50 Fun Facts About Pepsi

Which pop star's hair was set alight by pyrotechnics while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984?

Michael Jackson suffered second-degree burns to his scalp and gave his $1.5 million settlement to a California hospital, whose burn unit was then named after him.

What did student John Leonard try to claim for 7,000,000 Pepsi Points, leading to a famous lawsuit?

A Harrier jet landed at a school in the advert, so Leonard sent a cheque for roughly $700,000 to buy the points. A court ruled that no reasonable person could have taken the offer seriously.

Which spirit did PepsiCo sell in the West from 1972 in exchange for putting Pepsi on Soviet shelves?

Vodka was the currency of the deal because roubles could not be taken abroad, so Stolichnaya flowed out and cola syrup flowed in. Pepsi became the first American consumer product made and sold in the USSR.

Which film star joined Pepsi-Cola's board in 1959 after her husband, the company's chairman, died?

Joan Crawford travelled widely to promote Pepsi and had the drink placed prominently in several of her later films. She kept her seat on the board until 1973.

Which computer firm hired Pepsi-Cola president John Sculley in 1983 after a pitch from its co-founder?

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs won him over by asking whether he wanted to sell sweetened water for the rest of his life. Sculley ran the company until 1993.

Which coin bought a 12-ounce Pepsi in the 1930s, twice what rival colas poured for the same price?

A nickel had bought only about six ounces of cola before Pepsi's larger bottle arrived in 1934. The bargain, pushed in a catchy radio jingle, helped the company's profits double between 1936 and 1938.

Which cola, advertised with a Van Halen song, did PepsiCo launch in 1992 and scrap by 1994?

Crystal Pepsi provoked Coca-Cola into launching Tab Clear, which its marketing chief later called a deliberate kamikaze effort to kill both drinks. Limited-time revivals began in 2016.

In which country did a 1992 Pepsi contest wrongly print 800,000 winning bottle caps, sparking riots?

The Philippines erupted after number 349 was announced as the winner of a million-peso prize. PepsiCo offered each holder 500 pesos as a goodwill gesture, and the country's top court cleared the bottler in 2006.

Which 1989 film sequel featured a fictional Pepsi Perfect, a drink PepsiCo sold for real in 2015?

Back to the Future Part II set the drink in its imagined year 2015, so the real release came in that year: 6,500 collector bottles priced at $20.15 each.

What did the Soviet Union trade to PepsiCo in 1989 when the cola giant wanted goods it could resell?

Old warships made up most of the haul: 17 retired submarines, a cruiser, a frigate and a destroyer. PepsiCo sold them straight on for scrap.

Pepsi was first served in 1893 at a soda fountain in the town of New Bern, in which US state?

North Carolina was home turf for the drink's inventor, who studied at the state university in Chapel Hill. He had licensed bottlers in more than 24 states before his firm went bankrupt in 1923.

What was Pepsi called for its first five years, from its 1893 debut at a New Bern soda fountain?

Brad's Drink took its name from inventor Caleb Bradham, who blended kola nut extract, vanilla and what he called rare oils. The new name arrived in August 1898.

Pepsi-Cola was named in 1898 for its supposed power to ease which complaint?

Indigestion is dyspepsia in medical language, the usual account of the name's root. Another credits pepsin, an enzyme that helps the stomach break down food.

What was the profession of Pepsi's inventor, who had dropped out of medical school around 1890?

A pharmacist by trade, he left medical school when his father's business went bankrupt. He then opened a drugstore that, like many of the day, housed a soda fountain.

Which reformulated cola did Coca-Cola launch in 1985, prompting Pepsi to declare victory in the cola wars?

New Coke drew such a backlash that the original formula returned within three months as Coca-Cola Classic. Pepsi had marked the launch with a newspaper advert claiming victory and a day off for its staff.

What did PepsiCo call its 1975 campaign in which shoppers tasted two unmarked colas and chose one?

The Pepsi Challenge began as a single blind sip test. Author Malcolm Gladwell later argued that a sip flatters the sweeter of two drinks, even for people who would prefer the other over a whole can.

Which singer kept a $5 million fee in 1989 when Pepsi dropped her commercial over a music video?

