The NFL regular season kicks off Sept. 4, which also is the kickoff of to the well-known food ritual: tailgating. This season Pepsi is looking to “crash” consumers tailgates in its latest campaign to show that Pepsi and tailgating go hand-in-hand.

In its new campaign Tailgate Crashers, Pepsi taps NFL stars Josh Allen and Justin Jefferson to crash stadium parking lots nationwide to show that Tailgating Deserves Pepsi. The video spot sees Allen and Jefferson transform from superstar athletes to flavor fanatics to deliver a full-flavor blitz designed to elevate every tailgate, the company says.

Gustavo Reyna, vice president of marketing at Pepsi, explains that the campaign was an opportunity to surprise fans this football season.

“This is another brilliant opportunity to showcase our challenger mindset to surprise people and fans during football season,” Reyna says. “With a new addition or an evolution of our Food Deserves Pepsi platform this time around with Tailgate Crashers … it’s a great moment to challenge again and come in to, you know, explain what Food Deserves Pepsi is all about and trying to own the biggest food ritual in football culture, which is tailgating.”

The “Tailgate Crashers” spot, now live on the brand’s YouTube channel, opens in the locker room with Allen and Jefferson swapping their jerseys for blue Pepsi jumpsuits. The locker room pep talk isn’t about Xs and Os, but about crashing the parking lot and getting Pepsi into every fan’s hand to unlock the full flavor for gameday eats. 

Allen takes a sip of his ice-cold Pepsi with his sandwich, and the two are fired up to join the Pepsi Crashers squad. It’s game on as the duo hits the lot, slinging cans and breaking through the crowd to ensure every fan has a delicious Pepsi in hand.

The campaign officially kicks off Sept. 3 across national broadcast, with digital and social support running throughout the season.

Building on Pepsi’s legacy with football, the Tailgate Crashers campaign allows the brand to bring some fun and flavor to the fans.

“We love football, and we love football fans and how passionate they are about things that they care [about]: their team, their food, their drinks,” Reyna says. “And again, like I said before, … tailgating is the biggest food ritual for football fans in this country, so we want to make sure that they are tailgating with Pepsi.

“If not, we’re going to throw some flags on flavor,” he continues. “There’s some penalties being committed there. And so, we’re going to make sure that our blue jumpsuits are there to, to call those penalties and to make people aware that they’re leaving taste on the bench this case and that they can experience more flavor of their food and more taste with Pepsi in their hands.”

Reyna adds that in addition to the video spot, the brand will have jumpsuit crew members crashing 20 real life games across the country throughout the season. These “crashes” will get a digital life as the brand plans to use the experiences to create “very fun and interesting content for social and digital out of those real-life crashers moments,” Reyna says.

The company notes that the “Tailgating Deserves Pepsi: Pepsi Tailgate Crashers” is the latest iteration of the brand’s Food Deserves Pepsi platform, which launched in 2024 with disruptive campaigns like Share a Pepsi, BBQ Crashers/Carne Asada Merece Pepsi, Pepsi Chase Cars and Undercover Cups featuring the brand’s fleet of “blue jumpsuits.”

Reyna highlights that this new iteration serves as a complement to the initial Food Deserve Pepsi and supporting everything that happens around the game.

“This campaign is not necessarily about the game itself, but everything that happens around the game, and we love it because it gave us a really meaningful credible, authentic space to play in football fandom and football with football fans and in football world that we can actually have a very authentic role,” Reyna says. “So you know it's complementing each other. This is not necessarily about the game. Like I said, it’s the watch party, it’s the tailgating, it’s the home-gating ― it’s everything happens around the game before, during and after.

“There’s always food and there’s always Pepsi, and if there isn’t, we have to make sure that we fix that,” he continues. “So that’s how we see it all come together and that’s why we’re so excited about it.”

Reyna elaborates that the video spot is one component of this campaign and is grateful for the brilliant media strategists and planners in PepsiCo and in OMD to bring these other elements to life. 

“That have helped us to shape the most impactful, efficient and effective media content creative plan to be there, at the right time with the right message,” Reyna says. “… [L]ike I said it’s a spot but also for the experiential component of showing up and the tailgate creating content in real life as we crash those tailgate events and push those in social and digital, and you know, come bring the idea to life beyond the film. 

“Tailgate Deserves Pepsi is not a film is an idea that lives beyond the film,” he continues. “And so we’re going to make sure that we prove that or we show that how the idea comes to life with our experiential side of it and we’ll amplify through digital and social.”

Pepsi also will be working major media players such as Barstool Sports, Hot Ones and First We Feast to share recipes for tailgates as well as hacks to “win” tailgate moments.

“It’s a very exciting program, very robust end to end and it only starts this week with the film, but a lot more to come throughout the season,” Reyna concludes.