RELATED: How Sugar Daddy Lobbyists Killed the War on Obesity It turns out that Coke’s ad campaign highlighting the poor health implications of soft drinks is also an ad campaign promoting those of its products that Americans today increasingly prefer. There’s a reason Coca-Cola is the world’s most valuable brand, though: Coke’s marketers know what they’re doing. The Coca-Cola Company has introduced Diet Coke in 1982 but, anticipating this continued decline, it pushed to further diversify its products away from full-calorie soft drinks, launching Dasani bottled water in 1999, acquiring Odwalla in 2001 and rolling out Coke Zero in 2005, among other moves. “Consumption of full-calorie carbonated soft drinks is likely to show continued modest declines for at least the next several years,” says Gary Hemphill, managing director of research at the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a market research firm.

The decline is showing no signs of bottoming out. dropped 22 percent from 2001 to 2010, according to a 24/7 Wall St. – between 19, per capita fizzy soft drink consumption in America dropped 16 percent, according to the trade publication Beverage Digest, while the number of gallons of Coca-Cola sold in the U.S. Both Coke and Pepsi have been fighting a losing battle in the U.S. “What the industry is trying to do is forestall sensible policy approaches to reducing sugary drink consumption, including taxes, further exclusion from public facilities, and caps on serving sizes such as the measure proposed by Mayor Bloomberg” in New York City, said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.īut airing the obesity ads now may be a brilliant move. Coke, on the other hand, did something utterly unexpected, releasing attention-grabbing ads that address the link between soft drinks and obesity.īut the real surprise is that Pepsi’s campaign has garnered a critical backlash, while Coke could be reaping benefits by more openly courting controversy.Īt first glance, it might look like Coca-Cola is giving anti-obesity critics more ammunition by acknowledging its own role in the national epidemic – and nutrition experts like Marion Nestle of NYU have certainly lambasted the company, calling the ad “an astonishing act of chutzpah.” Pepsi went the traditional route, signing an American superstar, Beyoncé, to a reported $50 million deal to promote its signature soft drink.

Their strategies, though, could not be more different. Pepsi Max.Soft drink giants The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo both announced new ad campaigns recently. With growth in the carbonated beverage business difficult to find, the new battleground in the Cola Wars seems to be Coke Zero vs. 'Pepsi felt that consumers didn't understand what Pepsi Max stood for-that it didn't understand that it didn't have zero calories,' Sicher said. Pepsi needs to gain ground agains Coke as Coke Zero leads Pepsi Max in terms of case volume by a ratio of 5-to-1. Pepsi tells CNBC that the goal is to spread the message that Pepsi Max fits the proverbial bill. have struggledwith increased competition and health awareness, zero-calorie products have remained appealing. Right now, both brands have a small, but growing market share. However, it's only been on American store shelves for three years. It was introduced in the UK about 17 years ago, and is actually a billion-dollar brand globally. Pepsi Max actually has a longer history-just not in the United States. Coke Zero has been in the US market for about five years. These two drinks are considered by many to be 'diet sodas for guys'. 'Pepsi using the Cola Wars as a strategy to help build Pepsi Max is a really good way to go.' There hasn't been enough of good old Cola War advertising and marketing recently. 'They love the competition between Coke and Pepsi. 'The 'Cola Wars' are one of the great stories not just in American business history, but consumes love the Cola Wars,' he said. John Sicher, editor of industry trade newsletter Beverage Digest says, it's about time. (You can watch video of Pepsi commercial here.)

In a new ad campaign, Pepsi is trying to reignite the competition between Coca Cola and Pepsi with the focus on the zero-calorie space.

Coke pepsi ad wars