Scottie Pippen’s new Mr. Pibb commercial works because it is selling more than a soda. It is selling a reputation, a grievance, and a joke all at once. In the campaign, Pippen leans directly into the familiar idea of being viewed as second-best, tying his own public image to Mr. Pibb’s long-running place in the soft-drink hierarchy.
The ad debuted during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and was designed around that exact premise: Scottie Pippen, recast as “Mr. Pipp,” pushing back against the label of being perpetually overlooked.
That is what makes the commercial so clever. On the surface, it is a brand revival spot for Mr. Pibb. Underneath, it is an unmistakable wink at the long-running Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen conversation that has hovered over Pippen’s post-playing public life. The copy does not hide from that tension. Instead, it weaponizes it. Pippen says in the ad,
“When something has been considered second-best for so long, we just blindly accept it as gospel….A decade-long plot built on marketing, social media and multi-part documentaries… Yeah, I said it. Pipp is the Goat…”
Scottie Pippen throws shade 👀
“When something has been considered second-best for so long, we just blindly accept it as gospel….A decade-long plot built on marketing, social media and multi-part documentaries.”
(h/t @big_business_ )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 23, 2026
That reference to “multi-part documentaries” is widely understood as a nod to The Last Dance, the Jordan-centered series that further shaped the modern public memory of the Bulls dynasty.
The brilliance of the spot lies in its double meaning. It plays as a soda commercial, but it also plays as performance art from a Hall of Famer who knows exactly how he has been framed in basketball history. Rather than deny the narrative, Pippen bends it to his advantage. The ad is intentionally provocative, but it is also funny, because it understands the audience already gets the subtext.
In that sense, the campaign is unusually well matched to its spokesperson. Mr. Pibb is pitching itself as a challenger brand that has been underestimated for years, and Pippen has spent much of his post-career life wrestling with a similar perception.
