Crystal Pepsi

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Crystal Pepsi
Crystal Pepsi (2015).svg
Crystal Pepsi (28416747103).jpg
Crystal Pepsi bottles in a store
Type Clear cola
ManufacturerPepsiCo
Origin United States
IntroducedApril 13, 1992;33 years ago (1992-04-13)
Discontinued1994;31 years ago (1994) (original run)
VariantsDiet Crystal Pepsi, Crystal From Pepsi
Related products Pepsi Blue, Tab Clear

Crystal Pepsi is a cola soft drink made by PepsiCo. It has been marketed in the United States and Canada initially from 1992 to 1994, and has had sporadic limited releases since 2016.

Contents

In 1991, PepsiCo's risk-taking leadership ambitiously reshaped the company. It pushed consumer research to harness the clear craze and the New Age trend and to find a healthier recipe to stimulate the slowing cola market. After 1,000 product concepts and 3,000 formulations, it discovered a lighter flavor and appearance, with modified food starch instead of caramel color, and 20 fewer calories. It is a "totally new product" which resembles standard Pepsi but reportedly tastes less "acidic". [1] [2]

Crystal Pepsi was launched in 1992 with a huge marketing campaign and to great success, capturing a 1% soft drink market share worth US$474 million in its first year. PepsiCo made some mistakes, and Coca-Cola launched Tab Clear as a deliberate "kamikaze" copy to sabotage Crystal Pepsi, so it was off the market in 1994. Inspired by a grassroots campaign via telephone and the Internet, it was briefly re-released sporadically in the 2010s.

Creation

Background

The Coca-Cola Company had produced a clear cola in the past, produced as a secret one-off made as a particular political favor between General Dwight D. Eisenhower and top Soviet General Georgy Zhukov. Clear Coca-Cola, named White Coke, was produced to disguise the beverage as vodka. [3]

The clear craze was a global marketing fad in the 1980s and 1990s, equating clarity with purity. The fad was inspired by the reintroduction of Ivory soap and its marketing slogan of "99 and 44/100 percent pure". [4] In 1990, a Canadian manufacturer released a colorless cola, called Canadian Spirit, which it tested in Boston, New York, Washington, Toronto, and Montreal. [5] Soft drink sales boomed in the 1980s with popularization of diet drinks, but in 1991 slowed to a 1.8% growth rate. [6]

Pepsi-Cola North America CEO Craig Weatherup was ambitiously internally restructuring the company while launching a multi-faceted development and marketing plan to expand as a "total beverage company". [7] This included the fast-growing and expandable New Age beverage market, with established competition from Clearly Canadian (reportedly having "built a new market in two years" [8] ), Nordic Mist, Snapple, [7] and the waning Original New York Seltzer. [8] PepsiCo was reportedly "a lot more free-thinking and willing to make errors [... already having] made some very good errors". [7]

Development

Close-up of the clear liquid of Crystal Pepsi (2016 version) in the sun Crystal Pepsi 20oz.jpg
Close-up of the clear liquid of Crystal Pepsi (2016 version) in the sun

PepsiCo's internal research already had "1,000 different product concepts", but its consumer research demanded a healthier variety of cola, which was the number one soft-drink segment [8] at 60% and yet slowing. [7] Food technologists knew that food color strongly affects flavor perceptions, associating light flavors with light colors. Pepsi's traditional caramel coloring, which adds body and flavor, was replaced with modified food starch for body with a clear look. [8] PepsiCo devised 3,000 formulations of a new clear drink, under consumer testing. [6] A 12-ounce (340 g) serving of Crystal Pepsi has 134 calories compared to Pepsi's 154 calories—20 fewer. [9] In November 1991, Pepsi-Cola publicly confirmed that it was working on a colorless version of Pepsi. [10]

Yum! Brands chairman David C. Novak is credited with introducing the Crystal Pepsi concept. In a December 2007 interview, he reminisced:

It was a tremendous learning experience. I still think it's the best idea I ever had, and the worst executed. A lot of times as a leader you think, "They don't get it; they don't see my vision." People were saying we should stop and address some issues along the way, and they were right. It would have been nice if I'd made sure the product tasted good. Once you have a great idea and you blow it, you don't get a chance to resurrect it. [11]

