Note: If viewing Michael Jackson Ultimate Archive on archive.org (Wayback Machine), please view the latest snapshot of this page for the most up-to-date information and media.

Pepsi Press Conference (United Negro College Fund) / 1988 Grammys Performance Rehearsals

Date confirmed on mock check (“March 1, 1988”)

Pepsi Press Conference and Pepsi Commercials:

Michael Jackson, Pepsi press conference, speech transcript

Thank you very much. I am very honoured. I am very thankful. I love you all. Thank you.

Joe Pytka, director, personal website (accessed April 9, 2020) (archived)

When we were doing the Pepsi CHASE campaign with Michael Jackson, the notion of ‘what car?’ came up.  Michael just said he wanted a  ‘cool car.’  I’m not sure he even had a driver’s license.

The first car that came to mind was the Lamborghini Diablo but it would be impossible to see Michael in the car.  I decided that the Ferrari Testarossa with the top chopped would be the ideal car.  This was before the car was made famous in the Miami Vice series.  The agency wasn’t making decisions so I bought one on spec and had it taken to Richard Straman, a Ferrari chop top specialist.  In those days Ferraris were sold by charlatans.  There were many strange things that passed for Ferrari dealers.  I had a friend up north (Berkeley) that dealt with them and he kept them under covers in a warehouse as most of them were illegal.  I found this one at an Oldsmobile dealer in the Valley and had to overpay for the thing.  Road and Track magazine had to borrow cars from owners to test them.

Straman hadn’t done a Testarossa but agreed to make the deadline but couldn’t guarantee that the car would stay together for long since he couldn’t tell what removing the top would do to the car’s structure.  He made the deadline, but not before he took the car to Road and Track and tested it. The car made the cover of the magazine, albeit with much information about the commercial that was yet to be seen.  I guess the Pepsi guys don’t read Road and Track.  Later, the car shows up on a car calendar.  I guess they had more time than they needed.

The first day of shooting, the stunt guy crashes the front end of the car rehearsing.  Don’t worry, we’ll just shoot Michael’s closeups in the car and we’ll do the driving later, after we repair the nose of the car.  The one thing I worry about is that Michael will ask for the car after the commercials are finished.

The rest of the shoot goes fine.  Later, I find that the car needs a lot more work to make it really dependable and drivable.  Straman had to rush the work to make the deadline and many details could be improved.  I take it to another guy, closer, to do this work in his own time.  It takes a year and I’m embarrassed to say how much, but the car is perfect.  Right after this, Pininfarina, the Italian design firm that did the car originally, makes a chopped Testarossa for Gianni Agnelli, the elegant president of Fiat, Ferrari’s parent company.  It sucks compared to ours.

The car looks terrific without a top.  I don’t know why the factory never made a roadster.  It was the last car that Enzo Ferrari himself was involved with.  He passed away during this time.  I was always uncomfortable in the car.  My knees were by my chin.  It had the classic Italian driving position, short legs, long arms (this is not veiled racism, it is fact).  The car drove great, though.  It had the feel of a race car, flat cornering, harsh ride, all that good stuff.  The brakes weren’t very good, though.  Enzo once said that his cars were to go fast, not stop.  Rest in peace, Commendatore.

“News of the World” (March 15, 1987)

The ad was shot on a closed set in a quiet Los Angeles suburb with fans and photographers kept at bay… [he’s] minded by a close-knit bunch of bodyguards that includes Marlon Brando’s son, Miko.

Chris Cadman, author, “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

Michael presented a $ 600,000 cheque to the United Negro College Fund on 1st March, 1988 at a special Pepsi Conference that came from ticket sales for his Madison Square Garden show on 3rd March, 1988. The press conference held at "1018", a disco in Manhattan, New York, was beamed via satellite to journalists around the world. It was perceived that Michael would take part in a question and answer session; however all they got was a short speech that read:

"Thank you very much. I am very honoured. I am very thankful. I love you all. Thank you."

He was then photographed with the winners of the "Be Against Drugs" (BAD) essay contest.

Michael’s Pepsi commercials became the first paid for advertisements in Russia in 1988. The commercials were to be run between 17th-21st May during the five-part series, "Pozner in America,” on the Gosteleradion Network. The Reagan and Gorbachev summit meeting was on 29th May, 1988.

The two 30 second ads shown were ‘The Concert’ and ‘Backstage.’

Grammy Awards:

Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the Grammy Awards

"Michael performed a medley of "Man In The Mirror" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" at the 30th Grammy Awards at Radio City in New York in 1988. Following his rehearsal, he called me and asked if I would bring Walter Miller, our director, over to his hotel to go over `a few shots' from the tape I had given him. It was the night before the show but after our last rehearsal, we went over to the Helmsley Palace and found ourselves in this amazing duplex suite with views of all of lower Manhattan, alone with Michael and his choreographer, Vince Patterson.

"Michael had only a few shot changes and, after some small talk about having a great performance the next night on the show, Walter and I left with Vince.

"But just before Vince left, Michael whispered something to him and I saw Vince give him something.

"On the way down in the elevator, I asked Vince what Michael had said. Vince told us that he had given him this wooden microphone that Michael liked to rehearse with, and that Michael would probably stand in front of the full-length mirror that he had propped up against one window in the corner of the suite and rehearse most of the night, fine tuning his steps.

"The thought of this man, nominated for several Grammys, alone against the skyline of the city, rehearsing on a night when most of his fellow nominees were out celebrating, has never left me over the number of times we've worked together. Getting it right, getting it perfect, was more important than anything else."