Pepsi’s New Campaign Serves a Food-Lover’s Delight with a Fresh Twist on Personalization

A Familiar Idea Gets a Flavorful Upgrade

In the fast-paced world of brand marketing, few campaigns have had the cultural impact that Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign did globally. With names printed on bottles, it sparked a wave of personalization, social sharing, and emotional connection with consumers.

Now, in 2025, Pepsi has added its own bold flavor to that legacy—quite literally. Drawing inspiration from Coke’s success, Pepsi India has launched a fresh campaign that pairs its signature drink with food instead of names, creating a uniquely localized and deliciously engaging experience for Indian audiences.

The Core Concept: Personalization Through Taste

Unlike Coca-Cola’s original personalization approach that focused on people’s names, Pepsi’s campaign highlights popular Indian foods, printing dish names on bottles and cans instead. Think:

• “Biryani + Pepsi”

• “Samosa + Pepsi”

• “Pizza + Pepsi”

• “Chole Bhature + Pepsi”

• “Burger + Pepsi”

The message is simple yet powerful: Pepsi goes perfectly with your favorite foods. It’s a campaign built on relatable food moments, inviting people to savor their everyday meals with an extra splash of fun.

This move taps into the deep emotional and cultural connection Indians have with their food. From street snacks to home-cooked feasts, the idea is to associate Pepsi with everyday indulgence.

India’s Culinary Diversity Becomes the Hero

India isn’t just a soft drink-loving country—it’s a nation obsessed with food. Pepsi’s campaign smartly leverages this cultural passion by naming more than 30 regional dishes across different bottle labels.

Whether you’re a paneer lover from Punjab, a dosa devotee from Chennai, or a vada pav loyalist in Mumbai, there’s a Pepsi bottle waiting to match your plate. It’s a masterstroke in regional personalization—broadening the campaign’s appeal far beyond metros.

This food-first branding strategy creates mass relatability and emotional recall. Every meal becomes a reason to choose Pepsi.

Packaging That Pops and Connects

The campaign’s visual identity is colorful, playful, and distinctly Indian. Bold typography and vibrant food illustrations accompany dish names printed across 250ml cans, 500ml PET bottles, and even multi-packs.

This smart packaging not only grabs attention on retail shelves but also encourages consumers to pick Pepsi bottles that reflect their cravings, leading to impulse purchases and share-worthy moments.

Influencers, too, have taken to posting reels and reviews of “Which Pepsi Food Combo Are You?”—a social trend that’s catching on, especially among Gen Z.

Digital and On-Ground Integration

The campaign doesn’t stop at packaging. Pepsi has launched an integrated 360-degree campaign combining television, outdoor, social media, and influencer marketing.

TV Commercials and Digital Films

Pepsi’s newly released ad features a lively food court scene, where friends jokingly argue over which food tastes best with Pepsi. The punchline? “Sab ke saath Pepsi!”

It’s quirky, fast-paced, and built for maximum youth appeal. Soundtracks with desi beats, snack sound effects, and relatable characters drive home the point that no matter the dish, Pepsi is the constant companion.

On-Ground Activations

Pepsi has also introduced food trucks and pop-up stalls in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad. These mobile units serve popular Indian street foods paired with chilled Pepsi bottles, letting customers experience the campaign’s theme in real life.

Social Media Contests

Pepsi’s Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) feeds are filled with food pairing polls, memes, and UGC challenges. One popular contest, “#MyFoodMyPepsi,” encourages users to post their meals with matching Pepsi bottles for a chance to win free supplies for a year.

A Shift from Global to Local Thinking

What sets this campaign apart is Pepsi’s deep localization strategy. While inspired by a global concept (Share a Coke), the execution is hyperlocal, leaning into India’s obsession with food.

This marks a notable shift in the brand’s approach—moving from broad global themes to region-specific experiences that are more meaningful for Indian consumers.

It's a smart brand pivot, especially in a country where beverage preferences are highly influenced by food habits and regional taste profiles.

The Competitive Edge Over Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola has always leaned into emotional storytelling and universal appeal. Pepsi, on the other hand, has long been positioned as youthful, bold, and pop-culture-centric.

With this campaign, Pepsi does two things at once:

1. It reclaims the personalization space Coke once owned.

2. It roots that personalization in India’s most powerful cultural anchor—food.

This not only sets it apart from Coke’s earlier playbook but gives Pepsi a more tangible, everyday context for consumption.

Consumer Response: A Recipe for Success

Early metrics from Pepsi’s internal teams suggest the campaign is already performing well in:

• Retail pull-through

• Social media engagement

• Brand recall among urban millennials

The excitement is palpable. Consumers are now actively hunting for bottles with their favorite dishes and sharing them online. Small eateries and cafés have begun curating Pepsi pairings menus, offering set meals with matching bottles.

This organic adoption by both consumers and small businesses shows the campaign’s scalable impact—and the appetite for such brand-food collaborations.

Why It Works: Simplicity Meets Strategy

Pepsi’s campaign hits all the right marketing notes:

• Personalized packaging (but with food instead of names)

• Cultural relevance (India’s obsession with food)

• Digital virality (UGC, memes, polls)

• Retail excitement (collection behavior and shelf appeal)

• On-ground activation (pop-up food pairings)

It’s a multi-touch campaign that doesn’t just market a beverage—it makes Pepsi part of the meal, which is a valuable shift in consumption behavior.

A Nod to the Future of Beverage Branding

As personalization becomes the new standard in marketing, Pepsi’s strategy represents the next frontier of experiential branding—where product design, packaging, and content are all built around the consumer’s lifestyle and behavior.

By connecting Pepsi with food moments, the brand is aiming to embed itself deeper in the consumer’s daily routine, beyond just summer thirst or party cravings.

This also opens the door to future extensions, like limited-edition flavors inspired by Indian dishes, or AR-based bottle labels that play food music pairings or serve local recipes.

Conclusion: Pepsi’s Food-Pairing Campaign Is a Flavorful Success

With a food-forward twist on a proven global formula, Pepsi’s new campaign is more than just a marketing stunt—it’s a brand evolution rooted in cultural intelligence.