pepsi's idea of pop art
Call these Pepsi cans cool, an 80s hangover, corporations trying to be hep to the jive, whatever. The classic summer archetypes are there: surfing, parties, neon, girls in sunglasses. I dimly remember seeing these on shelves, though I don't recall if we ever bought any. Available throughout the summer of 1990, Pepsi Cool Cans are the basis of an urban legend , specifically that stacking the black neon cans would reveal a word in the background that could end civilization as we know it. Pepsi officially denied subliminal messages, but one never knows. Stereogum has a short piece on the cans , whose TV pitchman was Young MC , fresh from the success of Bust A Move . Source: Sports Illustrated , May 14, 1990