Alan M. Pottasch's Estate (former)

This the former New Fairfield, CT home of Alan M. Pottasch. The current owner is Alan's widow, Lisa Anne Pottasch, with former PepsiCo Inc. CEO and current Chairman of DreamWorks Pictures SKG, Inc. Roger A. Enrico as the trustee. Alan Maxwell Pottasch (August 13, 1927 in Long Island, NY—July 27, 2007 in Los Angeles) was an American advertising executive and marketer best known for his five decades of work for PepsiCo. Specifically, Pottasch is best known as the creator behind the "Pepsi Generation" advertising campaign.

Pottasch enlisted at served in the United States Navy during World War II. Pottasch enrolled at Pennsylvania State University following World War II. He graduated from Penn State in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing. Pottasch went to a directors school and went on to work at a television station in Dallas, Texas and as a producer-director at ABC-TV. Alan Pottasch began working for Pepsico in 1957. The year that Pottasch joined Pepsico, Coca Cola outsold Pepsi by a six to one margin in the United States. Under Pottasch, the "Pepsi Generation" marketing campaign was launched in 1963. Pottasch's "Pepsi Generation" marketing campaign has been called groundbreaking because it focused on the "attributes" of the consumers buying Pepsi's products (sometimes called "selling a way of life"), not just attributes of the product itself, such as price or taste. This was very uncommon marketing strategy for a company in the early 1960s. The campaign and Pepsi Generation theme was launched and aimed at young Baby Boomers just as they were becoming an important consumer and demographic group. The campaign was a risk for Pepsi. Years later Pottasch said in a podcast posted on Yahoo's "Giants of Advertising" web site, "For us to name and claim a whole generation after our product was a rather courageous thing that we weren't sure would take off." The risk paid off for both Pottasch and Pepsi. Under Pottasch's campaigns, Pepsi eventually went from behind Coca Cola, to being on par with Coke in several markets.

Alan Pottasch changed and slightly tweaked Pepsi's slogan to "The Choice of a New Generation" in 1984. The new theme was meant as a break from the past and show that Pepsi had something new to offer consumers, with an emphasis on music. Pottasch developed famous 1980s Pepsi commercials starring Lionel Richie, David Bowie, and Madonna. However, he was most well known for developing a series of award winning Pepsi commercials starring Michael Jackson. In a famous accident, Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming one of Pottasch's commercials. He once told a Yahoo podcast, "I guess I'm best known for having burned Michael Jackson's hair." Pottasch eventually produced a large number of Pepsi commercials featuring Michael J. Fox, Ray Charles, Cindy Crawford, Britney Spears and Beyonce Knowles. Pottasch officially retired from Pepsi in 1991, but continued to work for the company as a consultant. He eventually returned to Pepsico full time. He continued to work for Pepsi up to 2007.

Built in 1977, home is set on a property that consists of 5.45 acres. According to public property records, the current appraised value of the property, which overlooks Candlewood Lake, the largest lake in Connecticut, is $956,600. The property features a swimming pool and a tennis court. The home has 5,827 square feet of living space and contains 3 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, and 2 half bathrooms.