SOFT DRINK MAKERS GOING WITH HARD SELL.

Byline: Skip Wollenberg Associated Press 

Diet Pepsi is getting a new advertising theme and a new look as Pepsi-Cola Co. tries to reinvigorate sluggish sales of its flagship sugarless soft drink.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola Co. hopes to keep the momentum rolling with new episodes in its 4-year-old ``Obey Your Thirst'' campaign for Sprite, the industry's fastest-growing major brand last year.

The makers of Diet Pepsi are calling attention to its taste with two new commercials carrying the theme ``This Is Diet?'' The ads started this week.

In one commercial, ``NYPD Blue'' star Dennis Franz plays the intimidator questioning a man bound to a chair, eventually tossing a cup of Diet Pepsi in the man's face. In the other ad, a father offers a Diet Pepsi to console his daughter jilted on her wedding day.

In both ads, the taste of the soft drink surprises the recipients, who forget their troubles and express amazement that it was a diet drink.

The new campaign is the biggest for Diet Pepsi since its ``You've Got the Right One Baby, Uh-Huh'' campaign with singer Ray Charles in the early 1990s.

Somers, N.Y.-based Pepsi-Cola didn't even have a distinct ad theme for Diet Pepsi last year, promoting it with the ``Nothing Else is a Pepsi'' theme used for its flagship sugared drink.

But diet soda sales grew more slowly than the industry last year.

John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, said the diet category has been hurt in recent years by the popularity of bottled waters and alternative soft drink flavors.

Gary Hemphill, a spokesman for Beverage Marketing Corp., said the soft drink makers also have failed to promote the diet brands aggressively. They may be holding off in anticipation of government approval of an alternate sweetener, he said.

Diet Pepsi sales rose 1.6 percent in 1996 while overall soft drink volume was up 3.6 percent, according to Beverage Digest-Maxwell Report figures.

The brand's market share slipped to 5.7 percent from 5.8 percent in 1995, and Diet Pepsi fell to seventh from fourth in the brand rankings. Diet Coke also lost 0.1 percentage point of market share but remained the third best-selling soft drink at 8.7 percent.

Sprite, Dr Pepper and Mountain Dew finished with approximately 5.8 percent market shares each in 1996, separating the two sugarless cola brands.

Like Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi has a new graphic design this year. The word ``Diet'' now appears in script in red and silver on Diet Pepsi cans, which previously listed both words in blue and block letters.

The ad featuring Franz has generated controversy. NBC has refused to run it because the network feels it promotes ABC's ``NYPD Blue'' series in which Franz plays a tough-guy detective.

NBC previously refused to run a Cadillac ad featuring Franz who was appearing to ticket the driver of a rival car brand. It gave the same reason.

Pepsi spokesman Jon Harris said Franz isn't playing his ``NYPD Blue'' character in the ads and said no other networks have refused to run it.

CBS, which initially refused to run the Cadillac ad, later reconsidered and is now running the commercial. CBS raised no objection to the Pepsi ad.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola is trying to keep sales cooking for Sprite, whose 17.6 percent volume growth in 1996 was three times faster than any other major brand last year. Sprite was the fourth-best seller in 1996, behind Coca-Cola Classic, Pepsi-Cola and Diet Coke.

Sergio Zyman, Coca-Cola's marketing chief, said Sprite's ad budget was up this year but declined to be specific.

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Photo

Photo: (Color) ``NYPD Blue'' star Dennis Franz, right, interrogates a man tied to a chair in one of Pepsi-Cola Co.'s new TV ads for Diet Pepsi.

Associated Press