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Heroes Community > Tavern of the Rising Sun > Thread: The best drink ever!
Thread: The best drink ever! This thread is 3 pages long: 1 2 3 · «PREV / NEXT»
Nimrod_The_D...
Nimrod_The_Dark_Elf


Known Hero
PoStEr Of BaBeS
posted January 31, 2004 07:21 PM

OFF topic!!

all this alcohole has nothin to do with the glorius taste of cola! stick to the topic here now!

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Dingo
Dingo


Responsible
Legendary Hero
God of Dark SPAM
posted January 31, 2004 07:44 PM

Quote:
mirinda(zingo) and pepsi max


I've never heard of those, are they good?
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The Above Post/Thread/Idea Is CopyRighted by, The Dingo Corp.

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regnus_khan
regnus_khan


Responsible
Supreme Hero
[ Peacekeeper of Equilibris ]
posted January 31, 2004 08:25 PM

This is an invention all over Europe (I think, coz I saw smth like that when I was in Austria). BTW, Mirinda(Zingo) is alike Fanta and Pepsi Max is almost the same as low-calory Coca-cola Light.
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Greek_god_su...
Greek_god_superman


Famous Hero
Bringer Of Light
posted January 31, 2004 09:39 PM

Quote:
Have you ever tried the white russian? It has a little milk added to the mix, and it has a unique taste. I tried both black and white, but i like white more.


Yea, I´ve tried it, but still like more the black one. I had creamliqueur instead of milk in my white russian.
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After all, marriage and murder are not too different - one ends your life and the other is a crime

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LordZXZX
LordZXZX


Famous Hero
Overfished
posted January 31, 2004 09:50 PM

I'd prefer Coca Cola and it's products...
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regnus_khan
regnus_khan


Responsible
Supreme Hero
[ Peacekeeper of Equilibris ]
posted January 31, 2004 09:57 PM

History of Pepsi

Caleb D. Bradham was born in Chinquapin, North Carolina in 1866 to a well-to-do family. Caleb was a very well liked young man who was not only very smart, but very popular as well. He seemed to be destined for great things in life. Caleb wanted to become a doctor and after graduating the University of North Carolina he entered medical school at the University of Maryland. However, in his second year of medical school his father's business failed. Caleb had to quit school and take a job, so he moved to New Bern, North Carolina and took a job teaching school. However, Caleb still loved medicine, so when the towns pharmacy, at the corner of Middle and Pollock Streets, was placed on the market in 1893, Caleb convinced the owner to sell him the business. Exactly how Caleb pulled this off must be a testament to his great personality and his salesmanship ability because Caleb didn't actually have any money to purchase the business. He convinced the pharmacies owner to sell him the business based almost solely on credit.

Caleb immediately changed the name of the pharmacy to "Bradham Pharmacy" and started putting his medical training to use putting together prescriptions for the community of New Bern. In those days a pharmacy was more than just a place you picked up your medicine. In those days a pharmacy was also the social gathering place of the towns more educated men, and Caleb's warm and engaging personality brought these men to his pharmacy on a pretty regular basis. Many pharmacies of that era also had soda fountains from which they served their customers soft drinks (as opposed to the hard drinks served in saloons). Caleb's pharmacy was no different, and Caleb was pretty good at concocting new soft drinks of his own making. Sometime in the 1890s Caleb created one such drink that became quite popular at the Bradham Pharmacy, and the patrons started calling it "Brad's Drink" in Caleb's honor. However, Caleb preferred another name for this drink, and he decided to call it Pepsi- Cola.

Cola is a term based on the African kola nut and it was used for its caffeine content. Caleb's drink didn't contain either the kola nut or any caffeine, but it did taste pretty close to the already popular "Coca-Cola" and that was the reason for using the term "Cola" in its name. The "Pepsi" part of the Pepsi-Cola name comes from pepsin, an enzyme which aids in digestion and was also a popular ingredient in early soft drinks (and chewing gum). There has been some dispute as to whether or not the original Pepsi-Cola actually contained pepsin as an ingredient.

The term "Pepsi" in its name is surely an indicator. One of Pepsi-Cola's earliest known advertisement is found in the Feb. 25th, 1903 New Bern Daily Journal, and one of it's claims was that it "Aids Digestion" -- a popular claim for items containing pepsin. Lastly, another newspaper ad produced in 1908 flatout said "PEPSI-Cola is an absolutely pure combination of pepsin -- that's what your stomach needs these days -- acid phosphate and the juices of fresh fruits." (However, it is a fact that by 1923 Pepsi-Cola no longer contained pepsin as an ingredient).