Distribution

On April 13, 1992, [12] Crystal Pepsi was launched in test markets of Dallas, Providence, Salt Lake City, and Colorado [13] to a positive response. [14] [15] [7] One month in test markets showed an unusually and unexpectedly strong launch due to product uniqueness and unprecedented consumer awareness. [16] In Colorado, interviews of 100,000 customers further revealed demand for a diet version. This led to PepsiCo launching Diet Crystal Pepsi on August 8, 1992, initially in a new test market Grand Rapids, and launched in Colorado in October. [13]

Crystal Pepsi was launched nationwide in the US beginning in first half of December 1992. [17] The drink was also informally referred to as "Crystal Clear Pepsi" or "Pepsi Clear". [18] [19] In its first year, it captured one full percentage point of U.S. soft drink sales, or approximately $474 million (equivalent to $1.03 billion in 2024). [20] The drink also launched in Canada in January 1993. [21] Coca-Cola followed by launching Tab Clear on December 14, 1992. [17]

PepsiCo did not release Crystal Pepsi overseas while it was being marketed in the United States and Canada. The company instead released a different low-calorie drink, Pepsi Max, in Europe and Australia in 1993. [22] [23] [24] [25]

By late 1993, Crystal Pepsi was discontinued, and the final batches were delivered to retailers during the first few months of 1994. Several months later, Pepsi briefly released a reformulated citrus-cola hybrid called Crystal From Pepsi. [26] [27]

Marketing

Crystal Pepsi racing car advertisement Crystal Pepsi (9752844193).jpg
Crystal Pepsi racing car advertisement

Crystal Pepsi was marketed as a caffeine-free "clear alternative" to normal colas. [14] Its official slogan was "You've never seen a taste like this". [4]

Gary Hemphill, public relations manager for Pepsico Inc, said "The basic philosophy behind Crystal Pepsi is this: Crystal Pepsi is not Pepsi with the color stripped out. It's a totally new product. It tastes differently than Pepsi [... which we married] to some of the attributes of the so-called New Age type products: lighter and less sweet tasting, clear, caffeine-free, all natural flavors, and no preservatives." [28] A senior vice president relayed expectation of forging "an entirely new category that really transcends New Age". [6] [17] Test marketing suggested that 80% of sales would come from non-Pepsi consumers. [28] The goal was to capture 2% of the $48 billion retail soft drink market by the end of 1993, or about $1 billion, but without harming the flagship Pepsi product. [7]

The $40 million marketing campaign included a teaser ad during the television coverage of the inauguration of the US President and $7 million of Super Bowl advertisements. [7] [28] The company invented the world's first photo-realistic, computer-generated bus wrap printing. A series of television advertisements featuring Van Halen's hit song "Right Now" premiered on national television on January 31, 1993, during Super Bowl XXVII. [29] This advertisement was parodied by Saturday Night Live as Crystal Gravy. [30] Full-sized sample bottles were distributed with the Sunday paper deliveries such as the Boston Globe in Massachusetts. [14]

According to Coca-Cola's chief marketing officer, Sergio Zyman, Tab Clear was released at the same time, as an intentional "kamikaze" effort to create an unpopular beverage that was positioned as an analogue of Crystal Pepsi to "kill both in the process". The "born to die" strategy included using the poor-performing Tab brand rather than Coke, labeling the product as a "sugar free" diet drink to confuse consumers into thinking Crystal Pepsi had no sugar, and marketing the product as if it were "medicinal". Zyman said "Pepsi spent an enormous amount of money on the brand and, regardless, we killed it. Both of them were dead within six months." [31]

Reception

In its first year, Crystal Pepsi captured 1% of U.S. soft drink sales, or approximately $474 million. Beverage Digest said "This is another instance where Pepsi has really shown leadership to strike out in a new direction." [20] Crystal Pepsi was named Best New Product of the Year for 1992 by Richard Saunders International, based on consumer preference polls among 16,000 new grocery products, scoring higher than any other beverage in the poll's history. Robert McMath, editor of Brand Week, said that "new sells [and] clarity equals purity" but he doubted the strategy of positioning such a new and different product directly alongside the old flagship product. [28]

Shortly after Crystal Pepsi's nationwide release, The Coca-Cola Company followed by launching Tab Clear on December 14, 1992. During 1993, several other manufacturers also released colorless versions of their existing products, such as colorless Palmolive dish soap, colorless Softsoap liquid soap, and colorless Rembrandt mouthwash. [32] Even the Miller Brewing Company released a colorless beer, called Miller Clear, in Richmond, Minneapolis, and Austin the following year. [33]

