These participants, of course, were advertisers.”
“

You could feel the energy in the air this week in Washington, D.C. It was positive, hopeful, and excited. It was constant and it was everywhere.

Surprisingly enough, there were more participants this week than simply specators and politicians. These participants, of course, were advertisers. The two biggest and most noticeable advertisers, who were predominate in the subway stations, were Pepsi and Ikea.

On one hand, its rather appaling that a soda company would latch on to a political movement of hope and excitement. On the other, I was relieved to see simple Pepsi ads that said only the words Joy or Hope. The letter ‘o’ was replaced by the Pepsi symbol, but nevertheless, the advertising did contribute to the environment.

And that was appreciated. These ads were much better that what would have been there in its place – sexist beer ads and condom ads without any class.

Ikea was different, however. They took ideas like educational reform and transformed them into advertisements for new bookcases. Change meant a new mattress. History meant making your old furniture into it.

So the conclusion is simple. Though the idea of mega-corporations taking our hope and joy and selling products with them, Ikea was undoubtedly more disgusting than Pepsi was.

Pepsi was also much more invasive than Ikea. There were Pepsi buttons, Pepsi scarves, Pepsi hats. But, coincidentally, Pepsi’s new logo does look awfully like Obama’s campaign logo. This allowed them to be much more invasive without being overwhelming or overbearing. It certainly felt like a celebration of Obama, not of Pepsi.

And, of course, it is hard to hold what was most likely a very succesful ad campaign against Ikea and Pepsi. If they can like their products to the hopes and dreams of the people in D.C. this weekend, well, they’ll sell a lot of soda. And bookcases. The current economic crisis has certainly affected bookcase sales, so perhaps this is a good thing. Business is good.

In the end, however, I still prefer Coke.

“