The Pepsi Cool Cans are a series of promotional cola cans produced in 1990 with four different designs, as part of a PepsiCo advertising campaign. The designs passed into folklore, particularly the one titled Neon, due to the belief that the word SEX was hidden in that design. [1]
PepsiCo distributed limited edition Pepsi Cool Cans in the United States in 1990, from Memorial Day to Independence Day. This promotion marked the first change to the design on Pepsi cans since 1979. It occurred during the Cola wars, and the cans debuted at about the same time that rival Coca-Cola's MagiCans campaign was aborted. [2] Pepsi Cool Cans were produced in four designs, called Confetti, Sunglasses, Neon and Motifs. [2] Part of a larger Pepsi rebranding strategy, which included a change of logo, the cans were intended to appeal the teenage market. [3] [4] PepsiCo was attempting to portray Pepsi as a drink for the young, and conversely, Coca-Cola as being for older people. [3]
After the Pepsi Cool Cans were released, some people began to claim that when one Neon can was stacked on top of another, and the two cans were aligned in a certain way, the word SEX could be seen in the design. [5] [6] A number of parents complained to PepsiCo about this, but a spokesman for the company dismissed the concern: "I guess if you look hard enough at clouds in the sky, you could see various images and messages that other people don't see." [5] Another spokesman stated that the supposed hidden message resulted from "pure coincidence". [7] Eventually, however, the complaints caused PepsiCo to stop distributing the cans, [8] but the campaign was still seen as successful, as sales of Pepsi had increased by 20%. [9]
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1888 Pemberton sold Coca-Cola's ownership rights to Asa Griggs Candler, a businessman, whose marketing tactics led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the global soft-drink market throughout the 20th and 21st century. The drink's name refers to two of its original ingredients: coca leaves and kola nuts. The current formula of Coca-Cola remains a closely guarded trade secret; however, a variety of reported recipes and experimental recreations have been published. The secrecy around the formula has been used by Coca-Cola in its marketing as only a handful of anonymous employees know the formula. The drink has inspired imitators and created a whole classification of soft drink: colas.
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
Mountain Dew, stylized as Mtn Dew, is a carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman. A revised formula was created by Bill Bridgforth in 1958. The rights to this formula were obtained by the Tip Corporation of Marion, Virginia. William H. "Bill" Jones of the Tip Corporation further refined the formula, launching that version of Mountain Dew in 1961. In August 1964, the Mountain Dew brand and production rights were acquired from Tip by the Pepsi-Cola company, and the distribution expanded across the United States and Canada.
A hidden message is information that is not immediately noticeable, and that must be discovered or uncovered and interpreted before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages, hidden visual messages and symbolic or cryptic codes such as a crossword or cipher. Although there are many legitimate examples of hidden messages created with techniques such as backmasking and steganography, many so-called hidden messages are merely fanciful imaginings or apophany.
Coca-Cola Vanilla is a vanilla-flavored version of Coca-Cola, invented by Contra and introduced in 2002 but subsequently discontinued in North America and the United Kingdom in 2005, only remaining available as a fountain drink. It was relaunched in the US in 2007, in Denmark in 2012, the UK in 2013, and Canada in 2016. Vanilla Coke has been available in Australia since its initial introduction in 2002, being produced by Coca-Cola Amatil. Originally announced as a limited edition in the UK, it became permanent for several years; however, it was again discontinued in the UK in Summer 2018. Despite this, the product has still been distributed in related brands Diet Vanilla Coke and Coke Vanilla Zero.
New Coke was the informal name given by the Coca-Cola Company to a new formula for its most popular drink, Coca-Cola, released in 1985. It was renamed Coke II in 1990 and discontinued in July 2002.
The cola wars refer to the long-time rivalry between soft drink producers The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, who have engaged in mutually-targeted marketing campaigns for the direct competition between each company's product lines, especially their flagship colas, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Beginning in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the competition escalated, which gave this cultural phenomenon its current moniker of cola wars.
