• by Danielle Oster , May 31, 2024

When PepsiCo's Gatorade first introduced its “Is It In You?” tagline in the 1990s, it only had one major rival to fend off. Now, amid a more crowded field of competitors, the category leader is bringing back the popular slogan for a new generation -- with a familiar voice returning to deliver the message.

This week, Gatorade launched what it claims is its largest-ever campaign with the 60-second ad “IT Hasn’t Changed,” which debuted during the NBA Western Conference Finals Game 4. Not only does the ad feature several top athletes from Gatorade’s brand roster, but NBA legend Michael Jordan, the star of the original campaign, narrates the spot, which centers around a message of celebrating inner strength and also features women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark.

In addition to the Indiana Fever rookie, the ad also includes such athletes as Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, American hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, and Las Vegas Aces power forward A'ja Wilson.

According to a release, the campaign follows a Gatorade survey that found 53% of Gen Z athletes who dropped out of sports cited “external factors like social pressures and unrealistic expectations.”

"As the brand that has been on the sidelines fueling athletes for decades, we're committed to not only helping them stay in the game but also celebrating their unique 'IT',” Gatorade Chief Brand Officer Anuj Bhasin said in a statement. “The return of 'Is It In You?,' our biggest campaign of all time, is about acknowledging how much the sports landscape has changed, while reminding athletes that one thing hasn't -- the inner drive that fuels you -- and that's what matters most.”

According to Gatorade’s announcement, the campaign will be “unmissable” throughout the summer, with support including Gatorade-colored sweat social media elements from Gatorade’s athlete partners, as well as custom filters on Snapchat and Instagram for consumers to recreate the effect. An OOH component will feature billboards in cities across the country.

The campaign arrives as PepsiCo has continued to expanded the Gatorade brand portfolio, which it now characterizes as “a connected performance and wellness ecosystem” -- including the national launch of Gatorade Water earlier this year.

It also comes as main rival Coca-Cola invests in a two-pronged approach in the category behind its BodyArmor and Powerade brands -- the number two and three brands in the category by sales in the U.S., according to Statista.  More recent brands are also making the category -- and shelf space -- more crowded. Electrolit, which entered the U.S. market in 2015, and 2022 upstart Prime round out Statista’s list of best-selling brands nationally for 2023, respectively.