However, after its initial success, Crystal Pepsi quickly became more of a fad as the trend of clear sodas wore off. [34] According to PepsiCo, Crystal Pepsi sales played a large part in the company's profits for the first quarter of 1993 (when it launched nationally), but otherwise did not have much impact for the full year profits of 1993. [35] Subsequently and presently, Crystal Pepsi has been viewed as a failure. [26] [36] Its failure has also been attributed to the apparent detoriation of its taste when the bottle was exposed in the sun. [37]

Revival

In 2005, a similarly transparent Pepsi cola was launched in Mexico and sold for a limited time as Pepsi Clear. [38] [39] On August 22, 2008, PepsiCo filed for trademarks in the United States on the product names "Pepsi Clear" and "Diet Pepsi Clear", but both were soon abandoned. [38] In September 2019, a clear cola drink called Pepsi Nex II was launched in Japan by the local distributor, Suntory. This occurred not long after the local release of Coca-Cola Clear. [40] [41]

Store in Maryland with Crystal Pepsi, 2017 Crystal Pepsi.jpg
Store in Maryland with Crystal Pepsi, 2017

In March 2015, an online grassroots campaign began to bring back Crystal Pepsi, encouraged by a similar campaign that made The Coca-Cola Company reintroduce Surge in the United States. [42] The following month, a second, separate petition was led by an online competitive eating personality, Kevin Strahle, also known as The L.A. Beast, who had made a 2013 viral video of himself drinking a vintage bottle of Crystal Pepsi. This generated enough interest for a telephone and email campaign, garnering around 37,000 Change.org petition signatures, [43] tens of thousands of tagged comments on social media, 15 billboards erected around the Los Angeles area, and a commitment to ride a mobile billboard truck at PepsiCo's headquarters in Purchase, New York with a gathering of supporters at a park nearby [44] on June 15 and 16, 2015. [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51]

