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The Pepsi Generation, is the theme of an advertising campaign for Pepsi-Cola, a US brand of soft drink, that launched in 1963 as the result of a slogan contest. A new car was awarded to the writer of the winning slogan. The contest was the brainchild of Alan Pottasch, a PepsiCo advertising executive, and it was won by Appleton, Wisconsin resident, Ellen M. Reimer. Her slogan invited consumers to "Come Alive! You're the Pepsi Generation!" The original "Come Alive" jingle was performed by singer Joanie Sommers in her memorable "breathy" vocal style. As of 2024, this logo is still used on merchandising.
Earlier campaigns for Pepsi-Cola had emphasized price competition. Twelve US fl oz (350 ml) Pepsi bottles contained nearly twice as much beverage as seven US fl oz (210 ml) standard Coca-Cola bottles, and Coca-Cola was by far the leading brand of soft drink. Pepsi launched a jingle campaign in 1939, "Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot":
This 1939 jingle focused on the simple proposition that Pepsi was just as good as Coke, but better value. The Pepsi Generation campaign represented a major shift away from that line of thinking; rather than being just as good as Coke, Pepsi was different from Coke. The Pepsi Generation and its associated jingle —
told Pepsi drinkers, now enrolled in the Pepsi Generation, that Pepsi-Cola was taking a stand with the "young" side of the 1960s-era "generation gap". Television ads featuring the campaign typically displayed young people pursuing exotic entertainments like motorcycle or watercycle riding or piloting a windship through a desert, while an announcer described Pepsi drinkers as people who saw the "young view of things". "Who is the Pepsi Generation? Livelier, active people with a liking for Pepsi-Cola!" [2] Previous Coca-Cola advertisements had featured Norman Rockwell styled images of small towns and nostalgic scenes, as well as traditional figures such as Santa Claus. Pepsi told soft drink consumers that there are Coke people, and there are Pepsi people, and if you're a Pepsi person you are young, and the future's on your side. [3]
This "image campaign" inspired Coca-Cola to do a similar "hip" campaign in 1971, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony)," which also sold the lifestyle rather than the soft drink itself.
Pottasch, creator of the campaign, said that "For us to name and claim a whole generation after our product was a rather courageous thing that we weren't sure would take off." The "Pepsi Generation" was one of the first and best known instances of what came to be known as "lifestyle marketing". It focused on portraying Pepsi drinkers as possessing desirable qualities such as youth, rather than on the characteristics of the product itself. Pottasch said that "Pepsi was young, spirited, people doing active things—playing volleyball on the beach.... but younger we said in mind, in attitude, in feeling. Young in spirit. Young in heart." [4]
In 1984, Pottasch repeated the themes of the Pepsi Generation with "The Choice of a New Generation" campaign. This launch coincided with Michael Jackson's appearance in commercials. During the time of the campaign, other actors and musicians have pitched the product, including Lionel Richie, Tina Turner, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine and Michael J. Fox.
In January 1997, Pepsi announced its new global marketing campaign under the "GeneratioNext" slogan, [5] a continuation of the "Pepsi Generation" advertisement theme. The new slogan aimed to replace the various catch phrases used in the United States such as "Nothing else is a Pepsi", and those used in international markets such as "Change the script" and "Choice of a new generation". Pepsi bought around four minutes of commercial time during the Super Bowl XXXI, which aired on 26 January 1997. The commercial was fast-paced and featured young boxers, waitresses and fun-seekers. Brian Swette, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Pepsi, described the characters in it as "positive, in control and lay claim to the future—the antithesis of Generation X". [6] The ads featured the jingle "Move Over", written by Mary Wood and Clifford Lane of the BBDO advertising agency, which contained the slogan "Generation Next". [7] [8] The lyrics of the song mock past musical styles such as "rave, rap, punk, metal" urging listeners to not "do it over, cause that's over", while embracing the "next page, next stage, next craze, next wave". [6] The Spice Girls later recorded their own version of the jingle for the commercials they did for Pepsi. [7]
Many other artists have also been the voice of the "Pepsi Generation" and "Generation Next" commercials, including Del Shannon, the late [9] Michael Jackson, and Britney Spears.
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings each day. Coca-Cola ranked No. 87 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Based on Interbrand's "best global brand" study of 2020, Coca-Cola was the world's sixth most valuable brand.
