SodaStream Kicked Off Super Bowl, but Exposure Soars

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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SodaStream International (NASDAQ: SODA), the odd anti-Coke, anti-Pepsi company, had its advertising for the Super Bowl kicked off TV coverage of the event. The publicity from the decision may bring SodaStream as much exposure as the advertising would have, since the news of the decision was carried in almost every large news medium in the United States. It may not matter, SodaStream is in trouble.

According to USA Today:

The “Reject Bowl” for Super Bowl ads has kicked off with about a week to go before the Big Game.

Fox has rejected this year’s SodaStream Super Bowl commercial — roughly one year after CBS, the Super Bowl broadcast network for the last game, took a similar action against SodaStream’s spot for that game.

Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream, bitterly complained to USA TODAY late Friday that Fox rejected the Super Bowl commercial “because they’re afraid of Coke and Pepsi.”

This year’s rejected ad for the make-your-own soft drink company — which stars red-hot actress Scarlett Johansson sensually sipping her home-made soda — got nixed because it ends with her saying, “Sorry, Coke and Pepsi.

The company recently signed Johansson as its spokesperson.

It is impossible to imagine what the concerns of PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) or Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) might be. SodaStream’s entire revenue was $562 million last year. Its net income was only $42 million. Coke’s revenue is nearly $50 billion, and Pepsi’s more than $65 billion

All the media exposure and advertising in the world may not be enough to reverse the company’s awful fortunes. Its shares have fallen nearly 35% in the past six months, while the S&P 500 is 8% higher. Johansson and the Super Bowl may get SodaStream visibility for a while, but once the controversy passes, it still has to deal with the fact that Wall Street has little or no confidence in its future.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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