Pepsi

Today, we will be looking at the product Pepsi which is a carbonated soft drink. We will be looking at the history of it and also analyzing an early piece of advertising that was created to promote the product.

Product History

Pepsi-Cola was introduced during the new culture of consumption era (1880-1920). At this time a new consumer society emerged as goods that once had been affordable to a few became available to many. (Sivulka, 2012, p.42) The drink we know today as Pepsi was first created in 1898 by Caleb Bradham and was known as “Brad’s Drink” and the drink was sold at the drugstore he owned. It was later called Pepsi-Cola, after the digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the recipe. Bradham’s goal was to create a fountain drink that tasted good and would help with digestion and boost energy. The first celebrity to endorse Pepsi-Cola was Barney Oldfield who was an automobile racer. Oldfield described the drink as a, “A bully drink...refreshing, invigorating, a fine bracer before a race.” In the early 1930s Pepsi-Cola hit rock bottom filing bankruptcy due to the Great Depression. Roy C. Megargel, who was a Wall Street broker, bought the Pepsi trademark, business and good will from Craven Holding Corporation for $35,000, and it was named the Pepsi-Cola Corporation (Pepsistore, n.d.).

Moving on to the 1940s, Pepsi-Cola starts to make their biggest moves in terms of advertising and marketing. In 1940, Pepsi-Cola Company makes advertising history with "Nickel, Nickel," the first advertising jingle ever broadcast nationwide on radio. By now World War II had already started and in an effort to support the war, Pepsi-Cola had changed their color to red, white and blue (symbolizing patriotism). By the 1960s the main target...

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...t of the product, rather than taking the product and educating the reader about it. When you look at this Pepsi advertisement you can clearly, this is a soft sell advertisement. Not only is it selling you a feeling, but it’s leaving all of the technicalities out, making it a friendlier/happier advertisement.

Works Cited

Our History. (n.d.). PepsiCo Home. Retrieved February 23, 2014, from http://www.pepsico.com/Company/Our-History

Pepsi Store - History of the Birthplace of Pepsi. (n.d.). Pepsi Store - History of the Birthplace of Pepsi. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://www.pepsistore.com/history.asp

Sivulka, J. (2012). Soap, sex, and cigarettes: a cultural history of American advertising (2. ed.). Australia :: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Soft Sell. (n.d.). Investopedia. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/soft-sell.asp