The interest from this campaign led to an official response to Strahle by PepsiCo on June 8, 2015: "We've had customers ask us to bring back their favorite products before, but never with your level of enthusiasm and humor. We're lucky to have a Pepsi superfan like you on our side. We definitely hear you and your followers and we think you'll all be happy with what's in store. Stay tuned." [52] [53] A year later, PepsiCo officially brought back Crystal Pepsi for a limited time, beginning on July 11, 2016 in Canada and August 8 in America. [54] It was promoted with a retro styled website and marketing video, including The Crystal Pepsi Trail browser game as an officially licensed parody of the classic The Oregon Trail. [55] [56] [57] PepsiCo brought the product back again as part of the drink's 30th anniversary in 2022 with a total of 300 units given away as part of a competition. [58] [59]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Merevick, Tony (December 11, 2015). "Taste Test: We Tried the New Crystal Pepsi". Thrillist. Archived from the original on April 24, 2016. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  2. ↑ Fama, Amanda (August 14, 2017). "Where Can I Buy Crystal Pepsi? Our Favorite '90s Soda Is Finally Back". Elite Daily. Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ Hebblethwaite, Cordelia (September 11, 2012). "Who, What, Why: In which countries is Coca-Cola not sold?". BBC News . Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
  4. 1 2 Garber, Lawrence L. Jr. (2003). "Color as a Tool for Visual Persuasion". In Linda M. Scott (ed.). Persuasive Imagery: A Consumer Response Perspective. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 313. ISBN   0-8058-4202-0 . Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  5. ↑ "White Coke Archived December 30, 2022, at the Wayback Machine ". The Boston Globe. October 15, 1990. p. B1.
  6. 1 2 3 Wolk, Martin (April 14, 1992). "Clear Pepsi aims to find own place" . The Commercial Appeal. Memphis, Tennessee. Reuters. p. B8. Archived from the original on December 22, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Zinn, Laura (January 31, 1993). "Pepsi's Future Becomes Clearer". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on May 21, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Crystal" . The Cincinnati Post. Cincinnati, Ohio. May 8, 1992. p. 9C. Archived from the original on December 22, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "The Crystal Pepsi taste test: Uh-huh" . The Cincinnati Post. Cincinnati, Ohio. May 8, 1992. p. 1C. Archived from the original on December 22, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Colorless Pepsi in works Archived December 30, 2022, at the Wayback Machine ". The Pittsburgh Press. November 25, 1991. p. B6.
  11. ↑ Flaim, Kate Bonamici (December 19, 2007). "Winging It". Fast Company . Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Business Digest". New York Times . April 13, 1992. Archived from the original on February 6, 2020.
  13. 1 2 "Pepsi to test diet version of clear cola". Kansas City Star . Kansas City, Missouri. Bloomberg Business News. October 20, 1992. p. D-16. Archived from the original on December 22, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  14. 1 2 3 Zyman, Sergio (1999). The End of Marketing as We Know It. Harper-Collins. ISBN   0-88730-983-6.
  15. ↑ Business Digest and Bloomington, Illinois. The Washington Post, April 14, 1992
  16. ↑ Fahey, A. (May 18, 1992). "Crystal Pepsi sales surge as test markets clear shelves" . Advertising Age. Vol. 63, no. 20. pp. 3–56. ISSN   0001-8899 . Retrieved August 1, 2022– via EBSCO.
  17. 1 2 3 Bryant, Adam (December 15, 1992). "Coke Adds a Clear Cola To Its 'New Age' Stable". The New York Times . p. D5. Archived from the original on February 9, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  18. ↑ "Crystal Clear Pepsi tops list of 1992's best new products". The Times of Northwest Indiana . December 10, 1992.
  19. ↑ Zekas, Rita (March 9, 1993). "Stars ready to ride waves at festival's big slashes". Toronto Star .
  20. 1 2 Janofsky, Michael (March 2, 1993). "Pepsi Tries New Diet Cola Abroad". The New York Times . p. D4. Archived from the original on February 7, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  21. ↑ Papoe, Bob (October 12, 1992). "Pepsi clears track for clear cola". Toronto Star .
  22. ↑ "Die durchsichtige Gesundheits-Cola" [The transparent health cola]. Der Spiegel (in German). May 17, 1992. ISSN   2195-1349 . Retrieved September 12, 2025. Jetzt müssen sie mit einer weiteren Verwässerung der US-Symbol-Welt fertig werden: Demnächst wird Pepsi-Cola in einer durchsichtigen Variante namens »Crystal Pepsi« angeboten. So einfach die Herstellung - es wurden nur Zucker und braune Farbe weggelassen -, so schwierig das Marketing. Die vorgeblich neue Limonade wird von den Konzern-Strategen der Gruppe der »New Age«-Getränke zugeordnet und soll das Image von »Reinheit, Gesundheit und eiskaltem Wasser« vermitteln. In Europa, dem Kontinent, wo zur Zeit sogar Mickey Mouse einen schweren Stand hat, wird die Einführung der gesunden Cola bislang nicht erwogen.[Now they must cope with a further dilution of the US symbol world: Pepsi-Cola will soon be offered in a transparent version called "Crystal Pepsi." While its production is simple—they only omit the sugar and brown color—it will be difficult to market. The supposedly new lemonade is classified by corporate strategists as a "New Age" beverage and is intended to convey the image of "purity, health, and ice-cold water." In Europe, the continent where even Mickey Mouse is currently struggling, the introduction of the healthy cola has not yet been considered.]
  23. ↑ "A fizz-ical contest". Newcastle Evening Chronicle . March 11, 1993. p. 14. US shoppers have already had the chance to sample the opposition, clear Pepsi Crystal. But here Pepsi is busy test-marketing a second low-Calorie cola, Pepsi Max.
