Pepsi video 'makes Rochester look so beautiful'

A 30-second TV spot during Sunday's NFL championship game costs a reported $4.5 million, but the city of Rochester is getting a solid dose of Super Bowl-week publicity for free.

The video from the recent weekend visit by Pepsi — including the Jan. 18 Hyped for Halftime concert with Nico & Vinz — was posted on YouTube Tuesday night by the beverage giant.

Call it Hyped for Rochester.

Pepsi is obviously selling itself, but the 2-minute, 54-second video easily could have been produced by the Rochester Business Alliance.

"I think they captured everything so perfectly," said Haley Biemiller, who spearheaded efforts among her friends to win Hyped for Halftime contest for Rochester.

"It makes Rochester look so beautiful — and that's what it deserves."

Biemiller, a 19-year-old Irondequoit resident, leaves for Scottsdale, Arizona, on Thursday with the 18 other contest winners from the Rochester area, and their guests.

They'll be on the field at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Sunday evening for Katy Perry's halftime show.

Over the weekend of Jan. 16-18, Pepsi invaded Rochester, organizing pop-up concerts while also setting up vending machines to dispense free Pepsi.

Their cameras captured the events, they interviewed a host of concert-goers and the voice of WHAM-TV (channel 13) anchor Doug Emblidge is used as the video begins.

"Pepsi put it on their Facebook page on Tuesday night and I texted everyone and must have shared it a million times," Biemiller said.

The video was produced for social media only and will not be a part of Pepsi's TV spot during the Super Bowl, said Pepsi spokesperson Angela Tucciarone.

KEVINO@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/@kevinoDandC