Madonna's advert showed her revisiting her childhood, but the video for Like a Prayer, released a day later, brought a boycott from Christian groups. Pepsi gave in and cancelled the campaign.

Which annual American television spectacle carried Pepsi's name as title sponsor from 2013 to 2022?

The Super Bowl halftime show wore Pepsi branding for ten straight years, starting with Beyoncé's set in New Orleans in 2013. Pepsi had also sponsored the 2007 edition.

Which model handed a police officer a Pepsi in a 2017 protest-themed advert pulled after one day?

Kendall Jenner's advert was accused of trivialising Black Lives Matter and police brutality. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., was among those who mocked it online.

Which stadium anthem did Britney Spears, Beyoncé and Pink cover for a 2004 Pepsi campaign?

We Will Rock You also featured Enrique Iglesias in the 2004 campaign. Megan Thee Stallion covered the same song for another Pepsi advert twenty years later.

Which Dallas-based snack company merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1965 to form PepsiCo?

Frito-Lay was itself only four years old, formed when the Frito Company joined H.W. Lay & Company in 1961. Pepsi's chief summed up the logic of the deal: potato chips make people thirsty, and cola fixes that.

Which sports drink was the real prize when PepsiCo bought Quaker Oats for $14 billion in 2001?

Gatorade was developed in 1965 at the University of Florida, at the request of the Gators' football coach, to replace fluids his players lost. Quaker had owned it since 1983.

Which chain, founded by two Wichita brothers in 1958, did PepsiCo buy in 1977 and spin off in 1997?

Pizza Hut left PepsiCo along with two other fast-food chains in a spin-off later renamed Yum! Brands. A lifetime contract kept Pepsi flowing in the restaurants.

Which soda, named after old slang for moonshine, did the Pepsi-Cola Company buy in 1964?

Mountain Dew was created in Knoxville, Tennessee, by two bottler brothers who wanted a mixer for their bourbon. Early labels showed a barefoot hillbilly with a rifle and a jug.

Which orange juice brand did PepsiCo buy from the Seagram drinks group for $3.3 billion in 1998?

Tropicana had cost the Canadian group only $1.2 billion ten years earlier. It stayed a PepsiCo subsidiary until 2021, when a majority stake was sold.

Which bottled water brand did PepsiCo first put on sale in Wichita, Kansas, in July 1994?

Aquafina is purified municipal water, not spring water. Since 2007 every bottle has stated that it comes from public supplies, a line added after campaigners asked where the water came from.

Which coffee chain formed a 1994 joint venture with PepsiCo to sell bottled drinks in shops?

Starbucks supplied the name and PepsiCo the delivery network: their North American Coffee Partnership put bottled Frappuccino into grocery stores and vending machines from 1996.

Which tea brand has PepsiCo sold as bottled iced tea since a 1991 partnership with Unilever?

Lipton iced tea comes from the same joint venture as Brisk and Pure Leaf. Unlike the other two, Pure Leaf is brewed as a liquid instead of being mixed from instant tea powder.

Which executive, born in Madras, led PepsiCo as chief executive from 2006 to 2018?

Indra Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and became only its fifth chief executive. Fortune named her the most powerful woman in business five years in a row, from 2006 to 2010.

PepsiCo's headquarters, ringed by sculpture gardens, has stood since 1970 in which New York hamlet?

Purchase lies within the town of Harrison, and the grounds hold 45 contemporary sculptures that are open to the public. PepsiCo moved there from 500 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

Under which brand name was Diet Pepsi test-marketed in 1963, a year before its national launch?

Patio Diet Cola was rebranded as Diet Pepsi within a year, when the drink went on sale nationally. The first recipe was sweetened with saccharin.

Which sweetener did Diet Pepsi swap for sucralose in 2015, then restore after drinkers complained?

Aspartame had sweetened Diet Pepsi since 1983, when it took over from saccharin. After complaints on social media the old recipe returned beside the new one in 2016 and replaced it completely in 2018.

Which 1986 blockbuster reached home video with a 60-second Diet Pepsi advert on every tape?

Top Gun got Pepsi-funded television adverts in return, showing a pilot flying upside down with a bottle in hand. The swap was the first of its kind and the tape set a sales record.