Nobody really knows when Brad's Drink actually became Pepsi-Cola but when Caleb filed for a trademark for his drink in 1902 the documents stated that Pepsi-Cola had been in continual use since August 1, 1901. However, in 1903 Caleb filed for a trademark for Pepsi-Cola with the state of North Carolina, and the documents there indicate that Pepsi-Cola had been in continual use since August 28, 1898. However, in 1906 Caleb had to register "Pepsi-Cola" a second time with the U.S. Patent Office because there was already a product named "Pep-Kola" on the market. The patent office believed these two names were too similar and since Pep-Kola had been trademarked on Feb. 15, 1896, Pepsi-Cola had to come up with a new trademark. Instead of changing the name of his product, Caleb bought the rights to the "Pep-Kola" trademark and reapplied for his trademark in 1906. On these papers he gave the date Feb 15, 1896 as the earliest date Pepsi-Cola or names thus derived were used by him. However, August 28, 1898 is the date most people set as the date that Pepsi-Cola came into being.

In any event, by 1902, Caleb had taken on an assistant named R.F. Butler, but better known as "Uncle Dick," and while Uncle Dick was put in charge of running the pharmacy, Caleb threw all of his energy into Pepsi-Cola. In his first three months Caleb sold 2,008 gallons of Pepsi-Cola syrup. Not bad for three months, and actually well enough to prompt him to move out of the back of the drug store and into a bigger facility. By the end of his first year he had sold 7,968 gallons of syrup. By 1904 he was selling 19,848 gallons a year, and this is also the same year he started bottling Pepsi-Cola. A year later he also began selling Pepsi-Cola Bottling franchises, and then he started expanding rapidly. By 1910 he had 280 bottling franchises and covered at least 24 states. By 1907 he was selling over 100,000 gallons of syrup a year, and in 1915 Pepsi-Cola Corporation had assets of over $1,000,000.

Life was good for Caleb, but it was about to turn bad. During World War I sugar prices began to fluctuate wildly, and that was assuming one could get their hands on a supply of sugar at all. Eventually the government implemented price controls to stabilize the costs of sugar, but even that didn't help with the erratic supply side of the sugar market. Just as Pepsi would spend large sums on advertising, access to sugar supplies would dry up and without a product to sell all that advertising would just be a waste. During these war years Pepsi was running at a loss, but it was believed that once the war ended that things would return to normal. However, once the war ended and the price controls were lifted, sugar quickly jumped in price. On November 11, 1918 the price of sugar had been 5?? per pound, but by May 19, 1920 the cost of sugar had skyrocketed to 22?? per pound. The public was simply unwilling to pay more than a nickel for their soft drinks, but the sugar prices were killing profit margins. To make matters worse, it appeared that the cost of sugar was going to keep going up. Caleb and many other soft drink manufacturers decided to buy huge amounts of sugar now, and thus protect themselves from even higher sugar prices. Bad decision! Sugar prices peaked at 26? per pound then the prices collapsed and within a few months sugar was selling below 2? per pound. During the previous couple of years, Pepsi-Cola had been operating at a loss because of fluctuating sugar prices and supplies, but now they faced a loss so large that it was unlikely they would be able to recover. They tried borrowing capital, they tried selling assets, they tried selling additional shares of stock, and they tried completely reorganizing. Nothing worked. They just couldn't raise the capital that would have allowed them to return to prosperity. By March 2, 1923 "The Pepsi-Cola Corporation" was bankrupt, and two years later "The Pepsi-Cola Corporation" was allowed to die for nonpayment of taxes. In 1934, at the age of 67, Caleb Bradham died not even able to hold onto his original drug store .

