Pepsi Made A Giant Bet On Madonna
In early 1989, Pepsi signed Madonna to a reported $5 million partnership built around her upcoming song “Like a Prayer.” The idea was simple: pair the world’s biggest pop star with one of the world’s biggest brands and dominate the cola wars. Instead, Pepsi spent millions on a campaign it could barely use.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
Madonna Was Exactly Who Pepsi Wanted
Pepsi and Coca-Cola were fighting aggressively for younger consumers, and celebrity endorsements had become a major weapon. Pepsi had already worked with stars including Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, David Bowie, and Lionel Richie. By the end of the 1980s, landing Madonna gave the company another superstar with enormous global reach.
Pepsi Had Once Considered Her Too Risky
The partnership was especially striking because Pepsi had reportedly considered working with Madonna several years earlier. According to a later account in Vanity Fair, the company backed away in 1985 after old nude photographs of the singer appeared in Playboy and Penthouse. By late 1988, her fame apparently mattered more than her reputation for controversy.
The Deal Was Bigger Than One Commercial
The agreement announced in January 1989 was designed to last a year rather than disappear after a single television spot. Madonna was expected to appear in a series of Pepsi commercials, while the company also planned to sponsor her next world tour. The arrangement made Pepsi part of a much larger Madonna promotional machine.
Madonna Got One Very Unusual Concession
Other musicians had previously adapted their hits for Pepsi commercials by inserting references to the drink. Madonna was allowed to use “Like a Prayer” without rewriting its lyrics to sell soda. Even more unusually, the public would hear her brand-new song through the Pepsi campaign before its traditional commercial release.
Screenshot from Make a Wish, Pepsi-Cola (1989)
Pepsi Planned A Global Television Event
This was not supposed to be an ordinary commercial break. Pepsi planned a coordinated international rollout across 40 countries, with an estimated audience of roughly 250 million people. The campaign was promoted as an unprecedented fusion of a major music release and worldwide advertising.
The Commercial Played It Surprisingly Safe
Anyone expecting Madonna to shock television audiences with the Pepsi spot got something much sweeter. Titled “Make a Wish,” the commercial used nostalgia, childhood memories, dancing, and the idea of looking back at how far she had come. It was deliberately far removed from the controversy that was about to erupt.
Screenshot from Make a Wish, Pepsi-Cola (1989)
A Young Madonna Shared The Screen
The commercial opens with Madonna watching home-movie-style footage of herself as a little girl at an eighth birthday party. Eight-year-old actress Heidi Marshall played the younger version as the child and adult Madonna seemed to cross between past and present. The ending brought them together with a birthday wish and two generations of Pepsi bottles and cans.
Screenshot from Make a Wish, Pepsi-Cola (1989)
The Ad Created Another Important Partnership
Veteran commercial filmmaker Joe Pytka directed the elaborate spot, while Vincent Paterson handled choreography. Madonna reportedly had not initially intended to dance, but changed course after seeing Paterson working with the other performers. Paterson later became an important collaborator on projects including “Express Yourself,” “Vogue,” and the Blond Ambition tour.
Screenshot from Make a Wish, Pepsi-Cola (1989)
Pepsi Was Spending Serious Money
The commercial was expensive even before the controversy began. Industry sources told the Los Angeles Times that Pepsi spent more than $1 million creating the two-minute spot and upwards of $5 million airing it internationally. A later account reported that Pepsi had also prepurchased about $10 million worth of airtime for the broader campaign.
Screenshot from Make a Wish, Pepsi-Cola (1989), Enhanced
March 2 Looked Like A Triumph
The major American premiere came on March 2, 1989, during NBC’s hugely popular The Cosby Show. Shorter versions were also scheduled around programs including Cheers and L.A. Law, while the commercial rolled out internationally. Pepsi later said the initial advertisement had received both popular and critical approval.
Screenshot from Make a Wish, Pepsi-Cola (1989)
Pepsi Expected To Bring It Back
The expensive launch was only supposed to be the beginning. Pepsi planned to edit the two-minute commercial into shorter versions and run them again as “Like a Prayer” climbed the charts. One company spokesman even suggested the ads would probably return when the song reached the top.
