This article is about the beverage available outside North America. For the North American beverage, see Pepsi Zero Sugar. For the roller coaster, see Pepsi Max Big One.
Pepsi Max (also known as Pepsi Zero Sugar and Pepsi Black in some countries) is a low-calorie, sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo as an alternative to Pepsi and Diet Pepsi, except for Norway, where it is the main Pepsi flavor. Pepsi Max is available primarily in Asian, European and Australia/New Zealand markets. While Pepsi Max was released in April 1993, it did not become available in the United States until 2007.
A drink with the same name but different formulation (containing ginseng and higher quantities of caffeine) was sold in the United States until it was renamed "Pepsi Zero Sugar" in late 2016.
History
Pepsi Black limited edition Lime and Original Flavor (Middle East)
Pepsi Max debuted in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Italy on April 5, 1993. The rollout was expanded to Ireland the following September, and to France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands the following December. By the end of 1994, Pepsi Max was sold in approximately twenty countries. By the end of 1995, that figure had more than doubled. The product remained unavailable in the United States until 2006 (the US, PepsiCo's home market, and the largest consumer of carbonated soft drinks), where one of its principal ingredients had not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The ingredient—acesulfame potassium—is combined with aspartame to provide the beverage's sweetness, whereas some other diet colas are sweetened by aspartame alone.
In early-2005, Pepsi Max Twist (with added lemon-lime flavour) joined the UK and Australian product line. In autumn 2005, "Pepsi Max Punch" was marketed in the UK for the festive season. Containing ginger and cinnamon, the product was similar in flavour to Pepsi Holiday Spice, a sugar-sweetened variety of Pepsi that was marketed in the US one year earlier. In late-2005 and early-2006, a coffee-flavoured variety was introduced in France, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and the UK. Known as "Pepsi Max Cappuccino" ("Pepsi Max Coffee Cino" in the UK), the product was prefigured by the similar Pepsi Kona (briefly test-marketed in the US in 1996) and Pepsi Tarik, available in Malaysia since 2005.
Standard 500ml Pepsi Max bottle from the UK
Pepsi Max was introduced to South Korea, Bulgaria, and the Philippines in 2006, as well as being reintroduced into Argentina in the spring of 2006 after being phased out after its launch in 1994. As well as this, Pepsi Max was introduced into Brazil, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during early 2007.
Small 0.33 liter Pepsi Max bottles
In October 2008, Pepsi announced it would be redesigning its logo and re-branding many of its products. Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Pepsi Max all use lower-case fonts for name brands, Mountain Dew was renamed "Mtn Dew", and Diet Pepsi Max was re-branded as Pepsi Max. The brand's blue and red globe trademark became a series of "smiles", with the central white band arcing at different angles depending on the product. The new imagery is being used. In the case of Pepsi Max, besides renaming of the drink its international name, the logo has a large "smile" likely to emphasize the North American drink's "Wake up people!" advertising campaign, and also uses black in the bottom half of the globe as opposed to the more standard royal blue. The new lower-case font used on Pepsi's products is reminiscent of the font used in Diet Pepsi's logo from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. The website for the "Wake up people!" campaign now redirects to the Pepsi Refresh Project. It is expected that the version of Pepsi Max outside North America will adopt the new logo used by its US–Canada counterpart; this has now occurred in Australia. In the UK, the cans now have the "Pepsi" text and the new Pepsi globe (with the normal Pepsi "smile" and the blue bottom half, as opposed to the black half used in the US) but the "Max" is in the previous style.
Can of Pepsi Max
A Pepsi Max Lime version was released in the United States in February 2010 under the name "Pepsi Max Cease Fire" It was introduced in the UK in late-2011. It was cross-promoted with a new flavor series of Doritos chips called "3rd Degree Burn". In July 2010, Pepsi began to move its North American branding for Pepsi Max to match its global branding. It now carries a Max typography similar to that used worldwide, and rolled out a new slogan: "Zero Calories. Maximum Pepsi Taste". Its formula has not changed. In May 2011, Pepsi introduced the drink to Spain. In 2016, the drink was introduced to Venezuela. In 2017 Pepsi Max was launched in Costa Rica.[1]
In 2013, Pepsi Max collaborated with English magician Steven Frayne, also known as Dynamo, as part of their 'Live for Now' campaign which was launched the previous year. As part of a launch event, Dynamo was seen in London hanging from the side of a number 543 double-decker bus on its journey along Millbank, past the Houses of Parliament and across Westminster Bridge, while hundreds of passers by watched.[2][3] The partnership also saw Dynamo appear in an on-pack promotion on cans and bottles of Pepsi Max during July and August, and secured 19 million unique impressions and 7 million total video views on social media.[4]
In 2017, the drink was reintroduced in Belarus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, India, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine as Pepsi Black. As of 2017 it is available as Pepsi Max in Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Venezuela.
Product positioning
Recent[when?] UK/Australia Pepsi Max television advertisements (as well as in several European countries) have featured the taglines "Maximum taste, no sugar" and "Don't worry, there's no sugar." Some have incorporated extreme sports, as well as video games such as Motocross Mania, in an attempt to appeal to young men (in contrast to other diet cola drinks, which tend to target young women). The British advertising campaign involved retouched versions of the American "Do the Dew" commercials for Mountain Dew (a variant of which is sold in the UK), rebranded as "Live life to the Max".
