Pepsi MAX - Jeff Gordon - Test Drive (2013) 3:45 (USA)

Overheard at the town square of hip California ad agency offices: "Guys, guys, remember when old "Uncle Drew" joined a game and it turned out he was Kyrie Irving in disguise? Yeah? Was that us?" "No man that was Charlie Brown or something, some PR, something." "You mean Davie Brown Entertainment?" "Yeah, them. Why didn't we do that?"

Many grumbling meetings later, triumphantly the Pepsi team rejoices that they too get to do a viral clip. What do they do? They dress up superstar NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon as an older man and have him scare the crap out of a supposedly unsuspecting Chevy car salesman. It gets pretty funny at the 2:50 mark where you can practically hear the Chevy dealers heart stop for a second, but that' also where I start to suspect this isn't as spontaneous as it may seem. The street-cam getting splashed at 2:27? Yeah there's a few too many great shots in this.. and would Pepsi really risk a heart attack in a slightly pudgy middle aged Chevy dealer just to make a viral ad? The Legal department would like to throw a bucket of cold water on this idea.

Oh, I am sorry, I misspelled "staged!" which is the new "Fake!" in youtube comments, you know. This is the same basic idea as Uncle Drew, just a tad meaner and also impossible to actually pull off in real life without risking lawsuits and/or heart attacks. There's a difference between getting humiliated in a friendly game by an old man, and risking your life in a car driven by one.

Pepsi MAX
TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles