Pepsi launches Mexico games initiative

PepsiCo has launched an initiative in Mexico called Live Healthily, which will aim to teach a million children to make better decisions regarding the food that they eat using a videogame.

The device used will be a "tamagotchi-like computer game" according to a report on Guardian Unlimited, and the child will face a number of decisions through the game about when and what the "nutri" character should eat, or when it should play sports.

The company's vice president of corporate affairs in the country, Jorge Meyer, noted a significant obesity problem there, that 80 per cent of schools don't have drinking water access and many children consume soft drinks as an alternative.

"It isn't about whether soda is good or bad for you," he said. "If there was no soda either, what would the kids drink?"

The use of videogames to market messages is nothing new - Burger King made a very successful foray onto the Xbox platforms in 2006 with a series of games that shifted 2 million units in four weeks in the US.

Pepsi's initiative won't see the company cut down on its lucrative range of soft drinks and snacks in Mexico however, but Meyer denies any contradiction in this.

"We are already producing nutritional products," he said. "The problem is that Mexicans haven't wanted to buy them."