Coca-Cola Zero, a sugar-free cola from The Coca-Cola Company, is marketed in a similar manner. In the UK, some Coke Zero advertising alluded to Pepsi Max, leading to a counter-campaign by Pepsi extolling the virtues of the concept of "maximum" over that of "zero".[5][6][7]
Variants
The Pepsi Max brand has seen many flavour variants and varieties across the world where the drink is marketed.
Sold as a limited edition during the 2005 Christmas Season. It is similar to the North American Pepsi Holiday Spice which was sold the year before and the year after.
Australia United Kingdom France Lebanon Finland Sweden Norway Denmark Iceland Hungary Romania Poland Serbia Czech Republic China Poland, Portugal Serbia Spain
Was first sold as Pepsi Max Cease Fire and Pepsi Max Citrus Freeze in Australia/New Zealand and the United Kingdom respectively in 2011 as part of a promotion with Doritos corn chips before being re-released in 2016 (as a limited edition) and 2021 respectively. Sold as Pepsi Black Lime in some countries
Sold in the United Kingdom as a year-long limited edition under the name Pepsi Electric. It is similar to Pepsi Blue.
In early 2005, the North American drink Pepsi ONE was revised, with Splenda brand sucralose replacing the aspartame ingredient.
Canadian formulation
Beginning in early 1994, an entirely different Pepsi Max was marketed in Canada. Now regarded as a precursor to Pepsi Edge, it was sweetened with a combination of aspartame and high fructose corn syrup. As a result, it contained two-thirds fewer calories than full-sugar colas (including regular Pepsi), but more calories than conventional diet/light colas (or the version of Pepsi Max sold elsewhere). The Canadian product was discontinued in 2002; the Diet Pepsi Max product introduced in 2008 has no direct relationship to the earlier formulation.
Cola is a carbonated soft drink flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, citrus oils, and other flavorings. Cola became popular worldwide after the American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, a trademarked brand, in 1886, which was imitated by other manufacturers. Most colas originally contained caffeine from the kola nut, leading to the drink's name, though other sources of caffeine are generally used in modern formulations. The Pemberton cola drink also contained a coca plant extract. His non-alcoholic recipe was inspired by the coca wine of pharmacist Angelo Mariani, created in 1863.
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo. 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".
Diet Coke is a sugar-free and low-calorie soft drink produced and distributed by the Coca-Cola Company. It contains artificial sweeteners instead of sugar. Unveiled on July 8, 1982, and introduced in the United States one month later, it was the first new brand since Coca-Cola's creation in 1886 to use the Coca-Cola trademark. The product quickly overtook the company's existing diet cola, Tab, in sales.
Pepsi One, corporately styled PEPSI ONE, was a sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo in the United States as an alternative to regular Pepsi and Diet Pepsi.
Diet or light beverages are generally sugar-free, artificially sweetened beverages with few or no calories. They are marketed for diabetics and other people who want to reduce their sugar and/or caloric intake.
Diet Rite is an American brand of no-calorie soft drinks that was originally distributed by the RC Cola company.
Coca-Cola C2 was a cola-flavored beverage produced in response to the low-carbohydrate diet trend. This Coke product was marketed as having half the carbohydrates, sugars and calories compared to standard Coca-Cola. It contained aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose in addition to the high fructose corn syrup typically found in cola beverages distributed in America.
Pepsi Twist is a lemon flavored cola, marketed by PepsiCo as an alternative to regular Pepsi.
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.
Diet Pepsi is a diet 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. In the 1960s and 1970s, its competition consisted of the Coca-Cola Company's subsequently discontinued Tab. The United States represents the largest single market for Diet Pepsi.
Pepsi Wild Cherry is a cherry-flavored cola first introduced in 1988 by PepsiCo. Two sugar-free versions are also available, with zero calories, named Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry and Pepsi Zero Sugar Wild Cherry, and a vanilla-flavored version Pepsi Cherry Vanilla is also available. Alongside the beverages, a lip balm version is also available. Pepsi Wild Cherry is currently sold in the United States and Canada as a regular, permanent product.
Sierra Mist is a discontinued lemon-lime flavored soft drink line. Originally introduced by PepsiCo in 1999, it was eventually made available in all US markets by 2003. The name is a play on Mountain Dew: "sierra" is the Spanish word for "mountain range" and both mist and dew are composed of water droplets. The drink was rebranded as "Mist Twst" in 2016, but reverted to Sierra Mist in 2018. In early 2023, Sierra Mist was replaced by Starry. The brand was aimed at competing with Sprite and 7 Up.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is a diet cola produced by the Coca-Cola Company.
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.
Pepsi Zero Sugar, is a zero-calorie, sugar-free, formerly ginseng-infused cola sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame K, marketed by PepsiCo. It originally contained nearly twice the caffeine of Pepsi's other cola beverages. Before a recipe change in late 2022, Pepsi Zero Sugar contained 69 milligrams of caffeine per 355 mL (12.5 imp fl oz), versus 36 milligrams in Diet Pepsi.
Pepsi-Cola Soda Shop Made with Real Sugar, originally named Pepsi Throwback and Pepsi Made with Real Sugar and still branded that way in some international markets, is a soft drink sold by PepsiCo. The drink is flavored with cane sugar and beet sugar instead of the sugar substitute high-fructose corn syrup that has been used in the standard version of Pepsi within North America since the 1980s.
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.
Pepsi Next is a discontinued cola-flavored carbonated soft drink produced by PepsiCo. It was a variant of the Pepsi cola range.
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