Pepsi Cancels Television Ads for ‘Pepsi Stuff’

PepsiCo Inc. canceled several weeks of television advertising for its “Pepsi Stuff” campaign because awareness of the promotion spread more quickly than expected, Pepsi spokesman Brad Shaw said.

Through the promotion, which started in March, consumers can collect points when they buy Pepsi drinks and turn them in for clothing and accessories bearing the Pepsi name.

Purchase, N.Y.-based Pepsi still has plenty of “stuff” to go around in its largest-ever promotion, Shaw said.

“The awareness of Stuff is tracking even higher than awareness of Coke’s Olympics tie-in, so there’s no intention of slowing [our promotion] down,” he said.

Shaw wouldn’t say how much of the $125 million in merchandise Pepsi has given away. A Wall Street Journal report said demand for Pepsi Stuff may be outstripping supply.

The promotion helped May sales increase at their highest rate in five years, and the company will offer an additional 250 million Pepsi Stuff points in late July, Shaw said.

The promotion was modeled after Philip Morris Cos.’ promotion for its Marlboro cigarettes, which has spread the Marlboro brand name through T-shirts and travel sweepstakes since 1993.

Not all giveaways were as successful.

Maytag Corp. had to spend an extra $50 million in 1994 to pay for a Hoover vacuum cleaner promotion in Britain and Ireland that worked too well.

Thousands more customers than expected took advantage of the promotion that offered free international flights with vacuum purchases.