No Rock And Roll Fun

PEPSI FALLS FLAT: Pepsi is ending its sponsorship of the less important Top 40 (used by commercial radio stations and, really, nobody else) at the end of the year. The Daily Telegraph is speculating that the replacement sponsor might be a mobile phone company, keen to bring the same sort of mindless text gossiping generated by football and big brother sponsorships to the chart, thereby depriving the nostalgists who hope for a return to the original name for the list, the Nescafe Chart. Apparently it costs £1.75m to sponsor the chart, which we reckon should make it a fairly cheap deal compared to the cost of some other vanity projects. But before company finance directors get out the chequebook, it might be worth pausing a moment - did Pepsi actually gain anything from its sponsorship, apart from cementing its image as second best in people's minds? And whatever happened to Worldpop, who tried to buy the proper chart last year? Ozymandias Top 40, anyone?