Pepsi's Trajectory: Understand How Soda Spoiled Everything in the 90s

Pepsi is the second most consumed soft drink in the world, second only to Coca-Cola.

The brand that has several varieties of flavors, such as cola, lemon, cherry, vanilla and zero sugar, won the preference of several people all over the world, becoming increasingly accessible and desired.

Today we will tell you a little more about pepsi history which turns out to be quite curious.

Read more: Understand how one of the greatest rivalries on the planet began: Coke x Pepsi

Understand the history of Pepsi

Check out now a little about the paths that this soft drink has taken and find out how the brand managed to reach the position of being considered the second most consumed soft drink in the world:

1. Brief History of Pepsi

Created in 1898 by a pharmacy owner named Caleb Bradham, Pepsi was initially called "Brad's drink".

As early as 1903, the drink was patented and known as Pepsi Cola, due to its composition, in which it included pepsin (an enzyme for digestion) and cola nuts as the two main ingredients.

Initially, for Bradham, the drink would serve to aid in the digestion process, as a kind of syrup and only five years later it was transformed into soda as it is known today.

1. Pepsi and World War I

Prior to World War I, business flowed normally from Bradham's small pharmacy for about 10 years.

However, after the First World War, the company began to face some problems due to the difficulty in acquiring raw materials for the production of the soft drink.

Faced with so many difficulties, the creator of the soft drink was unable to maintain his business and ended up selling the brand and returning to his initial role, that of a pharmacist.

1. Starting the Pepsi Success Story

Being sold twice more after Bradham sold it the first time, during the 1930s, Pepsi began to be sold in the international market.

Canada was the first country to receive Pepsi, while in Brazil, the product only started to be sold in 1953.

1. Rivalry between Coca-Cola and Pepsi

Despite being created in very close times, the rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola began in 1975, almost a century after both brands were created.

With the huge advantage of Coca-Cola in its advertising campaigns, the brand has gained the preference of the American people exponentially.

Meanwhile, Pepsi went through several oscillations in its trajectory, going bankrupt in the 30s.

1. Pepsi in Brazil

Launched by a Portuguese man who, when devising a marketing strategy, generated a lot of controversy, making Pepsi increasingly well known.

The Portuguese strategy was to deceive Brazilians, making them believe that the brand was originally from Rio Grande do Sul.

For this, he painted all the bars in Porto Alegre with the colors of Pepsi to convince the population to believe this lie.

There are reports that many were surprised at the time that they discovered that the brand had not appeared in Rio Grande do Sul, which ended up dishonoring the product's image.

1. Controversy and possible damage to the soda brand

There was a campaign called “Pepsi Stuff” which generated a lot of controversy in the 1990s and almost ruined the soda brand.

In this campaign, Pepsi exchanged Pepsi Points, which were points acquired with each drink for some prizes.

However, in a commercial, Pepsi advertised a Harrier Jet (a jet aircraft) as a prize, which is worth 7 million Pepsi Points. At first, the company believed that this would be a joke to make the campaign more fun.

However, it was not like that. By not putting fine print in the commercial reporting that it was a joke, the company faced major problems due to errors like these and many other advertising errors.

John Leonard, 21, saw the prize in the Pepsi Stuff commercial and made a plan to acquire it.

Upon collecting all the points that enormous difficulty, reaching to buy some, John handed over Pepsi in exchange for his prize. In its initial response, Pepsi returned the points with two coupons for a free case of Pepsi, including a note that this was meant to be a joke, and that there was no Harrier Jet available. Leonard, furious at the commercial's lack of clarity, took Pepsi to court.

Ultimately, a judge ruled in Pepsi's favor, but Leonard walked away a hero and ended up tarnishing Pepsi's reputation.