Pepsi

During the Great Depression, Pepsi gained popularity following the introduction in 1929 of a 10-ounce bottle. Initially priced at 10 cents, sales were slow, but when the price was slashed to 5 cents, sales increased substantially. With twelve ounces a bottle instead of the six ounces Coca-Cola sold, Pepsi turned the price difference to its advantage with a radio advertising campaign, featuring the jingle "Pepsi cola hits the spot / Twelve full ounces, that's a lot / Twice as much for a nickel, too / Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you," encouraging price-watching consumers to switch to Pepsi, while obliquely referring to the Coca-Cola standard of six ounces a bottle for the price of five cents (a nickel), instead of the twelve ounces Pepsi sold at the same price. Coming at a time of economic crisis, the campaign succeeded in boosting Pepsi's status. In 1936 alone five-hundred-million bottles of Pepsi were consumed. From 1936 to 1938, Pepsi Cola's profits doubled.^[1]

Pepsi's success under Guth came while the Loft Candy business was faltering. Since he had initially used Loft's finances and facilities to establish the new Pepsi success, the near-bankrupt Loft Company sued Guth for possession of the Pepsi Cola company. A long legal battle then ensued, with Guth losing. Loft now owned Pepsi, and the two companies did a merger, then immediately spun off the Loft company.

 

Walter Mack was named the new President of Pepsi-Cola and guided the company through the 1940s. Mack, who supported progressive causes, noticed that the company's strategy of using advertising for a general audience either ignored African Americans or used ethnic stereotypes in portraying blacks. He realized African Americans were an untapped niche market and that Pepsi stood to gain market share by targeting its advertising directly towards them.^[2] To this end, he hired Hennan Smith, an advertising executive "from the Negro newspaper field"^[3] to lead an all-black sales team, which had to be cut due to the onset of World War II. In 1947, Mack resumed his efforts, hiring Edward F. Boyd to lead a twelve-man team. They came up with advertising portraying black Americans in a positive light, such as one with a smiling mother holding a six pack of Pepsi while her son (a young Ron Brown, who grew up to be Secretary of Commerce^[4]) reaches up for one. Another ad campaign, titled "Leaders in Their Fields", profiled twenty prominent African Americans such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche and photographer Gordon Parks.

Boyd also led a sales team composed entirely of African Americans around the country to promote Pepsi. Racial segregation and Jim Crow laws were still in place throughout much of the U.S., so Boyd's team faced a great deal of discrimination as a result,^[3] from insults by Pepsi co-workers to threats by Ku Klux Klan.^[4] On the other hand, they were able to use racism as a selling point, attacking Coke's reluctance to hire blacks and support by the chairman of Coke to segregationist Governor of Georgia Herman Talmadge.^[2] As a result, Pepsi's market share as compared to Coke's shot up dramatically. After the sales team visited Chicago, Pepsi's share in the city overtook that of Coke for the first time.^[2]

This focus on the African American market caused some consternation within the company and among its affiliates. They did not want to seem focused on black customers for fear white customers would be pushed away.^[2] In a meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Mack tried to assuage the 500 bottlers in attendance by pandering to them, saying, "We don't want it to become known as the nigger drink."^[5] After Mack left the company in 1950, support for the black sales team faded and it was cut.

In 1975, Pepsi introduced the Pepsi Challenge marketing campaign where PepsiCo set up a blind tasting between Pepsi-Cola and rival Coca-Cola. During these blind taste tests the majority of participants picked Pepsi as the better tasting of the two soft drinks. PepsiCo took great advantage of the campaign with television commercials reporting the test results to the public.^[6].

In 1996, PepsiCo launched the highly successful Pepsi Stuff marketing strategy. By 2002, the strategy was cited by Promo Magazine as one of 16 "Ageless Wonders" that "helped redefine promotion marketing."^[7]

In 2007, PepsiCo redesigned their cans for the fourteenth time, and for the first time, included more than thirty different backgrounds on each can, introducing a new background every three weeks.^[8]

Like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and its associated beverages have had various celebrity endorsers and continue to use them. Joan Crawford married Al Steele who was director of the company, she filled Al's place on the board of directors after he died. Also professional wrestler CM Punk has a tattoo of the pepsi logo.

• 1939: "Twice as Much for a Nickel"
• 1940: "BIGGER BETTER"
• 1950: "More Bounce to the Ounce"
• 1950: "Any Weather is Pepsi Weather"
• 1957: "The Light Refreshment"
• 1958: "Be Sociable, Have a Pepsi"
• 1961: "Now It's Pepsi for Those Who Think Young"
• 1963: "Come Alive, You're in the Pepsi Generation".
• 1967: "(Taste that beats the others cold) Pepsi Pours It On".
• 1969: "You've Got a Lot to Live, Pepsi's Got a Lot to Give".
• 1973: "Join the Pepsi people (feeling free)".
• 1975: "Have a Pepsi day".
• 1979: "Catch that Pepsi spirit". David Lucas composer
• 1981: "Pepsi's got your taste for life".
• 1983: "Pepsi Now! Take the Challenge!"
• 1984: "The Choice of a New Generation".
• 1986: "We've Got The Taste" (Commercial with Tina Turner)
• 1991: "Gotta Have It."/"Chill Out"
• 1992: "Be Young, Have Fun, Drink Pepsi"
• 1995: "Nothing Else is a Pepsi".
• 1996: "Pepsi:There's nothing official about it"." (During the Wills World Cup(Cricket) held in India/Pakistan/Srilanka)
• 1997: "GeneratioNext"." With The Spice Girls "
• 1999: "Ask for More"/"The Joy of Pepsi-Cola".
• 2003: "It's the Cola"/"Dare for More".
• 2005: "Wild Thing"/"Ask For More" (With Jennifer Lopez & Beyoncé Knowles)
• 2007: "More Happy"/"Taste the one that's forever young". (Michael Alexander)

Pepsiman is an official Pepsi mascot from Pepsi's Japanese corporate branch. The design of the Pepsiman character is attributed to Canadian comic book artist Travis Charest, created sometime around the mid 1990s. Pepsiman took on three different outfits, each one representing the current style of the Pepsi can in distribution. Twelve commercials were created featuring the Pepsiman. His role in the advertisements is to appear with Pepsi to thirsty people or people craving soda. Pepsiman happens to appear at just the right time with the product. After delivering the beverage, sometimes Pepsiman would encounter a difficult and action oriented situation which would result in injury.

Pepsiman was featured as a Japanese Exclusive Transformers toy "Pepsi Convoy," which was based on G1 Optimus Prime. In 1996, Sega-AM2 released the Sega Saturn version of their arcade fighting game Fighting Vipers. In this game Pepsiman was included as a special character, with his specialty listed as being the ability to "quench one's thirst". He does not appear in any other version or sequel. In 1999, KID developed a video game for the PlayStation entitled Pepsiman. As Pepsiman, the player runs, skateboards, rolls, and stumbles through various areas, avoiding dangers and collecting cans of Pepsi all while trying to reach a thirsty person as in the commercials.

See also: PepsiCo - Criticisms

Pepsi was banned from import in India in 1970 for having refused to release the list of its ingredients. In 1993, the ban was lifted, with Pepsi arriving on the market shortly afterwards. One study led by the Center for Science and the Environment (CSE), an independent laboratory in New Delhi, found that the soft drinks contained residues of dangerous pesticides, with one dose 36 times greater than the European standard for Pepsi and 30 times greater for Coca-Cola ^{[citation needed]}. However, this was the European standard for water, not for other drinks. The presence of these products could provoke cancers, negatively affect the nervous and immune systems, and cause birth defects. No law bans the presence of pesticides in drinks in India. In 2003 and again in 2006,^[9] the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-governmental organization in New Delhi, found that soda drinks produced by manufacturers in India, including both Pepsi and Coca-Cola, had dangerously high levels of pesticides in their drinks. Both PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company maintain that their drinks are safe for consumption and have published newspaper advertisements that say pesticide levels in their products are less than those in other foods such as tea, fruit and dairy products.^[10] In the Indian state of Kerala, sale and production of Pepsi-Cola, along with other soft drinks, has been banned.^[11] Five other Indian states have announced partial bans on the drinks in schools, colleges and hospitals.^[12] On September 22, 2006, the High Court in Kerala overturned the Kerala ban ruling that only the federal government can ban food products.^[13] Pepsi, and its rival Coca-Cola, have also been known to use subliminal messaging in their advertisement. For example,in the 1990's Pepsi released this can http://www.planetperplex.com/img/pepsicansex.jpg as part of a new marketing scheme. Howerver, it was quickly revealed that the can clearly has the word "sex" printed on the side. While Pepsi denied the incident as a printing mistake, many speculate that this is a tactic used by many advertisement companies to target consumers on a subconscious level.

Some nutritionists assert that the phosphoric acid component of Pepsi-Cola, and other similar soft drinks, may be deleterious to bone health in both men and women, with some studies finding the effects to be more notably pronounced in female subjects. See phosphoric acid in food.

Pepsi and other similar products contain large amounts of sugar. Excessive sugar intake is thought to be a contributing factor in the development of certain types of diabetes. Sugar is also a leading contributor to tooth decay. The carbonation present in Pepsi as well as most soft drinks inhibits some calcium intake and, in extremely rare cases, can lead to osteoporosis.

In addition, both 'diet' and non-diet variants are highly acidic, which is a cause of degradation of tooth enamel, making decay due to subsequent sugar intake more likely. This is particularly exacerbated when a drink is sipped at frequent intervals throughout the day.

According to Consumer Reports, in the 1970s, the rivalry continued to heat up the market. Pepsi conducted blind taste tests in stores, in what was called the "Pepsi Challenge". These tests suggested that more consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi (which is believed to have more lemon oil, less orange oil, and uses vanillin rather than vanilla) to Coke. The sales of Pepsi started to climb, and Pepsi kicked off the "Challenge" across the nation.

In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company, amid much publicity, changed its formula. Some authorities believe that New Coke, as the reformulated drink came to be known, was invented specifically in response to the Pepsi Challenge. However, a consumer backlash led to Coca-Cola quickly introducing a modified version of the original formula (removing the expensive Haitian lime oil and changing the sweetener to corn syrup) as Coke "Classic".

Overall, Coca-Cola continues to outsell Pepsi in almost all areas of the world. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan (Pepsi has been a dominant sponsor of the Pakistan cricket team since the 1990s), the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Prince Edward Island and the U.S. states of Michigan and South Carolina are the exceptions.^[14]

By most accounts, Coca-Cola was India's leading soft drink until 1977 when it left India after a new government ordered The Coca-Cola Company to turn over its secret formula for Coke and dilute its stake in its Indian unit as required by the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). In 1988, PepsiCo gained entry to India by creating a joint venture with the Punjab government-owned Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation (PAIC) and Voltas India Limited. This joint venture marketed and sold Lehar Pepsi until 1991 when the use of foreign brands was allowed; PepsiCo bought out its partners and ended the joint venture in 1994. In 1993, The Coca-Cola Company returned in pursuance of India's Liberalization policy.^[15] In 2005, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo together held 95% market share of soft-drink sales in India. Coca-Cola India's market share was 52.5%.^[16]

