Her greatest acting accomplish- ments, in retrospect, have been in playing Madonna-cultural icon and superbrand. Her comfort in the role stems from total involvement with her brand image, personality, and promise, all of which she controls and changes as she sees fit. This may be why her first movie, Desperately Seeking Susan, in which she plays a sharp-tongued character similar to the Madonna persona of that time, remains a standout performance. It even did fairly well at the box office.

Madonna had established her brand: It stood for self-expression;

it begged for breaking the rules; it screamed sex. She established her- self as a trendsetter who kept one pace ahead of what her fans would adopt shortly after she debuted it. Fans expected her to push the envelope of acceptability, sexuality, and creative freedom, and they expected her to keep evolving and guiding them on fashion and lifestyle trends. She might be controversial and criticized by many, but she sparked a flame not only among the boys, but also thousands of teenage girls who adopted her sexy styles.

Like a Prayer

The defining musical product for Madonna was her 1989 album Like a Prayer, with four tracks hitting number one and setting up her 1990 year-long Blonde Ambition tour. In this album she bared her soul emotionally as much as she had bared her body elsewhere, with songs appealing to human feelings and emotions about family, death, and divorce, much as the album Elton John had done nearly two decades earlier. "Promise to Try" reflected Madonnas reactions to her mothers death at age six, and "Oh Father" focused on her dif- ficult relationship with her father, while "Till Death Do Us Part" reflected her own failed marriage with Sean Penn. It was "Express Yourself," however, that would become an anthem for personal em- powerment among women and establish Madonna as a premier role model for women looking to take control of their circumstances and relationships. This song revealed Madonnas true position on sex; while critics saw her blatant sexuality as something that degraded women and set the womens movement back 20 years, she saw it as something that could empower them in a male-oriented world.

It was the title song "Like a Prayer," however, that created the great- est buzz among fans, marketers, and casual observers alike. In a bold step toward marketing and branding innovation, Pepsi-Cola became the first company to debut a hit song and video on a television com- mercial. It signed a one-year $5 million contract with Madonna to use the song in its commercial and sponsor the Blonde Ambition tour. This new formula of corporate sponsorship and pop music seemed to be a natural win-win marketing strategy. Pepsi could ride on the coat- tails of the emotional connection Madonna had with her fans; Ma- donna could debut her music and reach a larger base of fans-the Pepsi Generation.

The two-minute commercial aired on March 2, 1989, amid a buzz of hype and anticipation as viewers turned on their sets just to see the commercial. It opened with Madonna innocently watching a child- hood birthday party, drinking Pepsi, and remembering it as the same Pepsi she drank at birthday parties when she was a child. The gospel- infused song and the production served up just the right music- picture