It would be like seeing Coors on tap at Busch Stadium. Or, a Red Sox merchandise store inside Yankee Stadium.
Just a few hundred yards from Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the world’s most grand, single-day, annual sporting event will be played Sunday, smack dab In the heart of Coca-Cola Country, Pepsi planted its flag.
PEPSI ATTEMPTS 'COLA TRUCE' WITH COCA-COLA AHEAD OF SUPER BOWL LIII
When I first arrived at Atlanta’s Super Bowl epicenter, I saw a billboard that made me do a double-take. ”PEPSI IN ATLANTA. HOW REFRESHING.”
Yes, Pepsi, Coke’s eternal rival, is the official soft drink of Super Bowl 53.
Billboards, dressed in Pepsi red, white and blue declare, “LOOK WHO’S IN TOWN FOR SUPER BOWL LIII."
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Inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium Sunday, Coca-Cola will be sold. But it won’t be advertised. Pepsi paid for exclusivity to have its logo seen by American television’s largest audience. Soft drinks won’t be served in Coke cups. Dasani water bottles won’t feature their Coca-Cola labels
Stepping back from the Super Bowl — not purchasing ad time during the game broadcast for the first time in a dozen years — Coke showed ultimate sportsmanship about Pepsi’s omnipresent signage here. In a statement, Coca-Cola wrote, “As Atlanta’s hometown beverage company for more than 130 years, we’re thrilled to help our city welcome everyone in town for the Big Game, including our friends at Pepsi.”
Hear Jared Max sports reports every weekday morning on Fox News Headlines 24/7 Sirius XM Channel 115.