In 1923, when Pepsi-Cola went bankrupt, it's creditors had formed a corporation named "Craven Holding Corporation." Once the bankruptcy took place this new corporation paid $30,000 for all of "The Pepsi-Cola Corporation's" assetts -- including the trademark to Pepsi-Cola. This was a pretty common practice for creditors as it made handling the bankruptcy easier. In July of 1923, and man named Roy Megargel formed the "Pepsi-Cola Corporation" in Viginia and purchased all of the assets of Pepsi-Cola from the Craven Holding Corporation for $35,000. Megargel was a Wall Street financier who had tried to help Caleb Bradham before the company went bankrupt, but Megargel was unable to attract other investors and the plan had fallen through. Megargel was making money hand over fist in the bull markets of Wall Street, but he wasn't nearly as good at running a soft drink company For eight years Pepsi-Cola operated at a loss with Megargel using his personal funds to keep the company afloat. However, when the stockmarket crashed in 1929 Megargel was hit hard, and he was nolonger able make up Pepsi-Cola's annual operating loses. On June 8th, 1931 Pepsi-Cola once again went bankrupt.

Charles G. Guth is one of Pepsi's more colorful figures, and probably is the man most responsible for making Pesi what it is today. Guth had been in the candy and soft drink business for over thirty years and had done quite well for himself, but lost nearly everything in the stock market crash. Right before the stockmarket crashed, Mr. Guth had sold his candy company, "Mavis Candies" to "Loft, Incorporated." Instead of taking cash for his company, he took shares of "Loft, Inc." stock and became a member of the board of directors. Two months after Guth had sold his company, the stock market crashed. Loft stock was hit very hard, and the share holders wanted heads. Guth, who had lost a fortune in the crash of Loft stock, decided to capitalize on this sentiment. As a board member he had the right to look at pretty much any company document he desired, so the first thing Mr. Guth did was to start putting together documentation that showed the previous president and board of directors were running the company into the ground. Secondly, Mr. Guth took what money he had left after the stockmarket crash, and bought more Loft stock. Lastly, he initiated a proxie fight for the presidency of Loft and the right to throw out all of the old board members and replace them with members of his own choosing. Guth had been able to acquire enough of the voting rights of shareholders to win his proxie fight, but the old board had enough voting rights to prevent the proxie vote from ever happening. On the day the proxie vote was to take place the old board came to the meeting, and the old president gave a verbal tongue lashing to all those present at the meeting and then they left. However, this was a big mistake because by showing up at the meeting, even though they then left, it provided the needed quarum to allow a vote and the old president and board were replaced by Guth and his hand picked board.

Guth ran Loft with an iron fist, and those that worked for him or did business with him rarely crossed him. Those that did cross him never did so twice. Loft owned and directly operated about 200 candy stores, and most of these had soda fountains. In 1931, these Loft candy stores had sold over 30,000 gallons of Coca-Cola, and Guth believed that since this was wholesale quantity he warranted a jobbers (middleman) discount. Coca-Cola disagreed with Guth, and repeatedly turned down Guth's discount request. Now Guth was ticked, and Guth wasn't the kind of guy you wanted to get mad. Guth didn't just switch from buying Coca-Cola to buying a competitors product, but instead he bought Pepsi-Cola and became Coca-Cola's worst nightmare.

Megargel had contacted Guth and told him of the troubles he was having with Pepsi-Cola. Guth then made an aggreement with Megargel and this is how it worked. Guth "borrowed" money from Loft Inc. (he was short of cash since his money was tied up in Loft stock) and gave it to Megargel to buy Pepsi-Cola at the bankruptcy auction. Guth then formed the "Pepsi-Cola Company", a Deleware corporation with 300,000 shares of stock. After Megargel purchased Pepsi-Cola at the auction for $10,500. Megargel then owned 100,000 shares of the new company, Guth owned 100,000 shares (actually the Grace Company owned the shares but Guth owned the Grace Company), and 100,000 shares would be kept by the new Pepsi-Cola company to raise money in the future. Megargel was also promised a salary of $25,000 a year for six years, and after the six years were up, a 2?? royalty for each gallon of Pepsi-Cola sold. Operations were moved to New York, the formula was changed to taste even closer to Coca-Cola, and the new Pepsi-Cola Company immediately started losing money.

