When it comes to marketing strategies, the geniuses at PepsiCo are famous for knowing no boundaries. After all, they are the ones responsible for one of the most famous TV commercials in all history, featuring the late King of Pop: Michael Jackson –of course, that particular commercial is memorable for reasons the Pepsi executives would probably prefer to forget…
And yet, this latest ad I found during one of my latest online meanderings seemed like it crossed a strange borderline: One marking the limits between ‘normal’ mainstream pop culture and… well… OUR turf of the strange and bizarre.
The video in question –almost a mini-movie, truth be told– released on November 18th 2015 and directed by Jabbar Raisani, deals with one of the most interesting and captivating pieces of modern mythology that’s been spawned from the World Wide Web: The story of the Black Knight.
Black Knight Decoded starts with some ominous text:
“In 1899, Nikola Tesla discovered a satellite orbiting Earth.
It’s origin can be traced back over 13,000 years.
This is NOT Science Fiction. This is real.”
And from there the Fortean lever goes up to 10.5 –sorry, but to reach a full 11, they should have also included some mention about Philip K. Dick and VALIS.
Still, Black Knight Decoded does a pretty good job of mixing together government conspiracies, ancient aliens, Zecharia Sitchin’s Annunaki, secret ET codes AND that Steampunk version of Gandalf the wizard that was our beloved St. Tesla.
And maybe THAT is the reason why the Black Knight mythos is so darn compelling: Because it manages to connect *all* these seemingly disparate themes floating around in the Fortean blogosphere in a yarn that almost makes sense –whether that yarn, and Usher lyrics manage to increase the sales of sugary carbonated water branding a bi-color logo remains to be seen of course…
Also, never mind that those badass ‘official’ photos of the Black Knight itself have been IMO convincingly debunked. Skepticism cannot bring a good story down, dammit!
But wait, there’s more: The PepsiCo production is clearly also a flashy advertising tool for the Urthecast company: The Canada-based enterprise responsible for the hi-def camera onboard the ISS which made all those ‘gods-level’ takes from Xi’An (China), Cancún (Mexico), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Sydney (Australia), Ostrava (Czech Republic), Cluj (Romania), Warsaw (Poland), Sochi (Russia), DaNang (Vietnam), Delhi (India) and SinCity (USA) –really America? You’re going with a freaking emoji to communicate with superior alien beings for the first freaking time in History??.
So, not only did PepsiCo let us learn there’s a PRIVATE surveilance system onboard of what was supposedly a publicly-funded multinational space station, but that for some strange reason they chose to name their company after the Sumerian city of Ur –you know? the primordial city in the Fertile Crescent where the Annunaki gods left their mark?
So I don’t know about you, but me I’m getting clear of that Crystal Pepsi stuff for the time being –I think those Nibiru Reptilians finally realized fluoridated water wouldn’t cut it anymore…