Pepsi had long been the drink of Canadian Francophones and it continues to hold its dominance by relying on local Québécois celebrities (especially Claude Meunier, of La Petite Vie fame) to sell its product.^[17] "Pepsi" eventually became an offensive nickname for Francophones viewed as a lower class by Anglophones in the middle of the 20th century. The term is now used as an historical reference to French-English linguistic animosity (During the separatist debate surrounding the 1995 referendum, a pundit wrote, "And a wall will be erected along St-Laurent Boulevard [the traditional divide between French and English in Montréal] because some people were throwing Coke bottles one way and Pepsi bottles the other way"). ^{[citation needed]}

Comedian Dave Chappelle starred in ads for both Coca-Cola and Pepsi, an act which drew controversy. When referring to it in his show, Chappelle said, "I can't even taste the difference: all I know is Pepsi's paying more right now, so it tastes better."

In the U.S., Pepsi's total market share was about 31.7 percent in 2004, while Coke's was about 43.1 percent.^[18]

In Russia, Pepsi once had a larger market share than Coke. However, Pepsi's dominance in Russia was undercut as the Cold War ended. In 1972, Pepsico company struck a barter agreement with the then government of the Soviet Union, in which Pepsico was granted exportation and Western marketing rights to Stolichnaya vodka in exchange for importation and Soviet marketing of Pepsi-Cola. ^{[19] [20]} This exchange led to Pepsi-Cola being the first foreign product sanctioned for sale in the U.S.S.R.. ^[21] When the Soviet Union fell apart, Pepsi was associated with the old Soviet system, and Coca Cola, just newly introduced to the Russian market in 1992, was associated with the new system. Thus, Coca-Cola rapidly captured a significant market share away from Pepsi that might otherwise have needed years to build up. By July 2005, Coca-Cola enjoyed a market share of 19.4 percent, followed by Pepsi with 13 percent.^[22]

In the same way that Coca Cola has become a cultural icon and its global spread has spawned words like "coca colonization", Pepsi Cola and its relation to Russia has also turned it into an icon. In the early 1990s, the term, "Pepsi-stroika", began appearing as a pun on "perestroika", the reform policy of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev. Critics viewed the policy as a lot of fizz without substance and as an attempt to usher in Western products in deals there with the old elites. Pepsi, as one of the first American products in the Soviet Union, became a symbol of the relationship and the Soviet policy.^[23]

Pepsi-Cola contains basic ingredients found in most other similar drinks including carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, colorings, phosphoric acid, caffeine, citric acid and natural flavors. The caffeine-free Pepsi-Cola contains the same ingredients minus the caffeine.

The original Pepsi-Cola recipe was available from documents filed with the court at the time that the Pepsi-Cola Company went bankrupt in 1929. The original formula contained neither cola nor caffeine.

• Coca-Cola
• R.C. Cola

• Pepsico
• Pepsi Stuff
• Soft drink
• Cola wars

• The Coca-Cola Company (Competitor)
• Pepsiman (Mascot for the Japanese division of Pepsi)
• List of Pepsi types

• Beverage World Magazine, January 1998, "Celebrating a Century of Refreshment: Pepsi - The First 100 Years"
• Stoddard, Bob. Pepsi Cola - 100 Years (1997), General Publishing Group, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• "History & Milestones" (1996), Pepsi packet
• Louis, J.C. & Yazijian, Harvey Z. "The Cola Wars" (1980), Everest House, Publishers, New York, NY, USA

• The origin of Company Pepsi
• Pepsi FAQ
• Pepsi World
• Pepsi Gallery - Pepsi Promotional site
• Pepsi Americas
• 'Coke, Pepsi losing the fizz'
• 1987 Audio Interview with John Sculley by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio
• The Annual Pepsi Independence Day Celebration (Tri-Cities, TN.)
• The Pepsi Max Cappuccino Wire, a fan site to Pepsi Max Cappuccino.
• The Original Pepsi-Cola Recipe
• Nutrition facts
• (South African 1977 Radio Commercial)
• 1939 Radio Commercial (Twice as Much for a Nickel)
• Pepsi Commercials Online