Vacation has teamed up with Wild Cherry Pepsi to launch a Valentine’s Day lip balm that channels 80s nostalgia. Featuring vintage Pepsi graphics, cherries, and striped backgrounds, the retro-inspired packaging blends Vacation’s poolside aesthetic with Pepsi’s iconic branding, offering fans a playful, fruity twist on a cult-favourite flavour.
In a collaboration that feels equal parts nostalgic and playful, Vacation has partnered with Wild Cherry Pepsi to release a lip balm just in time for Valentine’s Day. The product is more than a seasonal novelty—it’s a carefully crafted throwback to the late 1980s, when Pepsi’s branding was bold, colourful, and instantly recognisable. By marrying Vacation’s signature retro poolside aesthetic with Pepsi’s vintage design language, the lip balm becomes both a beauty accessory and a cultural artefact, tapping into the enduring appeal of nostalgia in consumer products.
The packaging is where the collaboration truly shines. Vacation, known for its tongue-in-cheek embrace of 80s leisure culture, has leaned into Pepsi’s visual heritage to create a tube that looks like it could have been plucked straight from a sun-drenched pool deck in 1989. The body of the lip balm is drenched in red, adorned with the “Wild Cherry” wordmark, cherries, and striped backgrounds that echo Pepsi’s late-80s design cues. The bottom and cap are rendered in Pepsi blue, creating a striking contrast that balances the overall look. While Pepsi dominates the branding, Vacation’s mark is subtly placed near the cap, a nod to the brand’s role as curator of this retro revival.
Wild Cherry Pepsi has long been a fan-favourite flavour, and its translation into lip balm is not entirely new. The soda brand has previously licensed the flavour to other companies, including Taste Beauty and Read My Lips, both of which produced lip balms that leaned on Pepsi’s contemporary branding. What sets this collaboration apart is its deliberate rejection of modern design in favour of a vintage aesthetic. By eschewing Pepsi’s current branding, Vacation has created a product that feels perfectly at home in its brand world—a place where leisure, humour, and nostalgia intersect.
The timing of the release is no accident. Valentine’s Day has become a key moment for brands to launch playful, themed products that tap into the season’s emphasis on romance and indulgence. A lip balm flavoured like Wild Cherry Pepsi is both cheeky and fitting, offering consumers a way to celebrate the holiday with a wink. The cherry flavour carries obvious romantic connotations, while the cola twist adds a layer of fun. For fans of both brands, the collaboration is a chance to indulge in a flavour they already love, now reimagined as a beauty product.
From a branding perspective, the collaboration demonstrates the power of nostalgia as a marketing tool. In recent years, consumers have shown a strong appetite for products that evoke the aesthetics of past decades, particularly the 80s and 90s. Vacation has built its entire identity around this trend, crafting sunscreens and accessories that feel like souvenirs from a bygone era of carefree leisure. By partnering with Pepsi, a brand with deep cultural roots and instantly recognisable iconography, Vacation has extended its reach while reinforcing its core identity.
Pepsi, too, benefits from the collaboration. While the brand continues to innovate with new flavours and campaigns, collaborations like this allow it to tap into lifestyle markets beyond beverages. By licensing Wild Cherry Pepsi to Vacation, Pepsi positions itself not just as a drink, but as a cultural symbol that can be reinterpreted across categories. The lip balm becomes a way for Pepsi to engage with consumers in unexpected contexts, reinforcing its relevance in everyday life.
The choice to use vintage branding is particularly savvy. In an era where consumers are inundated with sleek, modern packaging, the retro look stands out on shelves and in social media feeds. It invites consumers to reminisce about a time when branding was bold and playful, while also appealing to younger audiences who view retro aesthetics as fresh and ironic. The collaboration thus bridges generations, offering something for longtime Pepsi fans and newcomers alike.
Ultimately, the Vacation x Wild Cherry Pepsi lip balm is more than a novelty item. It’s a carefully considered product that leverages nostalgia, humour, and seasonal timing to create cultural resonance. For Vacation, it’s another chapter in its ongoing mission to reimagine leisure culture through beauty and lifestyle products. For Pepsi, it’s a reminder of the brand’s enduring ability to adapt and remain relevant across decades.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, the lip balm offers consumers a chance to celebrate with a flavour that’s both familiar and surprising. It’s a small but delightful example of how brands can collaborate to create products that are not only functional but also fun, memorable, and deeply rooted in cultural storytelling. In the crowded landscape of holiday-themed launches, the Vacation x Wild Cherry Pepsi lip balm stands out as a product that captures the spirit of romance, nostalgia, and play—all in a single tube.
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