An extended cut of Nicki Minaj's Pepsi commercial landed online this weekend, and a remix of the rapper/singer's "Moment for Life" provides the soundtrack to a video that features a couple quite literally living in a series of frozen moments.
The beverage company revealed plans to feature Minaj last week, announcing her campaign in conjunction with a Michael Jackson-focused global ad sprint. The latter component will feature remixes of Jackson's songs by A-Trak and other DJ's.
In 1984, Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming an advertisement for Pepsi. The resulting trauma the late King of Pop suffered is often cited as the beginning of a long and debilitating addiction to painkillers. The upcoming promotional materials were made possible by a deal between Pepsi and Jackson's estate.
"Live for Now," the overarching campaign, underscores Pepsi's attempt at re-associating itself with pop culture. The company has a lot riding on the advertisements, as its marquee beverage was recently knocked out of the No. 2 spot, behind Diet Coke (Coke remains the top soda).
Interestingly, the Minaj spot is available in 3-D on YouTube. The site offers many viewing options, including a "no glasses" option that reveals the 3-D visuals when one watches the video "cross eyed" (that's the term YouTube ascribed to the option). In case you have some 3-D glasses lying around, you can also tune the clip to red/cyan, blue/yellow or green/magenta settings. What a world!
The ad is available for your viewing pleasure at the top of this post. Here are some fan reactions to Roman Reloaded, Nicki's latest album: