Five minutes with Pepsi persons

YOU'D have to wonder exactly how much it costs to have Andre Agassi give his most winning smile and say with deep and startling sincerity: "I'm proud to be a member of Pepsi family." But on Tuesday in a freezing airplane hanger at the Pepsi press launch, the very bald star, looking rather - in real clothes (a suit) and shoes (black brogues), told us over and over again just how pleased he was to be a Pepsi person.

Claudia Schieffer and Cindy Crawford did the same in what billed as the most expensive press launch ever. Four hundred journalists were flown into London from all over the world to unveil Project Blue the $500 million plan to change the colour of the fizzy stuff's can to blue.

Well, that's what it boils down to, but in the hands of the evangelical sounding American marketing people, "Project Blue is a quantum leap into the future and redefines how the Cola Wars (note the capital letters) will be fought and won in the 21st century."

They showed their new commercials, unveiled a dinky blue Concorde and talked about conquering Europe and "cutting a swathe through Egypt" while the journalists at the front, from as far away as Mexico and Thailand, looked on sceptically, and the hundreds of "bottling partners" and distributors at the back clapped and cheered with the enthusiasm of the converted.

Clutching my security pass with "Crawford, cluster 1A" written on it I was herded to a table at the corner of the enormous hanger with nine other journalists. We were warned that we would have a total of five minutes with Cindy and if anyone asked a question about her private life she would get up and leave and move on to the next cluster.

When she had finished giving 30 (two minutes only!) TV interviews, "including one for Head to Toe, the incredibly gorgeous Cindy arrived at the table and rather annoyingly - bogged the only heater in the vacinity.

Only two of us spoke English, though the Ukranian gamely asked his question through his interpreter, and in case you're interested, yes, Cindy does like reading.

The Turkish guy seemed overjawed and didn't open his mouth, but it could have been because before Cindy sat down he had broken the long tedious silence by leaning over and saying, without preamble or introduction, "Johnny Logan". He looked quite hurt by the shrieks of laughter and promptly clammed up. (Our ex Eurovision winner is big in Turkey.)

I held myself back from asking Cindy about ex husband Richard Gere, and or better still how much she was being paid, but under the beady eye of the PR I stuck to the obvious. No, Cindy has never been to Ireland but in the only bit of romance of the day she said: "I'd love to come to Ireland and go horse riding along the shore."