Which usual cola ingredient was missing from Pepsi Free, the variant PepsiCo introduced in 1982?

Caffeine was what Pepsi Free was free of, and by 1987 the name had been phased out in favour of the plainer Caffeine-Free Pepsi.

Which fruit flavours Pepsi Twist, the cola variant that reached American shops in November 2001?

Lemon cola arrived from both rivals at once, since Coca-Cola launched its own version around the same time. Pepsi Twist was dropped in the United States in 2006 but sold on in markets such as Brazil.

Which herbal root extract went into Diet Pepsi Max when it launched in the United States in 2007?

Ginseng gave the cola an energy-drink edge for sixteen years, until PepsiCo took it out of the American recipe in January 2023. By then the drink was called Pepsi Zero Sugar.

Which gas replaced carbon dioxide in a Pepsi launched in 2022, released by a widget inside the can?

Nitrogen gave the cola a smooth texture, using a widget like the one in cans of draught stout such as Guinness. PepsiCo announced the drink's withdrawal in 2024.

Pepsiman, a faceless superhero mascot of the 1990s, was created by Pepsi's branch in which country?

Japan saw him in twelve commercials, sometimes getting hurt after delivering a drink to someone thirsty. His 1999 PlayStation game sold poorly but has since gained a cult following.

Pepsi's red, white and blue bottle cap was a show of American patriotism during which conflict?

World War II gave the brand its colours: the cap set the script name in the white band of a waving tricolour. That design grew into the round logo later named the Pepsi Globe.

Which Air France airliner was repainted blue in 1996 to promote Pepsi's new can design?

Concorde shared the Project Blue publicity with a banner on the Mir space station. The campaign launched a new blue look in markets outside the United States.

The neon Pepsi-Cola sign, a New York landmark since 2016, overlooks which waterway from Queens?

The East River shore held Pepsi's bottling plant, and the sign stood on its roof from 1940. After the plant was demolished the sign was reassembled in Gantry Plaza State Park in 2009.

Which city's NBA and NHL arena was called the Pepsi Center from its 1999 opening until 2020?

Denver's arena, shared by the Nuggets and the Avalanche, hosted the 2008 Democratic convention that nominated Barack Obama. It became Ball Arena when the Ball Corporation bought the naming rights.

Which NASCAR champion signed a long-term Pepsi deal in 1997 after his Coca-Cola sponsorship ended?

Jeff Gordon carried Pepsi logos about twice a season, usually on a darker paint scheme saved for events run at night.

Which English resort opened the Pepsi Max Big One in 1994 as the world's tallest roller coaster?

Blackpool Pleasure Beach held the height record, at 65 metres, for two years. The ride kept its Pepsi Max sponsorship until 2011, when the brand was removed from the name.

In which Canadian province did Pepsi defend its lead over Coca-Cola with adverts starring a local comedian?

Quebec had long preferred Pepsi, and Meunier, known for the television series La Petite Vie, was the most prominent of the local celebrities hired to keep it that way.

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

Nikita Khrushchev's photograph helped a Pepsi executive win the attention of the Soviet public. Thirteen years later the same man negotiated a cola monopoly in the USSR.

Loft Inc., whose president bought bankrupt Pepsi-Cola in 1931, was a leading maker of what?

Candy shops owned by Loft had soda fountains, and its president turned to Pepsi after Coca-Cola refused him a bigger discount on syrup. Loft later won control of the cola business from him in court.

Barney Oldfield, who in 1909 became the first celebrity to endorse Pepsi, was famous as what?

A racing driver from the sport's pioneer days, Oldfield was the first to lap a mile track in one minute flat, in 1903. He recommended Pepsi as a pick-me-up before a race.

Which Eastern Bloc country got a Pepsi factory in 1967, paying with its wine instead of hard cash?

Romania opened the plant at Constanța during the early, more liberal years of Nicolae Ceaușescu. The cola was popular with young people but grew scarce under the austerity of the 1980s.

Which soda does PepsiCo own outside the United States, while Keurig Dr Pepper owns it at home?

7UP was split in 1986, when Philip Morris sold the international division to PepsiCo and the American business to an investment group.