…as it puts 3m into Club Max relaunch

PepsiCo is to spend 3m on the UK relaunch of its Club Pepsi Max promotion, which will feature a new series of celebrity advertisements.

Supermodel Cindy Crawford, who already advertises the Pepsi brand, will be joined by Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, tennis star André Agassi and actors Jean Claude Van Damme and Luke Perry in a new series of Pepsi Max TV ads which break on July 1.

The celebrities will support the Club Pepsi Max promotion, which was launched last year on a smaller scale in Ibiza.

This year, the event has been moved to Florida, where the 800 consumers who bought Pepsi Max cans with free tickets inside will win an expenses-paid, week-long trip. Each star will host a day at the event, including the by-then five months pregnant Anderson. Five winners will come from the UK.

The imminent appearance of Pamela Anderson in Pepsi’s TV ads was upstaged by rival drinks company Virgin, which took advantage of Anderson’s pregnancy to place a press ad promoting Virgin Energy’s alleged aphrodisiac powers last week. Pepsi marketing manager Tim Davie says he is unconcerned by the apparent brand promiscuity of Pepsi’s newly signed spokeswoman. “Other brands may be able to pick on individuals but we have a group of celebrities which can’t be replicated,” he says.