Pecsi

Read the campaign story

In June 2009, Pepsi and BBDO Argentina launched Pecsi, a campaign that adopted a local pronunciation of the brand’s name. Trade reporting describes television commercials, outdoor work and digital activity. NPR’s July report observed Buenos Aires billboards using the familiar Pepsi identity with the alternative spelling. The campaign also carried a value message: the pronunciation changed, while the proposition about saving money remained connected to the drink.

The editorial choice was to treat everyday speech as a source of brand material rather than an error to correct. A global trademark usually arrives with rules about consistency, so a conspicuous spelling variation can feel like a small concession of control. The audience did not have to learn a new invented phrase. Recognition came from encountering something already present in local conversation, now acknowledged by the company itself.

That does not mean the brand abandoned its identity. Familiar visual assets helped preserve recognition while the written name became the variable. This is a useful distinction for localisation: the campaign adjusted one element with cultural relevance and retained enough of the surrounding system to make the source clear. The resulting tension between official appearance and unofficial pronunciation supplied the joke without requiring a long explanation.

There is a tonal risk in that approach. A brand can celebrate local usage or appear to mock the people who use it. The difference depends on execution, context and who is allowed to speak. The opened reporting presents the campaign as an embrace of pronunciation, but that description is not a universal audience verdict. Nor should one city’s speech be treated as a complete account of the language or of an entire country.

The sources establish the campaign period, media and visible spelling treatment, not a permanent worldwide corporate rename or a measured commercial lift. Its strategic value is more specific: audience language can reveal a distinctive entry point for communication. A useful evaluation would separate recognition of the joke from understanding of the value offer, because an amusing name variation can be remembered even when the intended reason to buy is not.

Listen before inventing

Existing audience language can provide a more natural hook than new jargon.

Keep recognition intact

Change a meaningful element while retaining clear brand cues.

Check who owns the joke

Localisation should acknowledge people rather than make them the target.

A small test for another brief

Test a respectful audience-language variation in a draft advertisement.

Measure recognition, offer comprehension and perceived respect.

Stop if the wording feels mocking or creates trademark confusion.

• Collect voluntary examples of language customers already use.
• Create one variation retaining recognisable visual assets.
• Review it with people from the relevant community before a small test.