Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink produced and manufactured by PepsiCo.
The recipe for the soft drink Pepsi was first developed in the 1880s by Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist and industrialist from New Bern, North Carolina.
The original recipe included sugar, vanilla, oils, spices, African kola nuts and carbonated water.
Bradham said the drink could cure a variety of ailments, including dyspepsia (an upset stomach) and ulcers.
The drink Pepsi was first introduced as “Brad’s Drink” in New Bern, North Carolina, United States, in 1893.
It was originally branded as “exhilarating, invigorating and aiding in digestion”.
It was renamed Pepsi Cola in 1898 after the root of the word “dyspepsia” and the kola nuts used in the recipe.
Than Bradham started a baverage business. He mixed the syrup in house and shipped it in barrels to soda fountain shops where they add the carbonated water.
Pepsi-Cola was a tremendous success in the first four years it was sold, so Bradham closed his drugstore to devote his undivided attention to the production and distribution of the drink.
He also patented the Pepsi-Cola trademark.
Bradham’s neighbor, an artist, designed the first Pepsi logo, and ninety-seven shares of stock for Bradham’s new company were issued.
The first Pepsi’s logo closely resembled that of Coca-Cola’s swirly red script. This may not have been an overt attempt to copy Coke’s already-successul branding.
By 1905, Bradham owned two bottling franchises and five short years later, there were 250 Pepsi-Cola bottling franchises spanning 40 states.
After many years of moderate prosperity, the company fell on hard times after World War I and was reorganized and reincorporated on several occasions in the 1920s.
The company went bankrupt in 1931 and on June 8 of that year, the trademark and syrup recipe were purchased by Charles Guth who owned a syrup manufacturing business in Baltimore, Maryland. Guth established a new Pepsi-Cola Company, had a chemist formulate a better drink, set up new bottling operations, and began merchandising a hugely successful 12-ounce bottle for five cents.
On three separate occasions between 1922 and 1933, The Coca-Cola Company was offered the opportunity to purchase the Pepsi-Cola company, and it declined on each occasion.
The Pepsi colours, red, white and blue, were introduced to represent the American flag. It was launched in the Second World War to support the American troops and the war effort.
In 1964 the company unveiled “Diet Pepsi” and acquired Mountain Dew, a citrus-flavored soft drink. One year later, the company merged with Frito-Lay company, becoming PepsiCo.
In 1970 pepsi was the first drinks company to introduce the 2 liter bottle to hold large quantities of their drinks. All other drink companies quickly followed suit.
In 1974, Pepsi-Cola becomes the first American consumer product to be produced, marketed and sold in the former Soviet Union.
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.
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.
The Coca-Cola Company has historically been considered PepsiCo’s primary competitor in the beverage market, and in December 2005, PepsiCo surpassed The Coca-Cola Company in market value for the first time in 112 years since both companies began to compete.
PepsiCo has produced a number of variations on its primary cola, Pepsi, over the years including: Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Wild Cherry, Crystal Pepsi, Caffeine-Free Pepsi, Pepsi-Cola Made with Real Sugar, Pepsi Vanilla, Pepsi Zero Sugar, Pepsi Next.
Like most global brands, Pepsi has experimented with different formulas in different markets around the world, and has also sold limited edition flavors during holidays and other special events. In Japan, Pepsi flavors have included azuki bean, strawberry milk, shiso, cucumber, baobao tree fruit, yogurt, salty watermelon and sakura (blossoms of a cherry tree).
Around the same time period, Coca-Cola, “Coke,” was created in Atlanta, Georgia, where it was also sold as a medicinal drink. It is unknown whether or not Bradham tasted Coca-Cola before he made his own version, but it is possible he heard about it during this time in medical school.
There has been a total of 11 logo changes and modifications since the company was created.
Pepsi has been featured in several films, including Back to the Future Part II (1989), Home Alone (1990), Wayne’s World (1992), Fight Club (1999), and World War Z (2013).
Ronaldinho’s commercial deal with Coca-Cola was terminated after he was caught drinking Pepsi at a press conference.
In 1993 Pepsi ran a contest in the Philippines in which it promised 1 million pesos, roughly $40,000, to the person who found the number 349 inside his bottle cap. Pepsi went on to mistakenly print 800,000 winning caps, leading to outrage and death threats to Pepsi executives.
A man sued Pepsi when he found a mouse in his Mountain Dew. Pepsi attorneys stated that Mountain Dew will dissolve a mouse in 30 days, and showed his can was purchased 74 days after being manufactured.
There is a little town in Mexico called Chamula where shamans started using Coca-Cola in their religious rituals to heal worshippers. Pepsi heard about this and began giving commissions to shamans if they recommended Pepsi instead, so then Coca-Cola did the same and there are now rival religious groups based on which soft drink they use.
Three people tried to sell Coca-Cola’s secrets ingredients to Pepsi for $1.5 million in 2006, but Pepsi reported them to Coke and the FBI.