Kanye West and Pepsi Take a Trip Around the Globe

Kanye West and Pepsi Take a Trip Around the Globe

Grammy Award-Winning Artist Stars in New Commercial Directed by Spike Lee

Premieres During MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, August 28

PURCHASE, N.Y., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kanye West not only will be featured as a performer and nominee at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, August 28, he also will appear in a new Pepsi commercial, which debuts during the telecast.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050825/LATH083)

The commercial, titled "Timeline," follows Kanye as he walks by iconic backdrops of various cities, including Paris, Cairo, Tokyo, and Chicago, via state-of-the-art computer graphics and special effects. Set to the song "Heard 'Em Say" (featuring Adam Levine of Maroon 5) from his new album "Late Registration," Kanye and his "aura" (fueled by Pepsi) have a major influence on every city he visits. The 30-second spot was directed by Spike Lee and created by Spike DDB.

"From concept, to execution, to post-production and effects, to revisions -- a lot of work went into this creative process," said Kanye West, who is managed by Gee Roberson of Hip Hop Since 1978 Management and is signed to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Rec record label. "I want to thank Pepsi for working overtime to see this through."

The "Timeline" commercial is a part of Kanye's new partnership with Pepsi. On August 13, the artist headlined an exclusive Pepsi Smash concert in Miami. Performance footage of Kanye from the concert is currently featured on Pepsi's music microsite on Yahoo! (www.smash.yahoo.com), which launched in June and includes original video programming from a variety of musical artists. Las Vegas-based MEGA, INC., Pepsi's music marketing agency, facilitated the partnership with Kanye.

Pepsi has a long history in music and has featured the biggest recording artists and a diverse range of chart-topping music in marketing campaigns. Recent campaigns have featured superstars Beyonce, Gwen Stefani and P. Diddy. The commercial starring Stefani helped launch the Pepsi iTunes promotion in which 200 million free songs were made available to consumers.

About Pepsi

Purchase, N.Y.-based Pepsi-Cola North America (www.pepsi.com) is the refreshment beverage unit of PepsiCo Inc. in the United States and Canada. Its U.S. brands include Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Edge, Pepsi ONE, Wild Cherry Pepsi, Pepsi Twist, Pepsi Vanilla, Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew, Mountain Dew Code Red, Mountain Dew LiveWire, Sierra Mist, Sierra Mist Free, Mug, Slice, Aquafina, Aquafina FlavorSplash, Aquafina Sparkling, Dole single-serve juices, Tropicana Juice Drinks and SoBe. The company also makes and markets North America's best-selling ready-to-drink iced teas and coffees, respectively, via joint ventures with Lipton and Starbucks.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050825/LATH083 AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Source: Pepsi-Cola North America

CONTACT: Nicole Bradley of Pepsi-Cola North America, +1-914-253-2964, nicole.bradley@pepsi.com; or Gabe Tesoriero of Island Def Jam, +1-212-445-3632, gabriel.tesoriero@umusic.com

Web site: http://www.pepsi.com/ http://www.smash.yahoo.com/

------- Profile: Ent