Pepsi Vs. Coke In The World Series Of Pop

noah | February 2, 2009 5:30 am

There are two reasons that I’m glad I kept putting off my treatise on the very unfortunate Bob Dylan vs. will.i.am smackdown in honor of Pepsi: First, MTV News’ James Montgomery pretty much summed up my thoughts on the overall “the present is kinda crappy, let’s just OD on sugar” feel of the ad; and second, I found out that the Coca-Cola-sponsored collaboration between Cee-Lo, Patrick Stump, Janelle Monae, Brendon Urie, Travis McCoy, and Butch Walker had debuted online today. Guess which one is about 50 million times more pleasurable to these ears? I’ll give you a hint: It’s the one without Shrek in its attached video. Embeds of both tracks after the jump.

Yes, we get it. Everything was better in the… well, whatever era that isn’t now that this commercial is trying to evoke. The present day has to deal with cell phones at concerts and will.i.am tainting the next generation of children forever! Ugh.

Meanwhile, Cee-Lo’s voice sounds great, and I love the overall “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” feel. Yay!

Open Happiness [coca-cola.com; HT absolutepunk] Open Happiness [YouTube] Pepsi: Refresh Anthem [YouTube] Pepsi’s Bob Dylan/ Will.I.Am Ad Could Have Been Worse [MTV Newsroom]

NB: This post also serves as yet another piece of evidence that Billy Joel needs to write a 20th-anniversary version of “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”