Crystal Pepsi is a clear cola soft drink made by PepsiCo. It was initially released in the United States and Canada from 1992 to 1994, with brief re-releases throughout the mid-2010s that were prompted by grassroots public revival efforts. It was briefly sold in the United Kingdom and Australia. Its flavor resembles standard Pepsi, without caramel color, allegedly making it taste less "acidic".
Fresca is a grapefruit-flavored citrus soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company. Borrowing the word Fresca from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, it was first introduced in the United States in 1966. Originally a bottled sugar-free diet soda, sugar sweetened versions were introduced in some markets.
OK Soda is a discontinued soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company in 1993 that courted the American Generation X demographic with unusual advertising tactics, including neo-noir design, chain letters and deliberately negative publicity. After the soda did not sell well in select test markets, it was officially declared out of production in 1995 before reaching nationwide distribution. The drink's slogan was "Things are going to be OK."
Diet Pepsi is a no-calorie carbonated cola soft drink produced by PepsiCo, introduced in 1964 as a variant of Pepsi with no sugar. First test marketed in 1963 under the name Patio Diet Cola, it was re-branded as Diet Pepsi the following year, becoming the first diet cola to be distributed on a national scale in the United States.
Mello Yello is a highly caffeinated, citrus-flavored soft drink produced, distributed and created by The Coca-Cola Company that was introduced on March 12, 1979, to compete with PepsiCo's Mountain Dew.
Pepsi Stuff was a major loyalty program launched by PepsiCo, first in North America on March 28, 1996 and then around the world, featuring premiums — such as T-shirts, hats, denim and leather jackets, bags, and mountain bikes — that could be purchased with Pepsi Points through the Pepsi Stuff Catalog or online. Customers could acquire points from specially marked Pepsi packages and fountain cups. Additional points were sold both by Pepsi and by consumers, the latter mainly enabled by eBay. The first Pepsi Stuff promotion ended on October 31, 1996. It was relaunched 12 years later on February 1, 2008, ended on December 31, 2008, and was relaunched as Pepsi Pass in August 2015. Pepsi Stuff was relaunched on January 22, 2018 with retro editions of Pepsi, and ended on February 28, 2019.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is a diet cola produced by The Coca-Cola Company. In some countries, it is sold as Coca-Cola No Sugar.
Coca-Cola Cherry is a cherry-flavored version of Coca-Cola. It is produced and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers in the United States and some international markets.
MagiCans were special, mechanical cans used by The Coca-Cola Company in the United States of America as a part of their $100-million "Magic Summer '90" promotion. The MagiCan promotion began on May 7, 1990, and ended on May 31.
Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904, and is now also sold in Europe, Asia, North and South America. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, Dr Pepper is sold as an imported good. Variants include Diet Dr Pepper and, beginning in the 2000s, a line of additional flavors.
Sprite is a colorless, lemon and lime-flavored soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company. Sprite comes in multiple flavors, including cranberry, cherry, grape, orange, tropical, ginger, and vanilla.
American comedian Bill Cosby was a popular spokesperson for advertising from the 1960s – before his first starring television role – until the early 2000s. He started with White Owl cigars, and later endorsed Jell-O pudding and gelatin, Del Monte, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, American Red Cross, Texas Instruments, E. F. Hutton & Co., Kodak, and the 1990 United States Census. As of 2002, Cosby held the record for being the longest-serving celebrity spokesperson for a product, through his work with Jell-O. In 2011, he won the President's Award for Contributions to Advertising from the Advertising Hall of Fame.
The Pepsi-Cola sign is a neon sign at Gantry Plaza State Park in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The sign, visible from Manhattan and the East River, was built in 1940 and originally installed atop PepsiCo 's bottling factory nearby. It is composed of a 50-foot (15 m) depiction of a Pepsi bottle, as well as lettering that reflected PepsiCo's logo when the sign was commissioned.