More than half of the syrup sold by Pepsi-Cola was purchased by the Loft candy stores. However, the switch from Coca-Cola to Pepsi-Cola resulted in a more than a 30% decline in soft drink sales at the candy stores. During its first three years of operation Pepsi-Cola lost over $26,000 and Megargel had never been paid his salary of $25,000 a year. At one point Coca-Cola was approached to see if they wanted to buy Pepsi-Cola, but they declined. Eventually Megargel would take Guth to court for payment of his salary, but realizing that this would put Pepsi-Cola back into bankrupty he decided to settle out of court. As part of the settlement Megargel sold 97,500 shares (he had given away 2,500 shares) of Pepsi-Cola stock to Guth's Grace Company for $35,000. Once again Guth didn't have the money so he "borrowed" it from Loft Inc.@@@ Megargel should have waited 6 more months. Most soft drinks were sold in 6 oz. bottles for 5?, but Guth had been trying to sell Pepsi in both 6 oz. bottles for 5? and in 12 oz. bottles for 10? -- it wasn't working. Guth realized that Pepsi-Cola didn't have the same name recognition as its more famous competitor so in 1934 he decided to try something radical. Guth started selling 12 ozs. of Pepsi-Cola for 5?. It was a HUGE success! Guth immediately took a wharehouse that had been owned by his old company Mavis Candies/Beverages (now owned by Loft) and converted it into a Pepsi-Cola bottling plant. He also had several employees of Loft Inc. start working on producing and selling Pepsi-Cola full time. Then he went to selling Pepsi-Cola franchises throughout the nation. Within two years Pepsi-Cola had gone from losing small amounts of money, year after year, to making over $2,000,000 in profits, and by 1938 it was making over $4,000,000.

Guth had placed all of his efforts into Pepsi-Cola and by 1934 he had moved it out of the red and into the black, but Loft Incorporated was sinking fast When Guth had taken over Loft Inc. in 1931 it had shown a profit of $366,000 but by 1934 its earnings had shrunk to $21,000 and were steadly declining. By 1935 Guth would resign from Loft Inc., but it wasn't the board that asked for his resignation it was the employees that wanted his head. As a cost cutting move Guth had cut salaries and wages. The employees went on strike, and they made it clear that they blamed Guth for the companies problems. At one point it was bad enough that Guth needed a police escort so that he could get out of his office without losing his life. Guth then resigned from Loft Inc. and started running Pepsi-Cola full-time. Actually he had been running Pepsi-Cola full-time for the last couple years, but now he made no more pretense.

Loft Incorporated's new Chief Executive Officer was James W. Carkner and he had two problems. First, the company was in direr straights and faced immanent bankruptcy. Second, Carkner was not intended to be the permanent CEO. Although Guth had resigned from Loft Inc. he still owned 200,000 shares of stock, his family owned another 50,000, and he had "borrowed" enough money from Loft Inc. for Pepsi-Cola to own another 100,000 shares. This was 35% of the companies stock, which made Guth very powerful. When Guth resigned he had agreed to sell Loft Inc. back his 200,000 shares of stock for $600,000. If the company couldn't come up with the money in two months James W. Carkner had agreed to resign and Guth would be allowed to name his own president. Guth was sure that Carkner would not be able to raise the funds.

The first thing Carkner did was to convince the striking employees to go back to work. If they didn't, the Christmas season would be missed and the company would have surely went bankrupt. Meaning the employees would have had no jobs at all. Once this problem had been solved Carkner went to work on raising the $600,000 and quickly found that task to be impossible. In order to raise those kinds of funds he would have needed some collateral, and the only collateral Loft Inc. had was its stock. Stock in a company on the verge of bankruptcy is no collateral all. However, an employee had told Carkner of $30,000 that Guth had borrowed from a Loft subsidiary and never paid back. Carkner sought the advice of a lawyer, and the details of all the money Guth had borrowed from Loft Inc. to actually start Pepsi-Cola came to light. Once this lawyer found out about all the borrowed money, about all the time Guth was spending running Pepsi instead of Loft Inc., and of all the Loft Inc. employees that were doing work full-time for Pepsi, the lawyer suggested suing Guth for ownership of Pepsi-Cola.

On December 30, 1935 Loft Inc. sued Guth, Grace Company, and Pepsi-Cola Company for ownership of all the Pepsi-Cola stock they owned. Carkner then refused to resign as CEO as he had promised. The next board meeting would be in three months, and all Guth had to do was use his voting stock to oust Carkner as CEO, appoint someone he controlled, and the lawsuit was finished. However, Carkner was able to get the courts to rule that the stock owned by Pepsi-Cola could not be used to cast votes until the lawsuit was completed. This left Guth with 100,000 shares of voting stock less than he had counted on. The next thing that Carkner did was to approach Phoenix Securities Corporation. Phoenix bought 31,000 shares of Loft Inc. stock, they occasionally provided loans to Loft Inc. to keep them solvent, and they assisted Carkner in convincing the shareholders to keep Guth out of power until the lawsuit was completed.

For the next two and a half years Loft Inc. limped along barely surviving. In 1936, 1937, and 1938 they lost $870,514, $972,704, and $946,151 respectively Their sales were also dropping on a yearly basis with $12,000,000 in sales in 1936 to $8,567,000 by 1938. Phoenix was required to provide Loft Inc. several large loans to keep them from going into bankruptcy. Phoenix received stock options in return for its loans. If Loft won its lawsuit, Phoenix would be able to buy 400,000 shares of Loft stock (essentially 1/3 of the company) at around $1.50 per share. @@@ On September 17, 1938 the trial was decided. Even though, two weeks before the suit by Loft was initiated, Guth had paid Loft $395,000 -- everything he had borrowed -- the Chancellor found in favor of Loft. The Chancellor found the Pepsi-Cola corporation would have never become what it had become without "Loft executives, Loft personnel, Loft equipment, Loft facilities, Loft merchandise, Loft money, Loft credits," and other loft resources. In fact, at one point nearly all of Loft's working capital was tied up in Pepsi-Cola. Loft now owned all stock, trademarks, equipment, money, facilities, etceteras. Loft owned everything -- it was a total victory.

Guth immediately appealed the courts decision to give Pepsi-Cola to Loft Incorporated. As the lawsuit was being appealed the courts allowed Mr. Guth and two members of his choosing to sit on the Pepsi-Cola board of directors, and Carkner and two others of his choosing were also allowed to sit on the Pepsi-Cola board of directors. The courts then appointed Mr. Arthur T. Vanderbuilt, a former President of the American Bar Association, to the board as a sort of referee. Phoenix Securities Corporation insisted that one of their members, Walter S. Mack, Jr., be one of Lofts members of the board. In fact, it was Mack who was made president of Pepsi-Cola with Guth being made General Manager.

Guth finally coming to the realization that he may very well lose his appeal began to put into place a secret plan. He had his son-in-law go to Canada and purchase the Noxie-Cola trademark. Then he started hiring away many of the executive and technical people that were working for Pepsi-Cola. He then started contacting Pepsi-Cola bottlers and convincing them that they should switch to bottling Noxie-Cola. Now, when these allegations were brought to the attention of the full board, Mr. Guth was outraged and denied the allegations with great vigor. However, the court appointed Vanderbuilt was sufficiently convinced of Guth's wrong doing and removed him from the Pepsi-Cola board for due cause. On April 11, 1939 the Court of Appeals upheld the lower courts ruling and on July 19, 1939 Guth settled with Loft. Guth agreed not to appeal the case any further, to turn over all of his shares of Pepsi-Cola to Loft Inc., and to stay out of the soft drink business for the next five years. In return he received around $1,000,000 cash over five years and some Pepsi-Cola bottling plants that were worth far more than the cash he received. After Guth had lost his proxy fight he had sold his shares of Loft and if he had not done so he would have still owned 20% of Pepsi-Cola.@@@@ Once the Guth lawsuit was resolved Pheonix Securities Corporation exercised it's option to purchase 400,000 shares of Loft stock. This was 29% of the stock and effective voting control of the company. With this power, Pheonix made it's vice president, Walter S. Mack, Jr., both President and Chief Executive Officer of Pepsi-Cola. Carkner was not happy about this decision, but there was nothing he could do about it. Carkner had approached Pheonix for their help, and without it he would have been out of not only the Presidency but out of a job as well. Carkner did remain a member of the board and would remain one of Pepsi's most powerful executives but never again its president. Mr. Mack then started spinning off Loft's candy operation. Without winning the Pepsi-Cola court case, Loft Inc. would have lost just under $1.5 million in 1939 -- instead they made in the neighborhood of $28 million. So some cash was used to put the candy business back onto sound financial footing, and the "Loft Candy Company" was spun off and was completely on its own -- and went on to do fairly well. Then Mack merged "Loft Incorporated" and "Pepsi-Cola Company" into one entity -- Pepsi-Cola was merged into Loft and then the name of the company was change to Pepsi-Cola Company.

