Advertising Wars: Coke, Pepsi and the Day KFC Fixed a Big Mac

A Pepsi advert gave a polar bear two unmarked cups. The bear picked Pepsi Zero Sugar over Coke Zero Sugar. This would be unremarkable behaviour from a bear, were it not for the years Coca-Cola spent making polar bears look like loyal employees.

That’s the fun of a good advertising war. One brand spends decades teaching us to recognise a symbol, a wrapper or a jingle. Its rival comes along and uses all that recognition to tell a different joke.

Sometimes the reply is better than the original. Sometimes somebody has to drive 258 kilometres for lunch. And sometimes, as Nando’s found out, the comeback comes with a catering order.

Pepsi borrows Coke’s bear

The Pepsi Challenge dates back to the 1970s. The format was simple: offer people two unlabelled colas and ask which they prefer. For a challenger facing one of the most recognisable brands in the world, hiding the labels was a rather elegant move. For one sip, Coca-Cola’s famous red branding had to wait outside.

Pepsi revived the setup in its 2026 Super Bowl ad, The Choice, with one important change: the taster was a polar bear. The joke works because the audience supplies the association. Pepsi doesn’t need to spend half the advert explaining why this particular customer’s choice might be awkward.

A fictional bear’s preference settles precisely nothing about what you should buy for the braai. But as an advertising move, it does something clever: it makes a decades-old campaign feel fresh by letting the rival’s imagery carry the punchline.

KFC finds two things wrong with a Chicken Big Mac

In Canada in 2023, McDonald’s launched the Chicken Big Mac. KFC and its agency Courage bought one, took out both chicken patties and replaced them with KFC fillets. Then they photographed the result and built a campaign around two words: “Fixed It.” The image appeared on social media and in outdoor ads, and KFC challenged McDonald’s to a taste test. See Courage’s campaign case study.

There’s something beautifully petty about using a competitor’s product launch as the first step in your own food styling. McDonald’s had already done the work of introducing the sandwich. KFC just had to show people which bit it would change.

And that’s why this particular McDonald’s–KFC spat works. A chicken specialist had a reason to have an opinion about the chicken. Had it tried to fix the fries, we might reasonably have asked the Colonel to return to his department.

Burger King makes a road trip out of an insult

In 2016, McDonald’s put up two signs near Brioude, France. One pointed to a McDrive five kilometres away. The other was a towering set of directions to a Burger King drive-through 258 kilometres away.

It was a good joke with a clear selling point: there’s a McDonald’s nearby. That matters when someone in the back seat has been asking for chips since the previous province.

Burger King’s reply showed a couple stopping at McDonald’s for coffee to help them through the long drive to get a Whopper. It accepted the distance and changed what the distance meant. McDonald’s said, essentially, look how far you’d have to go. Burger King asked, what if it’s worth going that far?

The best part is that both adverts get to be right about something. One sells convenience. The other sells the meal you’d make a detour for. The coffee does an admirable job of staying out of the argument.

Nando’s picks a fight with an insurer

South Africa’s contribution to this list isn’t even a fight between competitors. In 2012, Nando’s spoofed a Santam ad starring Sir Ben Kingsley. The insurer could have ignored it. Instead, Santam and its agency put out Back at Ya, a response that challenged Nando’s to deliver a substantial food order to the Johannesburg Children’s Home.

Nando’s delivered the food. A spoof that could have ended with two marketing departments congratulating themselves ended with an actual delivery. It also showed that an insurer could take a joke and give people a reason to see what happened next.

What makes the comeback worth making?

Here’s a test for the next time someone in a brainstorm says, “Let’s take a shot at the competition.” Take the competitor’s name out of the pitch and ask what you’re trying to tell people about your own brand. If all that remains is we’re quite funny in meetings, keep working.

McDonald’s had proximity. Burger King had the Whopper. KFC had chicken. Santam turned a joke at its expense into an invitation to do something decent. Each gave the audience something to remember beyond who started it.

For another advertising argument closer to the studio, read what happened when a client’s quick change turned into a much bigger job. And if your team makes work worth talking about, list your agency on CreH8ive or sign up for The CreH8ive Times.

Now, about that braai: buy whichever cola you like. Just don’t ask the person doing the shopping to drive 258 kilometres for it.