Pepsi Brings Back Cindy Crawford…With A Twist [Video]

It’s been almost 25 years since Cindy Crawford stunned and tantalized as the soft drink brand’s spokesperson, appearing in ads designed to entice generations of teens to run out and buy the popular brand’s products. Now, Ms. Crawford is once again working with Pepsi on a brand new modeling campaign and while the campaign’s spots are certainly reminiscent of Cindy’s former Pepsi spots, these new ads are created with an animated twist for a new generation.

Cindy Crawford Once Again Promotes Pepsi

Pepsi is recycling their popular 1992 Super Bowl ad with the help of Cindy Crawford, but the model won’t be appearing in the flesh as she did in the first ad. Instead, Cindy will be represented as an emoji in the new Pepsi spots. Ms. Crawford says she was really excited by the idea of recreating the Pepsi spot in such an inventive new way, adding that she still receives compliments and fan comments on the 25-year-old commercial. Cindy feels that using the emoji, which was designed to resemble her down to her iconic mole, is a great way to connect with younger generations.

The 15-second spot, accompanied by a hashtag promoting the new Pepsi slogan, “say it with Pepsi,” begins airing today and features Cindy Crawford’s emoji on the front of a Diet Pepsi bottle, walking (or perhaps “waddling” would be a more accurate word?) to a Pepsi vending machine. The emojis seen in the ad aren’t unique to the animated commercial. Pepsi has announced that similar emoji characters, renamed PepsiMoji, will appear on billions of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Pepsi MAX bottles throughout the summer.

The original 1992 Pepsi ad:

And the updated 2016 ad:

https://youtu.be/Nzx5_Ub9i7Y

While Cindy has come to accept her facial mole as a trademark, making her beauty that much more distinguishable, she reveals that her acceptance of the mole has taken her some time. As a child, Cindy says she was very self-conscious because of the beauty mark.

“It’s funny… what makes a ‘Cindy Crawford’ emoji different is my mole,” Crawford says. “As a kid my beauty mark is what I was most self conscious of, and now it’s the thing that made me stand out. I try to tell girls to embrace the thing that’s different. What people see is your confidence.”

Cindy Crawford’s Daughter, Kaia Gerber, Makes A Mark Of Her Own

Pepsi isn’t the only company benefiting from the beauty found in the genes of Cindy Crawford. Kaia Gerber, Cindy’s daughter, is marking this summer with a modeling campaign of her own and, while Ms. Crawford is promoting soft drinks, Kaia will be promoting another summer necessity: sunglasses. Ms. Gerber has already been seen in early ads for Miu Miu sunglasses, rising out of a swimming pool dressed in a ruby red one-piece bathing suit, matching nail polish, and, of course, the required shades.

“With her butterfly lenses set into golden frames and dressed in precious pieces from the Miu Miu archive, fresh-faced Kaia Gerber perfectly encapsulates the maverick femininity of the Miu Miu girl,” prompted the eyewear manufacturer in an accompanying caption.

Cindy Crawford is careful not to put too much pressure on her daughter to succeed at modeling, or to feel the need to compete and compare herself to mom, but Crawford admits that she does playfully tease Kaia.

“Kaia’s blossoming into such a beautiful young woman and I really want to let her shine,” Crawford says of Gerber’s modeling aspirations. “I don’t want her to feel in competition with me, although I’ll tease her, and say, ‘You have my old hair–give it back!’ Or, ‘Give me back my legs!’ But she’ll be fine…She’s much more together and worldly than I was at her age.”

[Image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for The Heart Foundation]