Pepsi or Coke this is a question soda drinkers are inevitably asked Pepsi Cola was invented
in 1893 and has been Coca Cola's chief competitor ever since the soft drink has
become a worldwide brand in its own right but there are probably some
mysteries you've yet to unfold here are 10 things you didn't know about Pepsi
there's a counting for taste how is it honey it's amazing over the years there
have been several dozen varieties of the soft drink released in the United States
alone the number of pepsi varieties grows considerably when you include
those released in the European Latin American and Asian markets everything
from Pepsi free a caffeine free drink to pepsi vanilla and Pepsi Blue has been
offered to the public some have been successes and some have not in 2016
Pepsi Cola released 1893 original Cola a call back to the original Pepsi formula
sold in soda fountains at the end of the 19th century 1893 featured Kola nuts
real sugar and sparkling water Pepsi ice cream was sold in Russia and
supposedly tasted like cream soda Europe was also offered Pepsi raw a soda made
with all-natural ingredients and no artificial colors about two dozen Pepsi
varieties have been released in Japan alone Japanese Pepsi flavors include
Pepsi ice cucumber Pepsi salty watermelon and Pepsi uzuki made with the
Exuma bean whether you like straight Pepsi Pepsi with extra caffeine or an
exotic flavor made with coffee there is a Pepsi flavor for you Pepsi man
everyone was in love with him Japan has developed its own popular
culture that sometimes seems like a slightly oddball version of American
popular culture a case in point is the Japanese Pepsi mascot known as Pepsi man
the soda superhero began appearing in Japanese television commercials in 1993
twelve different commercials were aired with
see man wearing different costumes that represented the pepsi-cola can at the
time the commercials put Pepsi man in different situations where he would come
to the rescue providing refreshments to thirsty people
in need of assistance although he was portrayed as a super beam with
incredible speed and agility he also could be clumsy after he's successfully
delivered soda there was also a Pepsi woman who wore a yellow ski mask she was
created to represent Pepsi twist a lemon flavored Cola in 1996 Sega am-2 released
a video game fighting Vipers that featured Pepsi man as a featured
character jimena for Finnish zucchini ki D
released a video game for PlayStation in 1999 called Pepsi man maybe it isn't odd
that PepsiCo Japan has official superhero mascots maybe the odd thing is
that sodas in America don't have official superhero mascots take two
Pepsi long ago there were travelers who sold magical cures for all manner of
ailments in a bottle containing dubious ingredients these were called snake oil
salesmen soft drinks developed in drugstore soda fountains a century ago
where sometimes touted as medicinal products Caleb Bradham the man who
created Pepsi was a pharmacist who also ran a soda fountain he intended his
drink to help his customers with their indigestion the name Pepsi was taken
from the Greek word for digestion dyspepsia there might be something to
this because a 2013 study showed that drinking Cola can indeed help breakdown
stomach blockages the corrosive effects of Cola that can damage tooth enamel can
actually help with digestion so mr. Bradham wasn't just selling snake
oil when he used the slogan exhilarating invigorating aids digestion as the
popularity of pepsi grew however mr. Bradham decided to focus on the sodas
taste instead of its supposed medicinal properties one word plastics
plastic bottles are so ubiquitous it's hard to imagine soda without them but
there was a time when glass bottles ruled the soda pop
in 1967 the Graduate foreshadowed to the importance of plastic when it was
suggested to Dustin Hoffman's character that he pay attention to it was a great
future in plastics three years later in 1970 PepsiCo launched the 2 liter
plastic bottle of soda and the rest is history
Pepsi tasked the DuPont company to make the plastic bottles and the company
received a patent in 1973 for its work a 1978 PepsiCo television commercial
depicting a harried housewife driving home with a carload of Pepsi highlighted
the two-liter plastic bottles attributes they were lighter and stronger than
regular glass bottles the original design consisted of two separate pieces
of plastic this design was eventually abandoned because the two parts were
difficult to recycle the original Bhama was replaced by a design made from a
single piece of molded plastic the recycled plastic has been used in the
manufacturing of carpeting boat hulls and mattresses a 2-liter soda bottle is
twelve point nine inches high and 4.1 inches in diameter but some people in
the soda industry didn't think this was big enough so in 1985 a giant three
litre bottle was introduced to a thirstier public flying high sky rating
is a fairly common form of advertising near beaches and other big outdoor
public gatherings but this wasn't always the case
Pepsi had the foresight to pioneer this exciting form of advertising at the 1939
World's Fair held in New York a pilot was hired to write in giant letters
drink Pepsi Cola to the amazement of New Yorkers this unique form of advertising
proved so popular that PepsiCo formed its own skywriting team to promote its
soda 14 planes flew around the United States delighting sky watchers with
letters as big as a mile long encouraging them to drink Pepsi by the
1940s the skywriting team was creating more than 2,000 signs a year in the
eyes unfortunately the emergence of television advertising rendered
skywriting less relevant by the early 1950s however in the 1970s the company's
75th anniversary prompted the return of skywriting as recent as 2017
PepsiCo was still sending planes into the wild blue yonder to entice thirsty
people cheers Cheers super soda Pepsi Cola had
sponsored the Super Bowl halftime show before but in 2012 the soda company
signed a multi-year deal that would put Pepsi front and center at the biggest
sports entertainment event of the year the National Football League's
championship game the Super Bowl would be a wonderful catch for any company
