Coke’s Jab at Jackson May Pop the Top on Cola Wars : Superstar’s ‘Dehydration’ Triggers Bangkok Ad

A Coca-Cola ad in a Thailand newspaper that tweaks embattled singer Michael Jackson has irked executives at Pepsico and may heighten the international cola wars.

“Dehydrated?” poses the ad that ran Friday in Bangkok’s English-language newspapers. “There’s always Coke.”

Jackson’s spokesmen claimed the pop star was suffering from dehydration when he abruptly postponed two concerts earlier in the week, as Jackson faced unsubstantiated allegations that he had sexually molested a 13-year-old Los Angeles boy. On Friday, Jackson did perform in Bangkok’s sweltering heat before more than 60,000 screaming fans.

“I’d call the ad opportunistic,” said Ken Ross, a Pepsi spokesman. He declined to say if or how Pepsi might respond to the ad, which appeared only in Thailand.

“This was a onetime ad produced and run locally,” Coke spokeswoman Polly Howes said in a statement. “It was never intended to run more than once and there is no plan to use it again.”

The ad also drew criticism from the marketing industry.

“It’s callous and beneath the dignity of a great American corporation to take advantage of an entertainer on unsubstantiated charges,” said Larry Barton, director of the Center for Study of Crisis Management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “What this is really all about is the cola war that is raging in Asia, Europe and Russia.”

With domestic sales lagging, foreign markets are generally regarded as the key to growth for both Coke and Pepsi.

Meanwhile, a source close to Pepsi said the Los Angeles office of Kroll Associates, one of the nation’s premiere white-collar private investigative firms, has been hired by Pepsi to examine Jackson’s character, possibly as a prelude to canceling the tour and dropping Jackson as its spokesman.

Pepsi executives strongly denied that report. “We are absolutely not investigating Michael Jackson,” spokesman Ross said.

“We never comment on who we work for or what we are doing for them,” said Stephen Vale, a managing director at Kroll’s Los Angeles office.

Top marketing executives contend that unless much more concrete evidence surfaces on Jackson, Pepsi would be foolish to cancel his current international tour or drop him as a product endorser. Most big endorsement deals include morals clauses that permit companies to drop their association with celebrities who break the law.

“If they cancel this tour, they are saying this man is guilty,” said Joel Portugal, partner at the New York corporate consulting firm Anspach Grossman Portugal. “That’s not the American way of doing things.”

What’s more, Jackson could sue Pepsi if it dropped him without just cause, said UNLV’s Barton. “Just as Pepsi has a brand name to protect, so does Michael Jackson.”

In about three months--when the concert tour ends--Jackson’s estimated $7-million endorsement contract is set to expire. Pepsi has paid Jackson an estimated $20 million during its 10-year association with him.

“Jackson needs to speak out much more aggressively,” said Robert L. Dilenschneider, a top New York public relations consultant. “He’s got to stand up and exonerate himself.”

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