“Well, this is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” singer Becky G declares in Mountain Dew’s Super Bowl ad.
She’s not wrong. The spot, which will air in the second quarter of the game, centers on Seal singing a rendition of his song “Kiss from a Rose,” except the lyrics are about Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Also, Seal appears in the form of an actual seal.
Through the spot, the PepsiCo brand, which is making its second Super Bowl appearance in as many years and its ninth commercial in the game since 2000, is aiming to strike the delicate balance of evoking nostalgia while also appealing to Gen Z, according to Mark Kirkham, a longtime PepsiCo exec who now oversees marketing for the company’s sparkling brands portfolio.
Kirkham and the Mountain Dew team are also hoping the image of Seal’s head on a seal’s body will shock at least some Super Bowl viewers—which just might give the brand an edge in a crowded soda marketing landscape.
“It’s about creatively being distinctive,” he told Marketing Brew. “There will be a lot of ads that are played that some people won’t remember…You’ve got to not only be memorable, you got to be memorable for something.”
(Baja) Blast off
For the second year in a row, Mountain Dew is putting its Baja Blast flavor on blast. The flavor, originally created for Taco Bell soda fountains and now permanently available in a packaged format, had a solid retail year following its 2024 Super Bowl spot, according to Kirkham, but the majority of people who drink Mountain Dew still haven’t tried it, he said.
“If you look at Baja Blast with our retail business and Taco Bell, this is a billion-dollar brand,” Kirkham said. “It’s a big brand for us to continue to build and nurture.”
This year’s Super Bowl spot isn’t just aimed at selling the uninitiated on Baja Blast by describing its flavor, a “lime-flavored tropical soda,” as Kirkham put it. It also has to “fit the moment” in an effort to make Mountain Dew fans out of Gen Zers who might not yet be loyal customers, Kirkham said. Enter Becky G, who has 37 million followers on Instagram alone. There’s also an appearance in the spot from Mountain Dew’s brand mascot, the Mountain Dude, which is designed to add an element of humor and authenticity. Seal, of course, provides the dash of nostalgia; “Kiss from a Rose” was originally released in 1994. The artist himself rewrote the lyrics for the ad, Kirkham said.
Get marketing news you'll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
Last year’s Baja Blast ad helped improve brand metrics for both Mountain Dew and Baja Blast while also driving traffic to Taco Bell, Kirkham said, and this year’s ad is designed to continue that momentum while incorporating the broader brand story of Mountain Dew into the messaging with the addition of assets like the Mountain Dude.
Dew point
Mountain Dew is currently in the midst of a rebrand that is officially set to roll out on shelves later this year, Kirkham said. The soda brand’s messaging now and going forward is designed to be “very distinctive,” as Kirkham put it, and recent campaigns and Super Bowl spots throughout history are no exception. The quirky tone of this year’s spot is aimed at expanding “the scope of what Mountain Dew stands for” beyond earlier brand iterations, which centered the brand more around action sports, while also keeping younger customers in mind.
“What we want to be is something that’s more related to the masses across generations,” Kirkham said. “Anytime you’re out with your friends is a good time to ‘do the Dew,’ versus only when you’re skateboarding with your friends or only when you’re snowboarding with your friends. The rebrand is about bringing that tone through as well.”
In addition to the commercial, Mountain Dew and the Mountain Dude will make an appearance in New Orleans, and the brand is partnering with platforms like Barstool Sports and DraftKings to expand the campaign, Kirkham said, an approach that’s become typical across the PepsiCo portfolio.
“The Super Bowl is one of the biggest moments for PepsiCo,” he said. “It’s this heritage that goes all the way back to years of being associated with the game…I think we’re lucky as brands to have been associated with the culture of the Super Bowl.”