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| ==Criticisms== | ==Criticisms== | ||
| ===Long-term health effects=== | |||
| Some ] assert that the ] 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 ]. | |||
| Pepsi and other similar products contain a lot of ]. An excessive intake of ] has been suspected as a contributing factor in certain kinds of ]. Sugar is also a leading contributor to ]. | |||
| In addition, both 'diet' and non-diet variants are highly ], which is a cause of degradation of ], making decay due to subsequent sugar intake more likely. This is particularly exacerbated when a drink is sipped at frequent intervals throughout the day. | |||
| === Accusations made against Pepsi === | === Accusations made against Pepsi === | ||
Revision as of 14:36, 30 January 2006
Pepsi-Cola, most commonly called Pepsi, is a soft drink produced by PepsiCo which is sold worldwide in stores, restaurants and vending machines. The brand was trademarked on June 16, 1903, though the drink was first made in 1898 by pharmacist Caleb Bradham. Similar to Coca-Cola — its major rival — Pepsi was originally intended to cure stomach pains. There are several types of Pepsi, including Pepsi Vanilla, Diet Pepsi (the most popular variant), and outside the United States, Pepsi Max.
History
Pepsi-Cola, originally called "Brad's drink", was first made in New Bern, North Carolina in the United States in the early 1890s by pharmacist Caleb Bradham. On August 28, 1898 , "Brad's drink" was changed to "Pepsi-Cola" and later trademarked on June 16, 1903. As Pepsi was initially intended to cure stomach pains, Bradham coined the name Pepsi from the condition dyspepsia (stomachache or indigestion). It was made of carbonated water, sugar, vanilla, rare oils, pepsin and kola nuts.
In 1903, Bradham moved the bottling of Pepsi-Cola from his drugstore into a rented warehouse. That year, Bradham sold 7,968 gallons of syrup. The next year, Pepsi was sold in six-ounce bottles and sales increased to 19,848 gallons. In 1905, Pepsi received its first logo redesign since the original design of 1898. In 1906, the logo was changed again. That same year, the US federal government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, banning substances such as arsenic, lead, barium, and uranium from food and beverages. This forced Coca-Cola to change their formula; however, Pepsi-Cola was already free of these substances, and thus claimed they already met federal requirements.
In 1909, automobile race pioneer Barney Oldfield endorsed Pepsi-Cola in newspaper ads as "A bully drink...refreshing, invigorating, a fine bracer before a race". In 1923, Pepsico went bankrupt due to high sugar prices as a result of World War I, assets were sold and Roy C. Megargel bought the Pepsi trademark. Eight years later, the company went bankrupt again, resulting in a reformulation of the Pepsi-Cola syrup formula. In the following years, the drink gained in popularity and in 1934, debuted the 12-ounce drink. In 1964, the Diet Pepsi variation of the drink debuted, being the United States's first national diet soft drink.
In 1980, 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. Pepsi took great advantage of the campaign with television commercials reporting the test results to the public.
While some claim that Pepsi tastes identical to Coca-Cola, others say they can detect a difference. In the past, the difference in taste between Pepsi and Coca-Cola's Coke was even greater than it is today. When the Pepsi taste became more popular, Coca-Cola adapted their drink to be closer to the American taste of Pepsi (New Coke). Although Pepsi claimed this a victory for their brand of cola, Coca-Cola soon reverted because, while testing showed the taste of the new Coke was better, consumers preferred Coca-Cola to stay the same. Coke remains the more popular of the two.
Ingredients
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Calories | 100 |
| Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 25 mg |
| Potassium | 10 mg |
| Carbohydrates | 27 g |
| Sugar | 27 g |
| Protein | 0 g |
| Caffeine | 25 mg |
The Pepsi-Cola drink contains basic ingredients found in most other similar drinks including carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, colourings, phosphoric acid, caffeine, citric acid and natural flavors. The caffeine free Pepsi-Cola contains the same ingredients but does not include any caffeine.
Spokespersons
Main article: Pepsi spokespersonsAs with most popular soft drinks, Pepsi and its associated beverages have had various celebrity spokespersons. Hundreds of celebrities have advertised for Pepsi products, for instance NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon who runs a Pepsi paint scheme at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway. In Europe and the UK celebrities such as footballer David Beckham and pop stars that include Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Five, the Spice Girls, S Club 7, Gary Glitter and Beyoncé Knowles have featured in campaigns for the drink. In Latin America both Colombian artists Shakira and Juanes have successfully promoted the soft drink. As for Asia, celebrity and singers Jay Chou, Aaron Kwok, as well as the popular girl's group S.H.E. have appeared in several different advertisements. Joan Crawford was married to Pepsi president Alfred Steele, and was advertising executive and board of directors member for several years. Singer-songwriter Michael Jackson boosted the sales of Pepsi in the 1980s when he became spokesperson for the company. He was infamously burned during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in 1984. This time Pepsi has a new spokesperson, the pop artist Christina Aguilera, a former spokesperson of Pepsi's rival Coke. Pepsi said in a recent interview that Christina Aguilera has that 'dare for more' approach. Aretha Franklin was also a spokesperson in 1998. And also in 1999 Janet Jackson signed on to the original "Ask For More" campaign which featured a song of the same name written and sung by Jackson.
