Pepsi Ad: Bend It Like Beckham

The latest ad of Diet Pepsi shows David Beckham kicking three balls into three distant trash cans on the beach. The video was disguised as behind-the-scenes shooting.

Doubts over whether the video was fake or real circulated the web during the past several days. Is Beckham the coolest player on the planet or has Pepsi gambled that so many people would watch the video, that it will meet the goals of the ad, regardless its execution. 

Two issues to point out concerning the idea and the authenticity of the ad:

First, the idea of the video quite resembles a commercial of Ronaldinho for Nike in 2005: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNwLn85I75Y

Second, disregard the first point for now and leave it to the authorities. The ad did meet its goals. It provoked its target group and has been watched almost 1.5 mln times since last Thursday.

Product sales are up, customers are happy with Beckham's ball tricks, who cares whether the video is fake or real?!