For Coke and Pepsi, Super Bowl is market share play

Tough time: People stand in line to get into a Coca-Cola promotional tent in central Kiev, Ukraine. Coca-Cola and other US multinationals, including Super Bowl advertisers Anheuser-Busch InBev and Colgate-Palmolive, have been clipped by a strong US dollar that is cutting into revenues in Latin America and Asia. — Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: Coca-Cola Co, PepsiCo and other consumer-facing companies spending big bucks to advertise during yesterday’s Super Bowl football extravaganza will be making a play for more market share to offset a slow economy and less overseas revenue.

In the year since the last Super Bowl, shares of companies selling everyday consumer products like food and cleaning supplies have outperformed most other sectors, partly because they are seen as relatively safe bets in world of growing macroeconomic worries.