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Advertising execs squirmed the day Britney was caught on camera by the ever-present paparazzi entering a parking lot half disguised with her hair hidden under a baseball cap. Paparazzi payday came not as a result of the star being seen leaving a nightclub with a new beau but, in this case, Britney – the figurehead of the Pepsi’s advertising for the best part of a decade – was holding a Coke.

Inconsistencies in endorsement are nothing new, the public get used to them. Increasingly, youth fail to buy into the message that this is authentic and we reach a point where they have minimal impact.

It wasn’t Britney’s fault that Pepsi dumped their ad agency after a 50 years relationship or sales growth stagnated. It was Pepsi’s own.

When your organization is so highly geared around “hits”, it’s very difficult to change. That’s why so many large organizations fail at trying to emulate the success of smaller challenger brands in their sector – because they adopt all the observable technologies and gimmicks but continue business as usual.

Pepsi still thinks it’s living in the era of the “Pepsi Generation” – postwar boomers, the first generation of teens to emerge on the market radar.

“This is the liveliest most energetic time ever…with the most active generation living it. Come Alive!” beckons the advertisement “You’re in the Pepsi Generation”. The young beautiful blonde’s smile displays a row of perfectly maintained white teeth and a healthy Californian tan. She is young, vibrant and an icon of change. As old Europe finds itself embroiled in the political wrangling of Cold War politics and the legacy of bankruptcy, post War USA has a new generation of consumers who have a voice – youth.

For the first time, marketers began to realize there was more than just your average customer. There was a new segment that responded to the unashamed celebration of life and positivity. Life was no longer survival, there was free time, leisure and rock’n'roll – and Pepsi was their lifestyle statement.

“It’s the official drink for everyone with a thirst for living” and teenagers bought the bold, brash statements because simply acknowledging their existence with on such scale and with such confidence was itself a strong endorsement of the change that resonated with their values.

And for 50 years it worked and served as a model for every brand that wanted to capture the attention of young consumers – go big, go bold or go home. Youth marketing meant hits and hits meant all or nothing.

In 1963, agency BBDO introduced a radically new concept to the field of youth marketing – lifestyle. The slogan “Come alive! You’re in the Pepsi Generation” and Pepsi’s self-proclamation as “The choice of a new generation” not only struck a resonant chord with the increasingly socially mobile and affluent youth demographic of the early 1960s but also, through its ensuing success, identified that marketing to youth was no longer about identifying the features but by drawing the line of relevance from the brand to the consumers’ lifestyles attitudes.

Pepsi emerged as an iconic 60s youth brand thanks mainly to the trailblazing work of BBDO. It identified the need across the generation to connect in a communal identity which fashion an emerging consciousness of “youth” but also a share belonging to a value system that contravened the mainstream adult opinion of the day.

45 years on, Pepsico headquarters New York announces to the media community that it’s dropping BBDO in favour of more boutique agencies (mainly internal) that can handle the brand’s push into new media. TV, print and magazines are no longer effective it appears and Pepsi’s generation is voting with its feet.

That was back then, when youth attention didn’t command such a premium as it does today. In the forty years following the Pepsi generation, advertising to youth through the big statements, huge awareness campaigns and the cult of celebrity confirmed that back then – it costs plenty of bucks to conduct a campaign. With no Youtube, internet or twitter to fall back on, youth brands needed deep pockets to reach out to youth.

Barriers to entry created a unique dynamic. Only large companies could advertise. Youth therefore trusted advertisers because they were, to some degree, successful. When Pepsi positioned itself as the self-proclaimed “choice of new generation” it was no different to Pears Soap 10 years prior claiming that “ladies love the feeling of Pears Soap”. Spam was relatively non-existent and advertiser claims were largely heeded by the consuming public.

From 1960 to 2000, advertising and planning comprised the largest financial outlay in marketing a product. The boozy lunches and cocaine apetites of the 1980s ad execs were legendary and while mainly apocraphyl they reinforced the belief that there were serious bucks in advertising.

When competitors started playing Pepsi at the “youth” game, Pepsi responded by raising the stakes and using its financial muscle to create market barriers to entry. Michael Jackson, Michael J Fox and Madonna all signed up to the Pepsi payroll in the 80s featuring in blockbuster advertising “hits”.

The admen were printing their own money; Madonna was paid $20m for a campaign that aired only once. The hype surrounding the launch was such that its imminent airing made the nightly news.

Big advertising worked because big advertising implied this brand had money. Brands with money were, by default, successful brands. They were successful because lots of people like you were buying them.

When Beyonce, Pink, Britney, Michael or Madonna slugged Pepsi for cash it was nothing more than a testimonial on a gargantuan scale; we can afford these guys because you keep buying our drinks.

And when your whole organization is geared towards generating the hits, it’s not easy to change.

In the 21st century, hits still work but their time is running out. Attention is your biggest cost. Because it is relatively easy to advertise (send an email), everyone is able to do it. The economics of spam are testament to the sheer volume of marketing messages out there. Spammers can profit on click-through rates of 0.00001% because they are sending 10-100 billion messages a day.

Now, advertisers have to look beyond simply spending big bucks and celebrity endorsement. Youth trust is a commodity where demand far outstrips supply. When the price is high, tactics need to be rethought.

When your marketing dollars stop – what happens to all that goodwill you created? Do you stop featuring in campus bar conversations and across school refectory halls? Do young girls continue to gossip about your brand and boys discuss how they’d improve your products sitting out in the shade drinking soda and tired after an afternoon of soccer?

Marketing’s biggest weakness is its own soil – it’s inorganic. Marketing seeks short term results and as every caffeine fuelled overworked agency exec knows, short term is the client’s push-button.

TV doesn’t work like its used to but we’re still prepared to pour resources into the channel because it’s what we know, we have the relationships and we’re never going to get fired for committing the bulk of our budget to youth programming.

The future lies in a more organic process – one that requires nurturing the soil, one that requires innovation beyond the ability to wield buying power, one that requires marketers to think up why youth should consider your product the choice of their generation.

Yes, spending $25m on a campaign with Britney, Beyonce, Pink works but just because it works doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing to do.

When your organization is geared to only one approach, your worldview follows. If the only tool in your kit is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Pepsi can only see nails. When it tries “social media” it launches a social network where the brand is the main focus point (Pepsi Youniverse) but who wants to be friends or interact with Pepsi?

Pepsi’s challenge is the whole organization is geared towards telling a story about the brand not the customer and while it continues to squeeze success out of the department of hits competitors such as Red Bull and Jones Soda slowly but surely chip away at its market.

These niche brands know that when they see Britney endorsing Pepsi, they don’t believe it, they can’t trust it, it’s fake because the whole story is a selfish one – a story based on interruption, self-indulgence and irrelevance.

Red Bull and Jones know there is a growing legion of young fans out there disenfranchised by the big hits of Pepsi and this is how they’re converting them one customer at a time.