Beyonce has inked a $50 million deal with soft drinks giant Pepsi , days after television host Wendy Williams dismissed the singer as someone who “sounds like she has a fifth grade education.”
The 30-year-old superstar has been named as Pepsi’s ambassador with a multi-million dollar contract to match.
Pepsi’s endorsement will dovetail neatly into Beyonce’s already-in-the-works fifth album release in 2013.
According to the New York Times , Pepsi’s collaboration with the “Put A Ring On It” singer is also different from artist deals it has made in the past.
Reaching beyond just brand promotion, the Beyonce and Pepsi alliance is a myriad stranded arrangement that includes a multi-million dollar fund to support her career.
As well as the usual billboard adverts and featuring on a limited-edition line of co-created soda cans, Pepsi’s deal will penetrate into Beyonce’s music empire and include projects that have no “explicit connection to Pepsi products.”
According to Lee Anne Callahan-Longo, general manager of Beyonce’s company — “Parkwood Entertainment” — those projects could entail Pepsi investing in live events, photo shoots, videos or “almost anything else.”
In a statement Beyonce said :
“Pepsi embraces creativity and understands that artists evolve. As a businesswoman, this allows me to work with a lifestyle brand with no compromise and without sacrificing my creativity.”
2013 promises to be a another big year for the singer after a relatively quiet one — by her standards — in which she had a daughter, Blue Ivy, with husband Jay-Z, and partnered with Unicef for “World Humanitarian Day.”
In the diary for Beyonce’s year ahead, is a half time Super Bowl performance on February 3 (sponsored by Pepsi), new music produced by The Dream , and a self-directed, executive produced, reveal-all HBO documentary that airs in the US on February 16, 2013.
If that’s what a fifth grade education gets you, we’ll take it.