Mr. Mack was similar in nature to Mr. Guth in that they were both very powerful and aggressive men that ran their company with an iron fist. Like Guth, Mack was not a man to be crossed. However, unlike Guth, Mr. Mack inspired those around him with a sense that he ran an honest operation. He was also not just a man with an enourmously strong will, but a man who had a brilliant mind and a warm personality. However, one of Mack's traits that wasn't one of his best was a tendancy to try a run everything himself (very much like Guth). One of the few important things that he did turn over was responsibilities for global expansion. Mack put William B. Forsythe in charge of expanding Pepsi into foreign lands. Actually Guth had done a pretty good job of expanding Pepsi into foreign lands himself. By the time Forsythe had taken over global expansion Pepsi was already in Canada, Cuba, Britian, Bermuda, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Guth had also registered the Pepsi-Cola trademark in 80 different countries. Forsythe quickly furthered this expansion into Mexico, Latin America, and the Carribean. Expansion into Europe had to be put on hold due to World War II, but by the time Forsythe retired from Pepsi in 1956 they had over 118 bottling plants in 52 foreign countries.

One of the first things Mack did was concentrate heavily on advertising. In the past Guth had pretty much handled advertising himself, however Mack hired a very well respected advertising company, Newell, Emmett & Company, from New York City. The characters "Pepsi and Pete," two policemen patterned after the Keystone Kops, were soon created and were extremely popular. These two cops were advertised everywhere and the public immediately associated Pepsi-Cola with them wherever they were seen. At about the same time Pepsi-Cola launched what was to become one of the most famous jingles ever written. "Nickle, Nickle" (later known as "Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot") was written by Alan Bradley Kent and Austen Herbert Croom-Johnson.

"Pepsi-Cola hits the spot
Twelve full ounces, that's a lot
Twice as much for a nickle, too
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you."

This little jingle would go on to be recorded in 55 different languages, over 1 million records containing this jingle were produced, and it was the first jingle ever played from coast to coast on network radio. It is hard to convey just how big this jingle was, but it was very popular for nearly a decade and was even described as "immortal." How many people decided to give Pepsi a try because of this jingle can not be over estimated. The jingle was first written as a standard commercial with the jingle at the end but Mack insisted that only the jingle be aired. It was played so often that 50 years later there are still people who remember the words.

Another thing that Mack was responsible for was a major change in Pepsi-Cola bottles. Most bottles of Pepsi were just plain old bottles with a paper label glued to them, and with a non-descript crown topping off the bottle. In fact many of these Pepsi bottles were actually used beer bottles that were purchased very inexpensively. Mack had them replaced with bottles containing the word Pepsi in block letters formed into the bottle along the side, and then accompanied with a paper label that would eventually be replaced by blowing the label right into the glass. As World War II approached, Mack also had Pepsi's bottles reflect a new patriotic Red, White, and Blue theme. At first it was just the crown that was red, white, and blue but eventually the entire logo would be redesigned as well.

World War II also provided Mack with the opportunity to handle the same situtation that brought down Pepsi-Cola's inventor Caleb Bradham. Caleb had not handled the first world war's effect on sugar prices well at all, and Pepsi-Cola ended up in bankruptcy. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor Mack immediately bought 2 years worth of sugar. Then the United States government immediately confisacted half their sugar and thanked them for their contribution to the war effort. The government then set a quota in place limiting all soft drink companies to 80% of the sugar they had used the year before. Now Pepsi-Cola was a growing company and this restriction was going to hit them pretty hard -- particularly the new bottlers that had not had a chance to purchase large amounts of sugar in the previous year. Mack came up with a pretty novel solution, he bought sugar in Mexico, converted it into a syrup (El Masco), and then shipped it into the United States. This solution worked for about two years, and since the sugar was being purchased in Mexico it wasn't taking sugar away from other Americans. However, after two years the government declared the Mexican syrup to actually be sugar and dissallowed its importation. Mr. Mack then tried buying a sugar plantation in Cuba, but the government still wouldn't allow them to import the sugar (over the next few years the plantation would make a lot of money for Pepsi).

What actually put Caleb's Pepsi-Cola into bankruptcy was escalating sugar prices after the war ended. The public wouldn't pay more than a nickle for a bottle of pop, and the increase in sugar prices meant less profits to put into advertising. Less money in advertising meant less sales, and a sickening downward spiral had taken the company into bankruptcy. After World War II ended it wasn't escalating sugar prices that Mack faced, but the cost of everything but the sugar started escalating. Mack made the same decision that Caleb had made, and he cut advertising. The results were the same with Pepsi-Cola making almost $7 million in 1947, but only a little over $3 million in 1948. Mack also missed the boat on vending machines. Pepsi stayed away from the vending machine market while his competitors were putting vending machines all across the nation. Eventually Pepsi did get into vending machines, but the delayed cost them a lot of prime locations.

