Go figure – according to Mashable.com this morning, PepsiCo’s Project Refresh has gotten more people to vote than the last U.S. Presidential election.  Pretty staggering concept, yes?  People care more about Pepsi than about who is the President?  Is that what they mean here?  Okay lets take that statement apart a bit:

1) You can vote for up to 10 ideas submitted to Project Refresh - so we aren’t talking unique votes here.

2) People voted online – okay REALLY? of course you got more votes!  It is only a bazillion times easier to sit at home and surf and vote than to get in your car, drive to the poles, stand in line, get your booth, stand some more, then cast your ballot. so yeah okay more people did the online thing – big surprise.

3) Age is a factor – Pew Internet and American Life Project has all the stats you need on the generational differences of Internet use – so again its not much of a big surprise that PepsiCo’s project had a bunch of teenagers voting whereas that same group can’t vote for president.

For all of that it – saying they got more votes than the president was a pretty snazzy way to up the PR juice of this campaign.  And PepsiCo is giving away alot of money – which is also a good thing.  The lesson here yes use social media to drive your mission – it can raise awareness, provide great exposure, and work some marketing wonders.  Let’s just maintain a little persepctive now and again on what it really can and cannot do.

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Blog by Joyce