Why Pepsi wants you to mix milk into your soda

Lindsay Lohan made a dirty soda in a Pepsi ad.

Well, kind of.

In a recent commercial, Santa Claus sneaks down the stairs to get the chocolate chip cookies and milk that are sitting on the coffee table.

Instead of eating the milk and cookies, Santa Claus mixes the milk with the Pepsi. Lindsay Lohan takes a drink of the “dirty soda.” The commercial is called “That Is One Dirty Soda, Santa” and is meant as a nod to the phenomenon of dirty sodas.

Pepsi calls it “Pilk and Cookies” — Pepsi mixed with milk and cookies.

According to People magazine, the soda company is offering a #PilkAndCookiesChallenge. Twenty-five fans will win a cash prize. Fans have to follow Pepsi on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, and then they have to share a photo or video of them with their Pilk and Cookies.

Technically speaking, a dirty soda is half and half mixed with soda, but the milk with soda is in the spirit of a dirty soda.

Dirty sodas are a Utah-created phenomenon.

Meg Walter for Deseret News wrote about how the dirty soda trend has recently gone viral on TikTok. In 2021, Utah-based company Swig Drinks posted a photo of Olivia Rodrigo drinking a 32-ounce Swig soda.

Walter wrote, “The dirty Diet Coke — the mother of all dirty sodas — arrived on the scene in the early 2010s. Diet Coke mixed with coconut syrup, fresh lime and a splash of half-and-half became the official drink of tired Utah moms.”

The Pepsi ad is giving renewed attention to dirty sodas.