The Pepsi Generation

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There were so many disparate movements at work in the 1960s, all converging to define what we now know to be the culture of the era: The youth movement, the hippies, the Civil Rights movement, mod fashions, and of course the dominant culture of the decade fought to preserve the status quo.

Pepsi was obviously a progressive company at the time and knew to appeal to both the teen/youth and Black demographics.

The two ads below were jarring to find. The blocking is nearly IDENTICAL; the ads were probably shot on the same day with the white models and black models shooting one right after the other. That practice is not unheard of (clip in the preceding link from the 1970 movie The Phynx). It's why today there are McDonald's commercials for every target market today.

The two ads above both ran in 1965 - the African-American version in Ebony magazine and the other in more mainstreamed publications.

In either set of ads, it's easy to tell that Pepsi was playing to younger potential customers and selling a lifestyle along with their product. The buttoned-up conservatism of the 1950s was on the way out and the free-wheeling 1960s dictated the way corporations marketed to consumers.

Here are a few Pepsi Generation television commercials from the mid and late 1960s to take a gander at:

And this hilarious article from 1965 demonstrates the pejorative use of the term "Pepsi Generation" as a tongue-in-cheek way to describe restless and delinquent youths.

Click HERE to enlarge.

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For Those Who Think Young

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Mad Men is far and away my favorite show on television. A season two episode, called "For Those Who Think Young" featured the copywriters at the fictional 1960s advertising agency Sterling Cooper struggling to come up with ideas to market Pepsi to the under 25 demographic.

"No one under 25 drinks coffee anymore... Just Pepsi. They pour it on their Frosted Flakes."

That was clearly hyperbole, but unsurprisingly, Mad Men remained completely authentic to the era with the title and subject matter of the episode. Pepsi, in the early 1960s ran ads containing the copy "now it's Pepsi - for those who think young".

Of course, the Pepsi print ads and commericals were very mainstreamed, but in magazines like Ebony, Jet, and Sepia, and local dailies like the Chicago Defender, ran complimentary ads featuring models of color.

I like that Pepsi didn't define too rigidly what it meant to think young. It could have been a day with your children, your significant other, on campus, at the park....

And here is the original "For those who think young" commercial from the 1960s.

And, of course, the contemporary Britney Spears reboot. What's interesting is that Britney does a medley of Pepsi jingles from the 1960s, including the Pepsi Generation ads, of which I have several featuring African American models from Black publications. I'll save those for another day and give them their own post.

Here are some other Pepsi "For Those Who Think Young" ads to compare to the ones above. Frankly, I like them all!

Thanks for reading!

Up next: Part 3 in the vintage Black weddings series featuring photos of African American weddings from the late 1950s, vintage 1960s Firestone ads, and clips and screencaps from Why Do Fools Fall in Love?. (Halle Berry looks great in vintage, by the way. Her wardrobe in that movie was AMAZING!)

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Vintage Pepsi ads from 1959-1960

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THE SOCIABLES prefer Pepsi. Or so Ebony Magazine circa 1960 wanted us to think.

In marketing, the aspirational will always be the most desirable. Find out what your target audience's goals are and position your product as the talisman that will help them attain those goals. It might literally be the oldest trick in the book.

These ads ARE arresting, you must admit. Looks like a good time!

More about this blog and b.vikki vintage:

This blog will feature advertising campaigns and fashion editorials from Black/African-American publications, video clips, found photographs, etc from the 1950s-1960s, as well as product descriptions and pictures of vintage pieces I will have for sale at my etsy.com shop (coming soon).

Among the items available for purchase will be dresses, skirts, cardigans, shoes, bags, jewelry, and occasionally hats from the 1950s-1960s or fashioned in the style of that era.

I've loved vintage fashion for some time, and did lots of research before deciding to open a vintage etsy shop and start this blog, because I wanted to do it right. Something I noticed during my research, something that helped me to cement my decision, was the lack of women of color in the online vintage community.

So, not only will I be selling vintage clothing, the pictures I post here, of beautiful women of color from the 1950s and 1960s, will give some idea of what we truly wore then.

Thanks for reading. Updates coming soon!

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