In fact, the competing Coke site, which was one of the earliest big consumer-products company ventures on the Web, looks tame by contrast—no doubt an effect Pepsi intended. From the Java-animated spinning Pepsi logo on the new site's home page to the Shockwave and VRML spectaculars inside, Pepsi World uses state-of-the-art technology throughout.

However, the site also uses technology to a fault—there is simply too much of it, more than most visitors will be able to handle. Granted, the Pepsi World home page offers a "Landing Gear" link to all the latest bells and whistles, where every plug-in imaginable seems to be on offer. But to fully experience "Psychotropic Sundae," the site's showcase version, visitors will have to load all of them. Most people's machines will lack the memory and the processing power to do this comfortably. And "Vanilla Wafer," the site's less demanding version, seems a rather flat alternative.

Pepsi World's tone and content fall flat as well. The site is intrusive (at least by Web standards), since it requires registration and the submission of personal data for full participation. And the centerpiece "Shaq/Pepsi World's Slammin' Techno Dream Contest" promotion is, together with the site's high-tech games and role playing, too overtly aimed at young male surfers, to the exclusion of others. If you belong to the target audience—i.e., if you're a game-playin', sports-lovin' young dude whose Pentium or Power Mac is loaded with RAM—you'll undoubtedly love this site. But if you're not a member, you have little reason to visit—or to come back if you do.

(Reviewed March 6, 1996)