Pepsi on “Empire”: Coolest. Sponsor. Integration. Ever.

The result was all good and left me ready for more Even better it made perfect sense given Pepsiamp8217s history with popular music and the business in which amp8220Empireamp8221 is setNear the beginning of this weekamp8217s episode we saw a meeting in the Empire Entertainmentamp160boardroom between label chief Lucious Lyon Terrence Howard his talented son Jamal Jussie Smollett pictured at top various Empire executives and representatives from PepsiThe latter were there to show Jamal a video they had produced in which he was featured and to let him know that he was one of 11 artists that currently had a shot at becoming the face of Pepsi The final choice would come down to which artists submitted the best songamp8220Thatamp8217s incredibleamp8221 Jamal enthused after watching the videoamp8220It comes from a passionate commitment Jamalamp8221 a Pepsi person replied amp8220Music is part of Pepsiamp8217s DNAamp160We have a long history of getting behind emerging artists and partnering with iconic starsquotPredictably Luciousamp8217 reaction was somewhat different Upon learning that Pepsi had approached ten other musical performers about competing foramp160the coveted positionamp160he growled amp8220Oh my God Thatamp8217s a damn cattle callamp8221 Jamal told his dad to chill then told the Pepsi people he would be honored to submit a song for their considerationIn subsequent scenes we saw Jamal working on a song with Lucious and getting advice from his bombastic mother Cookie Taraji P Henson Lucious and Cookie quarreled throughout Jamal incorporated ideas from them both into his song and the Pepsi people loved what they heard ultimately selecting Jamal as their new spokespersonJamal will film his first Pepsi commercial during next weekamp8217s episode which will feature amp8220Empireamp8221 creator Lee Daniels playing himself as the director of the spot The following week the commercial will transition from a part of the showamp8217s narrative to a reallife Pepsi ad that will debut during the telecast of amp8220Empireamp8221 Smollett Daniels and Howard are pictured below in a scene from next week39s showItamp8217s a megameta media moment Jussie Smollett as Jamal Lyon will become an actual Pepsi spokespersonperformer a popculture distinction that dates back all the way to Michael Jackson in the amp821680sPlainly Pepsi39s integration is very specific to the business against which amp8220Empireamp8221 is set But it is one of the more advanced examples of narrative friendly sponsor integration to come along in quite a while As such it represents a challenge to all advertisersupported networks to find new ways of protecting their business model as technology continues to enable consumers to compromise commercial messagesamp160It may feel like a return of sorts to the television business of the amp821650s when the overt involvement of advertisers in network content was a given and was generally accepted as part of the viewing experience But as Fox has proven with amp8220Empireamp8221 and Pepsi that need not be a bad thingIt simply calls for some exciting brainpower Fox has taken the lead here Whoamp8217s nextThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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Pepsi on “Empire”: Coolest. Sponsor. Integration. Ever.

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Ed Martin

We Are the Outliers - By Jack Myers

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Pepsi on “Empire”: Coolest. Sponsor. Integration. Ever.

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Ed Martin

We Are the Outliers - By Jack Myers

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