Coca-Cola 'Drink in America': A Celebration for America's 250th

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000

America’s 250th birthday arrives in 2026 in a cultural moment defined less by consensus celebration than by argument about what America is and who gets to claim it. Coca-Cola, which has spent decades being one of the most explicit carriers of American soft-power symbolism, chose to enter that moment with a campaign called “Drink in America” — a phrase operating simultaneously as product imperative and cultural instruction.

The Double Meaning

“Drink in America” is doing two things with the word “drink.” The first is the obvious one — Coca-Cola is a drink, and the campaign is about drinking Coca-Cola. The second is the invitation to drink in America as a scene, an experience, a thing to absorb rather than observe from a distance: “drink it in,” the way you drink in a view or a moment.

Pepsi 'The Choice': Taika Waititi Sends the Polar Bear to a Rival

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Comparative advertising is one of the oldest tools in the category playbook and one of the most dangerous. Done poorly, it elevates the competitor by naming them. Done well, it takes an icon belonging to the rival and makes it yours. Pepsi’s Super Bowl LX spot, directed by Taika Waititi, does the second thing — and does it with the Coca-Cola polar bear.

The Concept

“The Choice” opens on an unmistakable image: the Coca-Cola polar bear, the icon of the rival brand’s Christmas advertising since 1993. In a blind taste test, the bear chooses Pepsi Zero Sugar. The reveal triggers an existential crisis. The bear wanders, displaced, through a journey of self-discovery that ends with it choosing its own identity — and Pepsi.

Coca-Cola on Inside That Ad

Coca-Cola 'Drink in America': A Celebration for America's 250th

The Double Meaning

Pepsi 'The Choice': Taika Waititi Sends the Polar Bear to a Rival

The Concept