Pepsi “King’s Court”

All throughout the first season of The X-Factor, Simon Cowell’s American Idol surrogate show, one of the prizes dangled before the eager contestants was the opportunity to appear in Pepsi’s upcoming Super Bowl ad. (The $5M recording contract was a motivator too, no doubt.) Starring in a Pepsi commercial, the aspiring singers were promised, would grant them immediate entry into an elite group of musicians that includes Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, and Kanye West.
Now that the big day is upon us, and in a postmodern twist, the Pepsi ad acknowledges the X-Factor connection by having the show’s winner, Melanie Amaro, singing before a Simon Cowell-like king played by the Rocket Man himself, Sir Elton John. You may have to suffer through an unnecessary uptempo Aretha Franklin remix to get there, but this spot shows off what a $5M voice sounds like.

See the next spot.