Bubly Finally Becomes Bublé For The Holidays

The different pronunciation of sparkling water brand Bubly and spokesman Michael Bublé's surname has been a running gag in its marketing for a while.

Now the PepsiCo brand is temporarily adopting the latter's "Bub-leh" pronunciation with a new holiday-themed product called Merry Berry Bublé.

Promotion for the berry-flavoured beverage, which comes in a can resembling a festive sweater, includes a holiday pop-up at shopping centres across Canada, a knitwear collection featuring a sweater, toque, and socks, and holiday mocktail recipes.

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Bublé, meanwhile, is promoting the new product with an Instagram post in which he tells his 3.5 million followers how he has spent "years and hundreds of dollars in sharpies" crossing out the "y" on cans of Bubly and replacing them with the "é."

"I'm so excited because they did me right," he says in the video. "Not only is the real 'é' put on there, but look at this: 'Merry Berry Bublé.'"

The always nattily attired crooner, who's seen out of "uniform" in jeans and a hoodie, also points to the can's inclusion of a tie and MB insignia. "It's good. It's always good," he says after tasting the product, then heads over to a piano to sing an ode to the new flavour.

“We’ve all had the pleasure of watching Michael Bublé's hilarious antics and with his love of the holidays, this is the perfect time to give him the gift he has been asking for,” said Lourdes Seminario, senior marketing director, hydration at PepsiCo Canada. “Bubly is refreshing the holiday season with this exciting new flavour and connecting with our fans across the country, in new and exciting ways."

Agencies on the campaign include Praxis, OMD, Motive, TreeTop and ShakerMaker.