Quick, somebody call up the Bad Idea Jeans company. 

I bring you, dear reader, the state of Diet Pensacola.

According to Pepsi, 56 percent of diet cola drinkers prefer Diet Pepsi over Diet Coke (not a super-impressive advantage to begin with), and worked with ad agency BBD&O to launch a campaign about the need for 56 states. Get it? 56 and 56? Nyuk nyuk. 

The state of Diet Pensacola will, apparently, span the west coast of Florida, which is a shame because I was hoping that Tampa could become Tampax and Ft. Myers could become Ft. Oscar Meyers. Ah well. 

Tom Groth, a professor of advertising at the University of West Florida, is quoted as saying that the association of Pepsi-Cola with Pensacola will give the city a “hipper, youthful image.”  Ellis Bullock III, president of a Pensacola advertising agency, says the TV ad puts Pensacola on the map as a key Florida destination. 

Really? Will Pepsi flow from the faucets there? Will Pepsi baths (who needs a Jacuzzi when there’s that much natural carbonation) become all the rage? Will anything about Pensacola really change or be changed? I guess I don’t see how an association with an insecure soda brand make a place seem better. Or cooler. Or anything, really, other than a bad pun. As a lover of puns, I find this one excruciating.  

Ad campaigns like this seem desperate to me. They also are insulting, as if the corporations believe consumers are just going to fall for this stuff and say, “You know what, honey? I don’t want to go to Bali this year. I would much rather visit Diet Pensacola because it has all the taste but none of the calories of regular Pensacola.” 

Yeah. Not so much. What are ad execs thinking these days? 

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