Vacation is extending its Pepsi collaboration with a packaging-led summer giveaway that turns a cherry cola-flavoured lip balm into a nostalgic brand experience. The beauty brand, known for its retro visual identity and playful sunscreen storytelling, is using specially marked caps to recreate the feeling of Pepsi prize promotions from the 1990s and early 2000s.

The promotion builds on the lip balm first launched with Pepsi in February. Consumers who purchase the product through Target, TikTok Shop or Vacation’s own e-commerce site may find a number printed underneath the cap, corresponding to redeemable merchandise. More than 40,000 lip balms with marked caps will be available during the campaign, which runs from July through September 30.

The collaboration shows how packaging can become a participation mechanic, not just a container for the product.

For Vacation, the cap detail is central to the idea. Rather than relying only on external graphics or advertising, the brand turns the opening moment into part of the campaign. The simple act of twisting off a cap becomes a discovery experience, echoing the excitement of finding a prize code inside a soda bottle. This is a strong example of how secondary messaging, hidden print and pack structure can support emotional engagement.

The lip balm itself also reflects a wider beauty packaging trend: products are increasingly designed as cultural objects. Vacation’s vintage-inspired world-building is visible across its typography, colour palette, product naming and retail presentation. By collaborating with Pepsi, the brand links sensory beauty care with the memory of summer drinks, convenience stores and collectible giveaways.

Packaging plays a key role in making that connection credible. A cherry cola flavour, compact lip balm format and prize mechanic all work together to create a product that feels more like a piece of lifestyle merchandise than a standard beauty item. The result is a pack that functions across several channels at once: retail shelf, social media, gifting, loyalty and promotion.

The campaign also highlights the growing commercial power of merchandise in beauty and personal care. Vacation and Pepsi are offering archival and co-branded items including jackets, T-shirts, clocks and water bottles. These products extend the collaboration beyond the lip balm and allow consumers to wear or display their connection to the brand world.

• Hidden cap codes create surprise and encourage repeat engagement.
• Retro packaging cues reinforce the 1990s and early 2000s inspiration.
• Co-branded merchandise expands the campaign beyond the core product.
• Travel-friendly lip balm supports impulse purchase and daily use.
• Retail and social channels work together to amplify discovery.

The original Pepsi lip balm launch reportedly generated around $1 million in sales within its first three months, becoming Vacation’s top-selling product by units sold at Target and on the brand’s direct-to-consumer site. That performance helps explain why the partnership is now moving into a broader promotional phase.

The timing also fits a wider beauty market shift towards experiential launches. Brands are increasingly using pop-ups, food collaborations, transport takeovers and limited-edition merchandise to create memorable moments around relatively small products. In this environment, packaging must do more than protect and identify. It must help build a world that consumers want to enter, photograph and share.

Nostalgia is a powerful tool in this strategy. Younger consumers may not have experienced the original Pepsi cap promotions directly, but many are attracted to the visual and emotional codes of a pre-digital era. Vacation uses that appeal to make a modern beauty product feel familiar, collectible and culturally specific.

For packaging designers, the campaign offers a useful lesson. Small structural details can have major storytelling value when they are connected to a strong brand idea. A cap, seal, label interior or opening gesture can become the most memorable part of the consumer experience.

Vacation’s Pepsi giveaway demonstrates how beauty packaging can merge product, promotion and pop culture. By embedding the prize mechanic inside the lip balm cap, the brand transforms a routine format into a playful summer ritual and strengthens the role of packaging as a driver of engagement, sales and brand affinity.

Image suggestion: a retro summer display featuring cherry cola-flavoured Vacation x Pepsi lip balms, twist-off caps with hidden prize numbers, colourful co-branded merchandise and vintage soda-inspired packaging graphics.