While Peyton Manning and Drew Brees will be looking to meticulously pick apart the defenses, there is one thing you won’t see during this year’s Super Bowl: Pepsi.

For the first time in 23 years Pepsi will not advertising during the Super Bowl. While they will save roughly $2.5 million per ad spot, they will be missing out on an audience of over 100 million viewers. What could possibly reach this size of audience for a fraction of the cost? Social media.

Instead of throwing money at tv ads, Pepsi has started a social media campaign to promote its “Refresh Everything” campaign. $20 million dollars will be given in “grant money to fund projects in six categories: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and education” according to Time Magazine.

What a great idea. Not only does Pepsi gain grassroots evangelists, but it also gains positive press, rides the wave of generosity following the earthquake in Haiti and actually creates some positive change while they’re at it. I’m sure that Pepsi hasn’t had a sudden streak of generosity, but whenever commercial benefits can simultaineously help local communities, everyone wins. Plus, I’ll be much more likely to support a brand that is giving its money to local projects than to CBS executives.

Hats off to Pepsi. As social media continues to grow as flash point of group action, organization and advertising, look for more brands and organizations to make use of the incredible power of the masses.