  24. ↑ Shoebridge, Neil (October 22, 1993). "UNDAUNTED PEPSI KEEPS 'EM COMING". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved September 12, 2025. PepsiCo has no plans for a colorless cola drink; O'Donohue says Australians will not embrace "minimalist" versions of regular colas.
  25. ↑ Only, Subscription (August 30, 1993). "Pepsi goes to the max in Australia". AdWeek . Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  26. 1 2 Denitto, Emily (July 18, 1994). "Pepsi Sees Citrus Appeal in Its Crystal". AdAge. Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  27. ↑ Brody, Aaron L.; Lord, John B. (2000). Developing New Foods for a Changing Marketplace. CRC Press. p. 62. ISBN   1-56676-778-4.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "Soft-drink bottler makes a case for Crystal Pepsi" . The News Journal. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 35. Archived from the original on July 31, 2022. Retrieved July 30, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  29. ↑ VCRchivist (August 2, 2009). "Crystal Pepsi launch ad - 1-minute version - 1993". Archived from the original on November 30, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2018– via YouTube.
  30. ↑ Night Live (November 16, 2017). "Crystal Gravy - SNL". Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2018– via YouTube.
  31. ↑ Denny, Stephen (2011). Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath in Your Industry . Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN   9781591843832.
  32. ↑ Plotnikoff, David (March 30, 1992). "1993 could be remembered as year of the clear Archived December 30, 2022, at the Wayback Machine ". The Daily Herald (Provo, Utah). p. 24.
  33. ↑ Stoughton, Stephanie (June 27, 1993). "Miller Clear — cheers, jeers Archived December 30, 2022, at the Wayback Machine ". Associated Press. The Daily News Leader (Staunton, Virginia). p. 5.
  34. ↑ Triplett, Tim (May 23, 1994). "Consumers show little taste for clear beverages". Marketing News.
  35. ↑ PepsiCo Annual Report 1994. PepsiCo. p. 9.
  36. ↑ "THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; Pepsi-Cola to Stamp Dates For Freshness on Soda Cans (Published 1994)". March 31, 1994. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  37. ↑ "The three types of failures: Basic, complex and intelligent". The Globe and Mail . September 25, 2023. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  38. 1 2 Tanner, Steve (August 11, 2009). "Is Pepsi Clear the return of Crystal Pepsi?". BevReview.com. Archived from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  39. ↑ López, Alfred (February 3, 2006). "Un puñado de curiosidades sobre la "Pepsi Cola"". 20 minutos - Últimas Noticia (in Spanish). Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  40. ↑ "PEPSI NEX II". Cola White Paper (in Japanese). Ichiro Nakahashi.
  41. ↑ "「特定保健用食品 PEPSI NEXII」新発売" [Food for Specified Health Use PEPSI NEXII]. Excite Japan. Suntory. September 5, 2019.
  42. ↑ Rick Aristotle Munarriz. "Coke's Surge Surges Back; Will Crystal Pepsi Be Revived Next?". DailyFinance.com. Archived from the original on November 29, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  43. ↑ Addady, Michal (August 8, 2016). "Crystal Pepsi Is Back on Shelves Today". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
  44. ↑ "L.A. Beast- Facebook". facebook.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2022. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  45. ↑ ABC News. "You Can Thank This Guy If Popular '90s Drink Crystal Pepsi Returns". ABC News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  46. ↑ "'Crystal Pepsi' may return in response to online campaign". New York Daily News . Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  47. ↑ E.J. Schultz. (June 9, 2015). "Crystal Pepsi Is Poised for a Comeback". adage.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  48. ↑ MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - Bring Back Crystal Pepsi. June 8, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015– via YouTube.
  49. ↑ Riley, Charles; Alesci, Cristina (June 11, 2015). "Remember Crystal Pepsi? It might be coming back". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  50. ↑ "Crystal Pepsi Might Be Making a Comeback! - Us Weekly". usmagazine.com. June 11, 2015. Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  51. ↑ "PepsiCo poised to revive 1990s flop Crystal Pepsi". cbsnews.com. June 11, 2015. Archived from the original on October 1, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  52. ↑ Ledbetter, Carly (June 11, 2015). "Crystal Pepsi Might Be Making A Comeback Thanks To One Man's Excitement". Huffpost. Huffington Post. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  53. ↑ Whitten, Sarah (December 9, 2015). "Crystal Pepsi is back, but there's a catch". CNBC . Archived from the original on October 21, 2018. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
  54. ↑ "Celebrate the 90s with Crystal Pepsi® -- Iconic Clear Cola to Hit Shelves This Summer". PepsiCo Canada. June 29, 2016.
  55. ↑ "Crystal Pepsi Returns for Summer 2016". Prepared Foods. BNP Media. July 12, 2016. Archived from the original on May 23, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  56. ↑ "Crystal Pepsi: The 'clear' '90s hit makes a return". CNBC. June 30, 2016. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  57. ↑ "Crystal Pepsi". PepsiCo. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  58. ↑ Valinsky, Jordan (January 4, 2022). "Crystal Pepsi is back | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  59. ↑ Valinsky, Jordan (January 4, 2022). "Crystal Pepsi is back | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
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