40 Fun Facts About Cola Wars

In 1989 the Soviet Union paid PepsiCo for its cola partly with what unusual military hardware?

Old warships were the payment: 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate and a destroyer, which PepsiCo promptly sold for scrap. The same deal brought it two new Soviet oil tankers, which it leased out.

What did Pepsi give every employee in April 1985 to celebrate Coca-Cola's announcement of New Coke?

A day off was declared across the company by Pepsi executive Roger Enrico, who also bought a full-page newspaper advert claiming victory in the cola wars.

What military aircraft did student John Leonard try to claim from Pepsi for 7,000,000 Pepsi Points?

A Harrier jet appeared in a Pepsi advert as a joke prize, so Leonard posted a cheque for about $700,000 to buy the points. A court ruled that no reasonable person could have taken the advert seriously.

Where did Coke and Pepsi both send specially designed cans in July 1985 for a head-to-head test?

Earth orbit was the venue, on a shuttle flight whose crew tried both colas. The cans fizzed too much in weightlessness and could not be chilled, and the crew said afterwards that they preferred Tang.

What did Pepsi do in 2006 when a Coca-Cola secretary tried to sell it her employer's trade secrets?

Pepsi warned its competitor and the FBI, whose agents then posed as Pepsi executives in a sting. The secretary, Joya Williams, was arrested along with two accomplices.

Which pop star's hair caught fire while filming a Pepsi commercial at a Los Angeles auditorium in 1984?

Michael Jackson suffered second-degree burns to his scalp from the stage pyrotechnics. He gave his $1.5 million settlement to a California medical centre, which named its burn unit after him.

What profession was shared by John Pemberton, who created Coca-Cola, and Caleb Bradham, who created Pepsi?

Pharmacist is the answer for both men, and both drinks were first sold over a drugstore counter. Pemberton's was first sold in Atlanta in 1886, and Bradham's followed in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1893.

How did Pepsi undercut Coca-Cola during the Great Depression while charging the same price of a nickel?

Almost doubling the serving did it: Pepsi's 12 ounces cost the same five cents as 6.5 ounces of Coca-Cola. Pepsi-Cola's profits doubled between 1936 and 1938.

Which communist leader, a longtime Coke drinker, called New Coke a sign of American capitalist decadence?

Fidel Castro joined the backlash against the new formula. Coca-Cola's chief executive later recalled that this was the only time his own father had agreed with Castro.

Which Netflix series prompted Coca-Cola to bring back New Coke for a limited run in 2019?

Stranger Things set its third season in 1985, the year New Coke launched, so the drink returned in limited quantities as a tie-in. Cans of it appear in three of the season's episodes.

Which campaign, launched in 1975, asked shoppers to choose between two unmarked cups of cola in blind taste tests?

The Pepsi Challenge adverts suggested that people preferred Pepsi on taste alone. Critics noted that the Pepsi cup was often marked M and the Coca-Cola cup Q, so a liking for one letter may have swayed some results.

Under what name did the original Coke formula return in July 1985 after the backlash against New Coke?

Coca-Cola Classic kept that name on its labels until 2009, long after New Coke itself had been renamed Coke II and then withdrawn.

Which Soviet leader was photographed sipping Pepsi beside Richard Nixon at a 1959 exhibition in Moscow?

Nikita Khrushchev gave Pepsi executive Donald Kendall a priceless photograph with that sip. Pepsi went on to become the first American consumer product made and marketed in the USSR.

Which singer's 1989 Pepsi campaign was cancelled after religious groups objected to her new music video?

Madonna was dropped after her Like a Prayer video brought calls for a boycott of Pepsi, yet the company let her keep her $5 million fee.

Which singer listed the cola wars among decades of headlines in a chart-topping 1989 single?

Billy Joel packed more than a hundred headline events into We Didn't Start the Fire, running from 1949, the year he was born, to 1989. He got the idea just after turning 40.

Which fruit soda did Coca-Cola's German branch invent during the Second World War when cola syrup ran out?

Fanta was made from whatever wartime Germany could supply, including whey and apple pomace. Its name comes from Fantasie, the German word for imagination.

Which chain did PepsiCo buy in 1977 as its first step into the restaurant business?

Pizza Hut was joined by Taco Bell a year later and by KFC in 1986. PepsiCo spun all three chains off in 1997 as the company now called Yum! Brands.

Which Pittsburgh Steelers star tossed his jersey to a young fan in a celebrated 1979 Coca-Cola commercial?

Joe Greene, the fearsome lineman nicknamed Mean Joe, limps down the tunnel and drains the boy's Coke before throwing him the shirt. The advert won a Clio Award.

Which sports drink did PepsiCo gain by buying Quaker Oats in 2001?

Gatorade was the main reason for the purchase, handing Pepsi a sports drink to set against Coca-Cola's Powerade.

Which aircraft did Pepsi have painted blue in 1996 to publicise its switch to blue cans?

A Concorde leased from Air France wore the new colour for the launch. The darker paint ran hotter than white, so crews were advised to hold twice the speed of sound for only 20 minutes at a time.