By 1950 the Pepsi board of directors decided that the Pepsi-Cola Company needed a change in management style. Mack was a very hands on manager who rarely delegated responsibilty, and although he had been a phenomal force in running Pepsi-Cola for the last dozen years he had made a couple errors in judgement during the last couple years so it was decided to move Mack to Chairman of the Board and to name Alfred N. Steele to the presidency. Mr. Steele was a pretty colorful individual. He had been a vice president at Coca-Cola before coming over to Pepsi-Cola. He was married to Hollywood movie star Joan Crawford, and earlier in life had even ran a circus. Steele also spoke in a down home fashion that went right to the core of the situation. In a meeting where some senior executives started having an argument, a junior level manager tried making his opinion heard and Steele responded, "Listen, Son -- when the elephants start fighting the peewees get stepped on." Steele quickly turned Pepsi back towards profitability by heavily investing into advertising. Actually what he did was to invest heavily into advertising in a regional market and once that region had recovered he started concentrating on another region -- it was done this way because Pepsi didn't have the funds for a nationwide advertising campaign. Steele also moved the company agressively into supermarkets, vending machines, and into overseas markets.
Eventually this allowed him to return Pepsi back to its place as a major soft drink manufacture, and in less than a decade Steele had more than tripled Pepsi's earnings.

Over the years Pepsi-Cola would go through a series of Presidents and CEOs. These men would include Herbert Barnet, Donald M. Kendall, Vic Bonomo, John Sculley, Roger Enrico, and Craig Weatherup with each of these men helping Pepsi grow by leaps and bounds. The rest of this profile could go into the contributions of each of these men, but then this profile would quickly turn into a book. Therefore the rest of this profile will simply skim over the major happenings at Pepsi-Cola over the next 50 years.

Pepsi-Cola had seen huge success as a bargain soft drink. However, this was a two sided coin in that Pepsi-Cola was also seen as a cheap soda. The kind you bought at the grocery store, but when guest were over you didn't show them the bottle. Pepsi had to change this perception, and to do so they switched their marketing. Starting in 1958 Pepsi began to lose it's reputation as a bargain soda, and instead started becoming a soda that was prefered by fashionable young adults. By the mid 1960's the United States was full of teenagers that had been born shortly after World War II. They were the "Baby Boomers" and they were also the "Pepsi Generation." Pepsi also continued to keep its product from becoming old fashioned by occassionally making small changes in packaging throughout the years. They updated their logo, they replaced the straight sided bottle with the "Swirl" bottle, and also moved from the 12 ounce bottle to a 16 ounce bottle.

Pepsi also started providing other lines of products. They had introduced Teem (a lemon/lime based soda), they had also purchased and went national with Mountain Dew, they introduced Slice, and started offerring a diet version of Pepsi as well. However, one of the biggest changes to occur to Pepsi-Cola happened in 1965 when they merged with Frito-Lay and became PepsiCo, Incorporated.

In 1975 Pepsi introduced the Pepsi Challenge. This was a marketing campaign were they would set up a blind tasting between their product and that of their arch-rival Coca-Cola. During these blind taste tests the majority of participates picked Pepsi as the better tasting of the two soft drinks. Over the next several years Pepsi would go on to expand this "Pepsi Challenge" throughout the nation. They also would start designing television commercials that reported the results of these tests to the public at large. Pepsi also continued to invest heavily in advertising and started using celeberties such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Michael J. Fox, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Vice Presidental contender Gealdine Ferraro, and many others to help them market to the "New Generation." It wasn't long before Pepsi became the number one soft drink sold in American supermarkets and they were closing in on becoming the most popular soft drink sold in the nation (the world would be next).

