What is that in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a pla… Well, yes It is a plane, but this is actually one of Pepsi’s clever ways of advertisements during the 90’s.
BACKSTORY:
Pepsi decided that the companies logo had way too much red on it, which they thought looks way too similar than their arch nemesis, Coca Cola. So the OBVIOUS choice was to go with blue, since it is the opposite of red. BUT, Pepsi didn’t just want to change it without letting the world know, so you know what they did? LET THE WORLD KNOW!
They decided the best way to present this was starting something called “Project Blue”
Project Blue in Action:
Pepsi made a deal with Air France, and that deal was that Pepsi had permission take one of Air France’s 20 Concordes and repaint it blue with the Pepsi logo on it.
FUN FACT: The Concorde Pepsi got a hold of was one of the last Concordes ever made, which was built in 1978.
Once they got a hold of the beast, they planned a date, and hit the grindstone.
This major paint job was TOP SECRET, and was done in an Air France facility in Paris.
Once this paint job was done, which took many hours of hard work, it was flown (During night time to keep it secret) to London Heathrow, since Pepsi held the event in London.
The AD:
What’s the most 90’s thing you can think of? Whatever it was, it probably didn’t beat what Pepsi had done. They had supermodels roll up on motorcycles, as they rolled out the new Pepsi Concorde with many strobe lights and smoke machines.
(Here is what it looked like)
The event cost around 5 Million USD to produce! Pepsi’s Concorde was in service flying for about two weeks.
How it Affected Flying:
You may be thinking, PFFFFFT…. How can paint even change an aircraft’s flight dynamics in the slightest?! All it does is change the col… WRONG
The thing is, the paint that they had gone over was a special white paint that can withstand the hottest of temperatures, which was needed on the Concorde because when it is travelling at supersonic speeds, the nose can reach up to 260 degrees F, Or 127 degrees Celsius for you non-’Muricans ;)
but now that it is gone, they needed to go slower.
Although it didn’t affect much other than speed, it’s still amazes me how a different paintjob can change flying dynamics.
Aftermath:
Even though Pepsi did all this, spent ALL OF THIS MONEY… Coca Cola was still making 50% more than what Pepsi was making. Funny thing is, was that I was drinking Coke while typing this… Sorry Pepsi lovers…
So did this really help Pepsi? Probably not. But us Aviation Lovers have a good laugh at it.