Related Articles
Soda manufacturer Pepsi is getting into the content game and has announced it will be launching Cherries Wild, a new game show slated to debut February 14 on Fox. Created by Wes Kauble (Beat Shazam) and hosted by Jason Biggs (American Pie), “this fast-paced half-hour game show will feature two rounds of pop-culture trivia gameplay.” According to the show’s official site, contestants will spin wheels to “attempt to capture all five wild cherries to win” the $250,000 jackpot.
“Consumers are in control more than ever,” Todd Kaplan, vice president of marketing at Pepsi told Variety. “They have skip buttons. They can DVR-fast-forward. They can pay to eliminate ads with a subscription… the concept of interrupting content with your message has serious limitations. As fans are consuming, they don’t want to be interrupted.”
And so, Pepsi is apparently trying to get in front of fans who won’t watch ads, and maybe won’t notice they’re watching a show with Pepsi branding influencing the set design, colors, and even “the shape of the buttons contestants press.” Even more explicitly, reportedly each episode will feature a “Pepsi Wild Moment” when a slot machine appears to “go haywire… and will serve as a prod for viewers to play at home.” Wild.
Executive vice president of ad sales for Fox Entertainment Suzanne Sullivan also told Variety that the show’s commercial breaks will be “free from ads from rival soft drinks.”
Previously, Fox and Pepsi had collaborated on a Pepsi-inspired storyline in the popular drama Empire, a three-week storyline where one of the characters nabs “an all-important commercial endorsement from Pepsi.”
