After a huge marketing blitz for Episode II, we just got this unusual rumor from John about Pepsi making no plans to associate with Episode II:

I just got off the phone with a good friend at Pepsi's Corporate offices and he informs me that Pepsi is not doing any EPISODE II promotion whatsoever. Have you or anyone else out there been able to confirm this or did I miss something?

We're surprised to be hearing this as well. Anyone else out there got info on the situation?

UPDATE
SLam sends us this reminder of an article about Tricon dropping Episode II (thus Pepsi as well, the parent company). Fuufuuu points out an interesting article from the fall on Forbes.com talking about the current market, and Dave says "I am not surprised to hear that Pepsi are not having any Episode II tie-ins, because we already knew that their restaurants (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC) are not."

Long also sent this along:

I saw a report on your site concerning Pepsi not getting involved with Episode 2. I work as a member of a management staff for a major grocery chain. I recently spoke to our Pepsi account manager about this exact same thing. He informed me that Pepsi will not be getting behind Episode 2. Frito Lay will be, as you may know. He tells me that they will be doing an Episode 2 promotion (Find the Hero). I do not have all of the details behind it. He also talked about display pieces, posters, and clothing (like jackets) connecting Episode 2 and Frito Lay.

And Brian sends this is as well:

Unfortunately, I think Episode One might have been a sour deal for PepsiCo. They paid a lot of money for the license, so much in fact, that they had to generate a lot of Point of Purchase merchandise to be sold over three fast food chains, along with several snack tie-ins, along with several major soft-drink campaigns.

Just as with Hasbro, Dorling-Kindersly Publishing, and many other licensees - Pepsico sold a lot of merchandise at first but they overproduced their inventory on Episode One and were left with warehouses full of unsold products at the end.

It's really a shame. Hopefully the success of Episode II will bring back promotional fast food, soft drink, and snack partners for a campaign to promote the final installment of Star Wars (but probably on a much more conservative level than with Episode One).