Both of Diet Pepsi’s commercials in Super Bowl in XXXIX made the most of celebrity -- "Guy Watcher" with Cindy Crawford and Carson Kressley, “Truck” with Sean then-“P. Diddy” Combs.
For all the 2005 star power on hand to get viewers drinking Diet Pepsi -- watch for cameos including Eva Longoria and Xzibit -- the joke is about consumers’ obsession with famous people. "It was really funny because it slams the culture for hooking into celebrity power," Julie Larsen, a 44-year-old lawyer, told The Wall Street Journal. “Bonus points for Carson Daly mocking himself,” Entertainment Weekly wrote in its review. “Makes our job that much easier.”
DDB N.Y.’s “Truck” was directed by Joe Pytka, who directed two other ads in the same Super Bowl: “Guy Watcher” and Bud Light’s “Applause.” Pytka previously directed Pepsi’s “Crossroads” and “Mountain Men” in 2004’s Super Bowl XXXVIII, Sony’s “The Trip” in 2003’s Super Bowl XXXVII and FedEx’s “Delivery for Oz” in 2000’s Super Bowl XXXIV. He would go on to direct more Super Bowl ads, for Diet Pepsi (“Stunt Can,” Super Bowl XL in 2006) and Pepsi Max (“Check Out,” Super Bowl XLVI in 2012).
Production company: Pytka. Producer: Linda Masse (who would also work on Budweiser’s 2006 Super Bowl ad “American Dream”). Executive producer: Tara Fitzpatrick.
Chief creative officer, copywriter: Lee Garfinkel. Agency producers: Rikki Furman, Bob Nelson. Head of broadcast production: Bob Nelson. Creative directors: Mike Sullivan, Melanie Forster-MacNeill. Copywriter: Mike Sullivan. Art director: Melanie Forster-MacNeill. Editorial: Cosmo Street. Editor: Tom Scherma.
BRAND: Diet Pepsi
YEAR: 2005
AGENCY: DDB
SUPERBOWL: XXXIX
QUARTER AIRED: Q1