Which Pepsi president did Steve Jobs recruit in 1983 to become chief executive of Apple?

John Sculley had made his name at Pepsi with blind taste tests against Coke. Within a few years he won a power struggle at Apple that ended with Jobs being forced out.

Which vodka did PepsiCo get Western rights to in 1972 in return for selling Pepsi in the USSR?

Stolichnaya was swapped for Pepsi syrup because roubles could not be taken out of the country. PepsiCo made its money by selling the vodka to drinkers in the West.

Which arcade hit did Atari rework for Coca-Cola in 1983 so that players shot at the letters P-E-P-S-I?

Space Invaders became Pepsi Invaders, with rows of letters marching in place of the aliens. Only 125 copies were made, as gifts for executives at a Coca-Cola sales convention.

Which drink overtook Pepsi in 2010 to become America's second best-selling soda behind Coca-Cola?

Diet Coke had never outsold Pepsi before, and the result left the Coca-Cola Company holding first and second place. Pepsi took the runner-up spot back in 2014.

Which TV drama's 2015 finale closes by cutting to Coca-Cola's famous 1971 Hilltop commercial?

Mad Men leaves viewers to decide whether its adman hero, Don Draper, went on to create the commercial. In real life it was the work of Bill Backer at McCann Erickson, the agency that employs Don in the final season.

Which Hollywood studio did Coca-Cola own from 1982 until selling it to Sony in 1989?

Columbia Pictures released Tootsie, Ghostbusters and The Karate Kid during its years under the soft drink company, which sold the studio on to Sony in 1989.

Which sporting event has Coca-Cola sponsored at every edition since Amsterdam hosted it in 1928?

The Olympic Games have had Coca-Cola as a sponsor for longer than any other company. The partnership came home in 1996, when the Summer Games were held in Atlanta, the company's base.

Which annual televised spectacle did Pepsi sponsor from 2013 to 2022, including one staged in Coke's home city?

The Super Bowl halftime show carried Pepsi's name for a decade. When the 2019 game went to Atlanta, Pepsi filled the city with cheeky adverts aimed at its hometown rival.

Which ABC soap opera did Peter Jennings interrupt in July 1985 to announce that old Coke was coming back?

General Hospital viewers got the news as a special bulletin. One US senator went further and called the return of the old formula a meaningful moment in American history.

Which TV character replaced Bill Cosby as the face of Coke adverts in 1986?

Max Headroom was billed as computer-generated but was really the actor Matt Frewer. Cosby had quit, saying that adverts praising the new formula had damaged his credibility.

What codename, borrowed from a US state, did Coca-Cola give its secret effort to develop New Coke?

Project Kansas took its name from a photograph of Kansas newspaperman William Allen White drinking a Coke, an image that hung on the walls of several company executives.

Which Coca-Cola chief executive, who told staff there would be no sacred cows, launched New Coke in 1985?

Roberto Goizueta called the change of formula one of the easiest decisions the company had ever made. He announced the old formula's return 79 days later.

Which candy company's president bought bankrupt Pepsi in 1931 after Coca-Cola refused him a syrup discount?

Loft was run by Charles Guth, who put Pepsi on tap at the chain's soda fountains in place of Coke. Coca-Cola also turned down three chances to buy Pepsi-Cola outright between 1922 and 1933.

Which Hollywood star joined Pepsi-Cola's board in 1959 after the death of her husband, company chief Alfred Steele?

Joan Crawford promoted Pepsi in commercials and television specials, had the cola placed prominently in her later films, and kept her seat on the board until 1973.

Which citrus soda did Coca-Cola launch in 1979 to compete with PepsiCo's Mountain Dew?

Mello Yello was pitched as a highly caffeinated citrus drink, and the copying carried on for decades: a cherry version later appeared in answer to Mountain Dew Code Red.

Which regional bloc boycotted Coca-Cola from 1968 for doing business in Israel, a market Pepsi stayed out of?

The Arab League blacklisted Coca-Cola for investing in Israel, while Pepsi kept away from the Israeli market for longer. Coca-Cola did not go back into Iraq until 2005.

In which country did a 1992 Pepsi prize draw announce the number 349 as a winner, sparking deadly riots?

The Philippines saw 800,000 ordinary caps printed with the winning number 349, each apparently worth a million pesos. Pepsi offered holders 500 pesos instead, and at least five people died in the unrest.

What name did Caleb Bradham give his new soda in 1893, five years before renaming it Pepsi-Cola?

Brad's Drink became Pepsi-Cola in 1898, a name chosen to suggest that the soda helped digestion. Early adverts sold it as a remedy for indigestion.

Which country did Coca-Cola leave in 1977 rather than hand over its formula, returning only in 1993?

India required Coca-Cola to disclose its recipe and sell most of its local business to domestic owners. A home-grown cola, Thums Up, filled the gap, and Coke bought that brand when it came back.

Which Canadian province has Pepsi long treated as a stronghold, casting local comedians in its adverts there?

Quebec is one of the few places where Pepsi has outsold Coke. The cola became so closely tied to French Canadians that Pepsi built its campaigns around home-grown stars such as Claude Meunier.