Pepsi's contract coincided with a larger effort by the soft drink company called
live for now that was designed to reinvigorate its relationship with the
music world and make it a centerpiece of its marketing campaign one of the
highlights of Pepsi Super Bowl marketing push was Lady Gaga's 2017 halftime show
in Miami another example of this renewed push to rekindle its ties with the music
world was a Pepsi can with the silhouette of the late pop star Michael
Jackson who had a legendary legendary relationship with the soft drink company
between 1990 and 2019 PepsiCo aired a total of 53 commercials during these
Superbowl broadcasts this aggressive marketing campaign was a conscious
attempt to associate the brand with the entertainment and music industry this
strategy was meant to convince soda drinkers that choosing Pepsi over coke
was choosing hip and fresh over the more staid competition
Pepsi versus Coke odds are good you've probably heard the phrase the Pepsi
challenge at some point Pepsi Cola started this long-running marketing
gimmick in 1975 to draw attention to the soft drink companies supposed
superiority over its bitter rival Coca Cola the original taste tests were set
up in malls by marketing representatives from Pepsi people were invited to drink
from a pair of unmarked white one with Pepsi and one with coca-cola
after the volunteers tasted the sodas the Pepsi representative would reveal
which brand they preferred unsurprisingly Pepsi Cola revealed that
Americans preferred Pepsi over its chief competitor coca-cola an author named
Malcolm Gladwell offered criticism of the Pepsi challenge in his book linked
the power of thinking without thinking mister Gladwell argued that the SIP test
used by Pepsi naturally favored the sweeter soda when volunteers are only
allowed to take one sip sweeter bolder these same people may actually prefer a
less sweet soda than the challenge seemed to indicate some scientific
testing was done that compared Pepsi and Coke and did find a measurable
difference in how they tasted to this day Pepsi Cola is a popular choice for
soda drinkers even if the company still has to contend with Coca Cola
comrad Pepsi because we're in Russia there is a black-and-white photograph
taken in Moscow in 1959 that shows the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev taking a
sip of Pepsi Cola from a paper cup as the American vice president Richard
Nixon looks on as the story goes the communist dictator liked the sweet
beverage and Pepsi Co saw the photo-op as a great marketing coup in 1972 Nixon
was president and his influence helped the soft drink companies secure a deal
to sell its Cola in the Soviet Union the deal involved pepsi exchanging its Cola
syrup for vodka a plan to produce the soda was open in the USSR in 1974 but it
didn't start to distribute the beverage on a big scale until 1979 with this deal
in place Pepsi Cola became the first American product made marketed and sold
in the communist state the cold war between the West and the Soviets was one
thing but this historic deal was seen as an important victory in the raging soda
war between PepsiCo and its number one threat Coca Cola
it does seem a little strange then as the two
countries point nuclear-armed missiles at each other that could have devastated
the planet they found common ground with something as seemingly unimportant as
soda on the other hand it's a reminder that even communists get thirsty and
want to enjoy a crisp refreshing Pepsi once in a while if you can't beat them
join them it might be hard to believe but Pepsi Cola offered to sell to rival
Coca Cola not once but three times it's not real this strange string of events
began in 1922 with the first offer from Pepsi to sell to Coca Cola Pepsi Co had
been betting on the price of sugar which had skyrocketed during World War one but
this changed when the conflict ended Pepsi's financial problems grew worse
prompting their initial offer to coke in 1922 the people at the coca-cola company
likely knew about Pepsi's financial woes and decided the offer was a bad risk
PepsiCo was forced to file bankruptcy in 1923 many of the company's assets were
sold off the soft drink companies trademark was sold to a man named Roy
mega L but he couldn't get the funding he needed so he sold it to loft Inc sure
Pepsi seemed like a good fit for loft which owned retail stores with soda
fountains loft wanted to replace Coca Cola with Pepsi after a dispute with the
rival soda company the Pepsi brand's troubles continued and the ailing soft
drink was offered up two more times Coke declined these offers as well if
the owners of Coca Cola had known that Pepsi would grow to be a global threat
to its soft drink Empire they would have probably made a different choice please
do not make us the enemy today Pepsi Brad Caleb Bradham was a
pharmacist who owned a drugstore with a soda fountain in New Bern North Carolina
in 1893 he came up with a carbonated beverage flavor with Cola nuts
lemon oil and nutmeg that he hoped would help with some of his customers
digestive problems however Brad's drink as he originally called his creation was
not destined to sit anywhere near the medicine cabinet Brad
renamed the soda fountain drink Pepsi Cola in 1898 by 1903 the popularity of
Pepsi had grown to the point that the production of the soda was moved out of
the drugstore and into a nearby warehouse in 1904 Bradham started
selling his soda in six ounce bottles and sold almost 20,000 gallons of the
drink delicious and healthful became Pepsi's advertising slogan in 1909 and
held up for 20 years however by 1923 the company was struggling financially
salvation for Pepsi came during the economic upheaval of the Great
Depression in the 1930s the soft drink company started selling its soda and
twelve ounce bottles that were cheaper than its competitors so it started to
gain popularity by the 1980's Pepsi had worked to associate its brand with the
music and movie industries to lure young customers for example Pepsi free is
mentioned in a funny scene in the 1985 hit Back to the Future
give me a Pepsi free PepsiCo is still running strong today selling a wide
variety of soft drinks around the world tap that screen for another great video
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