I think that in the future, clocks won’t say three o’clock anymore. They’ll just get right to the point and rename three o’clock ’Pepsi.’

The line satirizes the encroachment of branding and corporate power into everyday life, imagining a near-future where even timekeeping is colonized by advertising. By proposing that “three o’clock” could be renamed “Pepsi,” the speaker exaggerates product placement to an absurd extreme, highlighting how commercial language can displace neutral, shared terms. The joke also points to a broader anxiety common in late-20th-century consumer culture: that public space, culture, and even basic concepts become monetized and owned. In Coupland’s typical mode, the humor carries a bleak edge—suggesting a loss of autonomy and a shrinking realm of experience not mediated by corporations.