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| '''Pepsi''' ('''Pepsi-Cola''') is a carbonated ], and principal rival of ]. | '''Pepsi''' ('''Pepsi-Cola''') is a carbonated ], and principal rival of ]. | ||
Revision as of 11:21, 2 November 2003
Pepsi (Pepsi-Cola) is a carbonated soft drink, and principal rival of Coca-Cola.
It was invented independently of Coca-Cola, but spent many years as a peripheral drink. It first achieved success by selling its drink in recycled beer bottles, which allowed it to sell larger bottles for lower cost than Coke. Pepsi thus became viewed as the soft drink of the lower classes. In the United States, Pepsi was viewed as the drink of blacks and in Canada it was viewed as the drink for francophones.
In the 1950s Pepsi poured great resources into trying to improve its image. It bought many televison ads and began its long tradition of employing celebrities to sell its product. It grew and became a serious rival of the Coca-Cola corporation, but was still firmly in second place.
In the 1960s, Pepsi originated the marketing strategy known as "The Pepsi Generation." This strategy was a constant repetitious advertising of Pepsi aimed at young people. It worked under the assumption that there are new consumers coming of age every day and if one stops marketing to the newest consumers, one will have a shrinking base of established consumers of one's product. With the aging of the baby boomer generation, the advertising of Pepsi changed into the drink that keeps your youth.
Pepsi may have derived its name from pepsin, an enzyme produced in the mucosal lining of the stomach that acts to degrade protein. (Similar inspiration may have led to the naming of Pepsin Gum, first produced by Dr. Edward E. Beeman, whose bookkeeper, Nellie Horton, suggested that he put pepsin into gum "since so many people buy pepsin for digestion and gum for no reason at all.")
Soft drinks produced by Pepsi include: Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Vanilla, Pepsi Twist, Mountain Dew, Pepsi Max, Slice, Sierra Mist and Mug Root Beer. Aquafina water is also a Pepsi product.
Run by PepsiCo, the company also owns and operates 7Up International (but not 7UP in the United States), Quaker Oats, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Tropicana. Pepsico is a much larger corporation than the Coca-cola company, even if Coke still outsells Pepsi in almost all areas of the world.
Until 1997, it also owned Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, but these fast-food restaurants were spun off into Tricon Global Restaurants.
As with many soft drinks, Pepsi has had various celebrity spokespersons throughout its existence. Among them:
- Madonna (for less than two days; her contract was cut)
- Michael Jackson (who was badly burned while filming a commercial)
- Cindy Crawford (1989 Super Bowl ad)
- Britney Spears
- Faith Hill
- Hallie Kate Eisenberg
- Halle Berry
One of the only areas of the world where Pepsi outsells Coke is the Canadian province of Quebec. Pepsi had long been the drink of Francophones and it continues to hold its dominance by relying on local Québécois celebrities (essentially Claude Meunier, of La Petite Vie fame) to sell its product. Pepsi eventually became an offensive term, nickname, for Francophones viewed as a lower class by Anglophones in the middle of the 20th century. The term is now used as historical reference to French-English animosity.
Accusations made against Pepsi
- Coca-Cola 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 sodas contained residues of dangerous pesticides, with one dose 36 times greater than the European standard for Pepsi, and 30 times greater for Coca-Cola. 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 response to the news, numerous Indians burned bottles of these two brands of soda in the streets. The Indian government asked for a comparable study of soda bottles destined for markets in the United States.
On August 6, 2003, India asked for the withdrawal from circulation of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products.