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo. It was originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham in the United States, and became known as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, before shortening to Pepsi in 1961. As of 2023, Pepsi is the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long-standing rivalry in what has been called the "cola wars".
"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" is a pop song that originated as "True Love and Apple Pie", by British hit songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, and sung by Susan Shirley.
New Coke was the unofficial name of a reformulation of the soft drink Coca-Cola, introduced by The Coca-Cola Company in April 1985. It was renamed Coke II in 1990, and discontinued in July 2002.
The Cola wars are 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 until it became known as the 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. Online grassroots revival efforts prompted brief re-releases throughout the mid-2010s. It was briefly sold in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Fresca is a grapefruit-flavored citrus soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company. Borrowing the word Fresca from Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, it was introduced in the United States in 1966. Originally a bottled sugar-free diet soda, sugar sweetened versions were introduced in some markets.
Pepsi Max is a low-calorie, sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo as an alternative to Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. Pepsi Max is available primarily in Asian and European markets. While Pepsi Max was released in April 1993, it did not become available in the United States until 2007.
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It produces Coca-Cola. The drink industry company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. The company's stock is listed on the NYSE and is part of the DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes.
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."
Fruitopia is a fruit-flavored drink introduced by the Coca-Cola Company's successful Minute Maid brand in 1994 and targeted at teens and young adults. According to New York Times business reports, it was invented as part of a push by Minute Maid to capitalize on the success of Snapple and other flavored tea drinks. The brand gained substantial hype in the mid-1990s before enduring lagging sales by decade's end. While still available in Canada and Australia as a juice brand, in 2003, Fruitopia was phased out in most of the United States where it had struggled for several years. However, select flavors have since been revamped under Minute Maid. Use of the Fruitopia brand name continues through various beverages in numerous countries, including some McDonald's restaurant locations in the United States, which carry the drink to this day.
Future Cola is a cola-flavoured carbonated beverage manufactured by Hangzhou Wahaha Group of China, where its market share is 12-15%, making it the third-largest manufacturer of soft drinks in China behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola. It is distributed by Reed's, Inc., in the United States as China Cola.
Energy Brands, also doing business as Glacéau, is a privately owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company based in Whitestone, Queens, New York, that manufactures and distributes various lines of drinks marketed as enhanced water. Founded in May 1996 by J. Darius Bikoff with an electrolyte enhanced line of water called Smartwater, Energy Brands initially distributed its products to health food stores and independent retailers in the New York area. Adding Fruitwater and Vitaminwater to its line in 1998 and 2000, respectively, the company expanded to nationwide distribution in the early 2000s.
Tab Clear was a variation of Tab. It is Coca-Cola's contribution to the short-lived "clear cola" movement during the early 1990s. It was introduced in the United States on December 14, 1992, in the United Kingdom a month later and in Japan in March 1993 to initially positive results. Tab Clear was, however, discontinued after only a short time of marketing in 1994. Unlike most other "clear" soft drinks, Tab Clear contained caffeine and, according to the company, had the flavor of cola.
Diet Pepsi Jazz was an American brand of soda introduced by the Pepsi company in 2006 and discontinued in 2009. It was a specifically named variant of Pepsi's popular Diet Pepsi product, combining several different flavors.
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. It 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.
Alan Maxwell Pottasch was an American advertising executive and marketer best known for his five decades of work for PepsiCo. Specifically, Pottasch is best known as the creator behind the "Pepsi Generation" advertising campaign.
Sprite is a clear, lemon-lime flavored soft drink created by the Coca-Cola Company. Sprite comes in multiple flavors, including cranberry, cherry, grape, orange, tropical, ginger, and vanilla. Ice, peach, Berryclear remix, and newer versions of the drinks are artificially sweetened. Sprite was created to compete primarily against 7-Up.
American comedian and actor 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 the Jell-O frosty ice pop treats Pudding Pop, 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.
Simba was a sugar-sweetened, lemon-flavored citrus "thirst-quenching" soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company. The drink was named "Simba" in the Bantu language Swahili. The soft drink was heavily researched, test marketed in 1968, introduced nationally in 1969 but ultimately withdrawn in 1972 after sales did not reach expectations.