The Pepsi Challenge and the Pepsi advertising blitz were clearly having an effect with more and more people switching from Coca-Cola to Pepsi. As a result Coca-Cola made the decision to change their formula to taste more like Pepsi. Of coarse Pepsi took advantage of this situation and really had a field day making fun of Coca-Cola. The president of Pepsi, Roger Enrico, gave his employees a day off by declaring a holiday to celebrate the day they won the cola wars. Television commercials, full page ads in major newspapers, and lots of comedians all on their own, took their shots as well. However, this pailed by comparison to the reaction of the general public. There was such an uproar to this formula change that within a couple of months Coca-Cola had brought back the original Coca-Cola. After switching back to their original formula, Coca-Cola and Pepsi would continue to battle it out for supremacy in the Cola wars. Pepsi has also continued to make some great commercials. Whether they feature famous personalities such as Ray Charles, Shaquille O'Neal, or just everyday actors they always make you smile. (One of my favorites is the one one were a Pepsi delivery man and a Coca-Cola delivery man are in a diner after making their deliveries. The Pepsi man slides his drink across the counter for the Coke man to give it a try. After taking a sip the Coke man refuses to give the drink back and huge fight insues). Pepsi also moved into other beverage catagories by working out deals with Lipton, Ocean Spray, and Starbucks. Pepsi has continued to expand globaly throughout the years until practically every nation on the face of the earth either has a bottling plant of their own, or can at least buy a bottle of Pepsi. By 1993, Pepsi-Cola profits had surpassed $1 billion, and in 1998 Pepsi celebrated its 100th anniversary.
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LordZXZX
LordZXZX


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Overfished
posted January 31, 2004 10:10 PM

Nice post, regnus
I think I'll read it...eventually
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Nimrod_The_D...
Nimrod_The_Dark_Elf


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PoStEr Of BaBeS
posted January 31, 2004 10:35 PM

pepsi....pfft
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Dingo
Dingo


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God of Dark SPAM
posted February 01, 2004 06:34 AM

yay regnus I was reading that for quite a ways.  I read like 10 paragraphs and then i noticed the scroll thing on the right of the screen.  I scrolled down only to realize that the post would never end.  Good thing I stopped myself.
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regnus_khan
regnus_khan


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[ Peacekeeper of Equilibris ]
posted February 01, 2004 08:41 AM

Quote:
pepsi....pfft


I actually do not like that pepsi as well, Nimrod. I only found an interesting story about the evolution of Pepsi. Some people like it. Maybe they would be interested.
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RedSoxFan3
RedSoxFan3


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Fan of Red Sox
posted February 01, 2004 05:33 PM

Yeah I actually hate all Cola's except for Cherry Coke.

Oh and Regnus, next time just provide the link next time you wanna give us another history lesson.
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Nimrod_The_D...
Nimrod_The_Dark_Elf


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PoStEr Of BaBeS
posted February 01, 2004 07:15 PM

hehe..ok...
I idmit, pepsi can be tasty! IF i dont have any cola whatsoever within a 5 mile radius!
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regnus_khan
regnus_khan


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[ Peacekeeper of Equilibris ]
posted February 01, 2004 07:18 PM

Quote:
Oh and Regnus, next time just provide the link next time you wanna give us another history lesson.


Sound good to me. I will do that next time.
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Wolfman
Wolfman


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Insomniac
posted February 01, 2004 07:19 PM
Edited By: Wolfman on 1 Feb 2004

Orange juice that you can eat with a fork is the best...

EDIT:  Whoops I guess that wouldn't be a drink after all
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frostwolf
frostwolf


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livin' in a bottle of vodka
posted February 01, 2004 10:22 PM

VODKA ROCKS!!!

But to stay on topic, when you combine vodka with something (in case you wanna drink it at work or school), it tastes better with Cola than Pepsi.
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Nimrod_The_D...
Nimrod_The_Dark_Elf


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PoStEr Of BaBeS
posted March 02, 2004 03:51 PM

i think so to! why combine it? why not drink JUST cola?
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Nimrod_The_D...
Nimrod_The_Dark_Elf


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PoStEr Of BaBeS
posted March 02, 2004 03:53 PM

i think so to! why combine it? why not drink JUST cola?
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Greek_god_su...
Greek_god_superman


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Bringer Of Light
posted March 02, 2004 10:02 PM

Quote:
why not drink JUST cola?


Why to do that if there is possibility to add some vodka??
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doomnezeu
doomnezeu


Supreme Hero
Miaumiaumiau
posted March 03, 2004 11:17 AM

Yeah, and why not mix vodca with other alcohol based ingredients and get a nice, tasty, cocktail??
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BURCUSH
BURCUSH


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Blood Captain of the Vampires
posted March 03, 2004 12:59 PM

Palinca...genuine romanian drink

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