Pepsi iTunes – "I Fought The Law"
Apple and Pepsi partnered for a huge iTunes songs giveaway. In an effort to battle illegal music downloading. It was launched during Super Bowl XXXVIII and below is the official Apple Press Release:
PURCHASE, N.Y., January 28, 2004 – There will be five new commercials for Pepsi and Sierra Mist on Super Bowl XXXVIII. The spots, airing in the first, second and third quarters over a total of three minutes, will mark the 19th straight year that PCNA has advertised in the big game. The descriptions below offer a snapshot of what viewers can expect to see on CBS's Super Sunday telecast on February 1.
This groundbreaking ad, featuring 16 real-life teenagers who were sued by the recording industry for illegally downloading music from the Internet, shows music fans a new way to freely and legally download music–the Pepsi iTunes 100 Million Song Giveaway. The commercial is set to Green Day's version of "I Fought the Law."
About the Pepsi iTunes Promotion
On Super Bowl Sunday, Apple and Pepsi will launch a historic promotion to legally give away 100 million free songs to Mac and Windows PC users from Apple's iTunes Music Store — the world's number one digital music service. Beginning February 1, 100 million winning codes will be randomly seeded in 20-ounce and 1-liter bottles of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist, and the winning codes will be redeemable for a free song from the iTunes Music Store. Winners will simply go to Apple's iTunes Music store (www.iTunes.com), enter the code found under the bottle cap and choose any 99 cent song from the online store's vast catalog of over 500,000 songs. The promotion will run until March 31, 2004.
Unfortunately, the promotion did not produce the expected results. Apple Computer said in April, 2004 that about 5 million free songs have been given away, far fewer than the 100 million tracks that could have been redeemed.
An Apple representative said the music giveaway was probably the biggest ever of its kind but admitted that the company gave away fewer songs than it had intended.
"We had hoped the redemptions would have been higher," said Katie Cotton, Apple's vice president of worldwide corporate communications. Ms. Cotton noted that the yellow-capped bottles with the Apple song codes were late in reaching some key markets. However, Ms. Cotton said the promotion did introduce a lot of people to iTunes.
Analysts praised that move, confirming Ms. Cotton's statement that it increased awareness and drew in new customers.