Screenshot from Make a Wish, Pepsi-Cola (1989)
Then The Real Video Arrived
One day after the Pepsi launch, MTV began showing Madonna’s official “Like a Prayer” music video. Mary Lambert, who had already directed several Madonna videos, returned to oversee the project. The mood and imagery were dramatically different from Pepsi’s nostalgic birthday story.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
The Story Was About Racial Injustice
The video was not simply a collection of provocative religious images. Madonna plays a woman who witnesses white men attacking a woman before a Black man who comes to help is wrongly arrested. Her character ultimately finds the courage to identify what really happened and help free him.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
The Religious Imagery Was Impossible To Miss
Around that story, Madonna and Lambert filled the video with imagery certain to attract attention. Madonna dances in front of burning crosses, displays wounds resembling stigmata, and encounters a Black saint whose statue comes to life. She also kisses the saint during the dreamlike church sequence.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
Mary Lambert Wanted People To React
Lambert later explained that the burning crosses were connected to racism and the racial violence associated with that symbol. She also wanted viewers to reconsider assumptions surrounding religious imagery and a Black saint. Lambert knew the video would be controversial, although she later acknowledged that the scale of the reaction exceeded what she had expected.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989), Enhanced
The Backlash Started Almost Immediately
Complaints about the video emerged quickly, including objections from Catholic groups in Italy. In the United States, conservative religious organizations also condemned the imagery. The problem for Pepsi was that its name was now attached to the exact same song.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
Pepsi Initially Stood By Her
Pepsi did not immediately abandon Madonna when the controversy erupted. On March 7, company spokesman Tod MacKenzie said the response to the advertising campaign itself had been overwhelmingly positive. Pepsi also stressed that its commercial and Madonna’s independent music video were separate projects.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
MTV Provided An Early Warning
Behind the reassuring statements, Pepsi was already becoming cautious. The company canceled a planned two-minute airing of the commercial on MTV after the network began showing Madonna’s music video. Pepsi was suddenly trying to promote the song while distancing itself from the images most viewers now associated with it.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
A Boycott Raised The Stakes
On March 10, the American Family Association announced a boycott of Pepsi products over Madonna’s video and urged the company to sever its relationship with her. Later that month, Corpus Christi Bishop René Gracida also called for a boycott. Pressure was now moving beyond complaints about Madonna and toward Pepsi’s wider business.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
The Confusion Would Not Go Away
Pepsi waited to see whether consumers would eventually separate its harmless commercial from Madonna’s controversial video. According to MacKenzie, that did not happen. He later said Pepsi was still receiving complaints from people who believed they had recently seen its advertisement even though it had been off television for weeks.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
Pepsi Finally Pulled The Plug
By early April, Pepsi confirmed that the Madonna commercial would not return. The company publicly emphasized continuing consumer confusion between its advertisement and the unrelated music video. Once Pepsi abandoned the spot, some of the groups calling for boycotts ended their campaigns.
The Fallout Went Beyond One Ad
Pepsi had planned another Madonna commercial for later in 1989, but that idea was scrapped too. BBDO executive Philip Dusenberry said that when the original advertisement was pulled, the entire idea of using Madonna was pulled with it. The company also abandoned plans to immediately replace her with another celebrity.
Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images
Madonna Did Not Walk Away Empty-Handed
Exactly how Pepsi settled every financial detail was not disclosed at the time, and a company spokesman initially refused to say whether Madonna would receive her entire multimillion-dollar fee. Later accounts from Warner Music’s Rhino and Madonna’s official materials state that she kept the reported $5 million. Either way, Pepsi had already committed heavily to production, international airtime, and a campaign it could no longer fully use.
Then Pepsi’s Own Prediction Came True
The timing could hardly have been more awkward. Only weeks earlier, a Pepsi spokesman had said the company would probably bring the commercials back when “Like a Prayer” reached the top of the charts. By the time that happened, Pepsi had already decided the commercial could not safely return.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
Like A Prayer Took Over The Charts
“Like a Prayer” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the chart dated April 22, 1989, and remained there for three weeks. The Like a Prayer album also reached No. 1, giving Madonna simultaneous chart-toppers. Instead of damaging the record commercially, the uproar accompanied one of the biggest successes of her career.
Screenshot from Like A Prayer, Warner Bros. (1989)
Pepsi Could Not Escape The Irony
The story produced one final twist at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. Madonna’s controversial “Like a Prayer” clip won the Viewer’s Choice award, even though Pepsi had abandoned the advertising campaign associated with the song. The award itself was sponsored by Pepsi.
Thirty-Four Years Later Pepsi Brought It Back
In 2023, Pepsi revived Madonna’s old commercial as part of the company’s 125th-anniversary celebration and aired it during the MTV Video Music Awards. Madonna marked the occasion by recalling her refusal to alter the “Like a Prayer” video and thanking Pepsi for finally revisiting their collaboration. More than three decades after Pepsi decided the association was too risky, the campaign had become something the company was willing to celebrate as part of its own pop-culture history.
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