Types of Pepsi
- See also: List of Pepsi types
There are many types of Pepsi-Cola all differing in taste, price and appearance. Diet Pepsi is one of the most popular variations of the drink, containing no sugar and zero calories.Other popular variations of the drink are Pepsi Max and Pepsi ONE, both sugar-free colas. A caffeine-free cola called Pepsi Free was introduced in 1982 by PepsiCo as the first major-brand caffeine-free cola and is today sold as Caffeine-Free Pepsi and Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi.
In 1988, the company launched Wild Cherry Pepsi as a response to the popularity of Cherry Coke. Though rarely marketed, the drink remains widely available. Although there has always been a diet variation of the drink since it came out, Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi didn't become widely available until 2005, when Wild Cherry Pepsi was reformulated.
Pepsico have attempted marketing many different flavors of the drink, however many were quickly discontinued amidst poor sales. Crystal Pepsi was introduced in 1992 and sold until 1993 as a rival to New Coke which was also a failure. Pepsico attempted the drink again with the Pepsi Blue in mid-2002 and withdrew it from the market in 2004. Pepsico market tested coffee tasting variations of the drink with Pepsi Kona in Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania areas between 1994 and 1996. In 2005, Pepsi Cappuccino was released in Romania and Bulgaria with another coffee flavored cola called Pepsi Tarik in Malaysia.
Many types of the drink have only been produced or sold for a limited time, such as Pepsi Holiday Spice, a spicy Hanukkah/Christmas seasonal finish of ginger and cinnamon. PepsiCo also rivaled Coca-Cola's lemon-flavored products with Pepsi Twist, which was a commercial failure due to criticism of the taste. Pepsi A-ha, with a lemon flavour was launched in India in 2002 but was not successful either. Pepsi Twist has been successfully marketed in Brazil (with lime instead of lemon), where a limited-edition version is also sold, the Pepsi Twistão, with an even stronger lime flavor. Pepsi X is another variation which contains more caffeine than regular Pepsi-Cola and in addition also contains taurine and guaranine. It is similar to other energy drinks such as Red Bull. Another type is Pepsi Samba which was released in Australia in the 3rd Quarter of 2005. It is Pepsi with a tropical taste of tamarind and mango.
Criticisms
Accusations made against Pepsi
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 . 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 response to the news, numerous Indians burned bottles of these two brands of soft drinks in the streets. The Indian government asked for a comparable study of soft drink bottles destined for markets in the United States. On December 7, 2004, India's Supreme Court ruled that both Pepsi and competitor Coca-Cola must label all cans and bottles of the respective soft drinks with a consumer warning after tests showed unacceptable levels of residual pesticides. Both companies continue to maintain that their products meet all international safety standards without yet implementing the Supreme Court ruling. Pepsi has also been alleged to practice "water piracy" due to its role in exploitation of ground water resources resulting in scarcity of drinking water for the natives of Pudussery panchayat in the Palakkad distict in Kerala, India. Local residents have been pressuring the government to close down the Pepsi unit in the village.
Rivalry with Coca-Cola
Coke still outsells Pepsi in almost all areas of the world. Saudi Arabia and the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Ontario are some of the few exceptions. Due to rumours of the use of cocaine, Coke was banned for a long time in India. Recently that ban was lifted, however, Pepsi now maintains a commanding market share. 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. "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 a historical reference to French-English linguistic animosity (During the partitionist debate surrounding the 1995 referendum, a pundit wrote "And a wall will be erected along St-Laurent street because some people were throwing Coke bottle one way and Pepsi bottles the other way"). Other regions where Pepsi outsells Coke are in central Appalachia, the state of North Dakota, the region in and around the state of Utah, and the city of Buffalo (by a 2-1 margin), all in the United States. More importantly, Pepsi outsells its rival in grocery and convenience stores in the U.S. (regarded as an indicator of consumer preference), with Coca-Cola's dominance in exclusive restaurant, movie theater, amusement park, college, and stadium deals giving Coke the overall sales advantage. In the U.S., Pepsi's total market share was about 31.7 percent in 2004, while Coke's was about 43.1 percent. In Russia, Pepsi has had a larger market share than Coca-Cola, and also spends more on marketing. However, Pepsi's dominance in Russia was undercut as the Cold War ended. Pepsi had made a deal with the Soviet Union to begin distribution before the end of the Cold War. When the Soviet Union fell apart, Pepsi was associated with the old Soviet system, and Coca Cola, just newly introduced to the Russian market, was associated with the new system. Thus Coke rapidly captured a significant market share away from Pepsi that might otherwise have needed years to build up.
See also
Notes
- SODAmuseum.com, The History of Pepsi-Cola, paragraph 8
- SODAmuseum.com, The History of Pepsi-Cola, paragraph 31
- snopes.com, Knew Coke, 2 May 1999
- Inter Press Service, Indian Coke, Pepsi Laced with Pesticides, Says NGO, August 5, 2003
References
- 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
- "Indian Coke, Pepsi Laced with Pesticides, Says NGO" (2003), India Resource Center - Article here
External links
- Pepsi World
- 'Coke, Pepsi losing the fizz' a CNN Money report on low sales for both Pepsi and its perennial rival, Coca-Cola (March 7, 2005)
