It may take more than six degrees of Kevin Bacon to tie Microsoft's (MSFT 0.46%) Xbox One and Sony's (SONY 0.32%) PlayStation 4 together, but you can apparently do it with a single Doritos Locos Taco.

Microsoft and Sony are pulling out all of the stops in promoting next month's debut of their next-gen consoles. They're lining up some pretty big brands as backers, and here's where Yum! Brands (YUM 0.40%) and former parent PepsiCo (PEP 1.34%) come into play.

  • PepsiCo's Mountain Dew and Doritos are teaming up to give away an Xbox One every two minutes next month.
  • Taco Bell is giving away a PS4 -- before it even hits the market -- every 15 minutes for buyers of its $5 Buck box.

Each promotion is self-contained. Bags of Doritos and Mountain Dew bottles and cans feature the Xbox One marketing material and promo codes. Taco Bell stores are promoting the PS4 giveaway on their packaging and on their walls. 

Taco Bell serves Mountain Dew. It even offers the Mountain Dew Baja Blast soda exclusively. That's a no brainer. When PepsiCo spun off Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut as a stand-alone eatery operator it still retained the fountain rights. Taco Bell draws a young crowd with its cheap eats and late hours, making it a logical hotbed of Mountain Dew orders. 

The more tantalizing tie-up between Yum! and PepsiCo has been with Frito-Lay's Doritos. PepsiCo's salty snacks division teamed up with Taco Bell last year to introduce Doritos Locos Tacos. The move has resulted in positive comps at Taco Bell ever since, and the chain has sold more than 200 million of the filled Doritos-flavored taco shells. 

These brands have been on these same teams before. Taco Bell offered tacos for life in exchange for a PS3 charity donation when Sony's new system hit the market seven years ago. An Xbox Live game -- Doritos Crash Course -- was released online three years ago. However, this time the two consoles are being released a week apart. Sony's PS4 will hit retailers on Nov. 15. Microsoft follows with the Xbox One exactly one week later. 

It's marketing overlap, but you won't find too many diehard gamers complaining if cracking open a bottle of Mountain Dew to wash down their Taco Bell takeout order results in free consoles.