Coca-Cola Buys Pepsi

wilcoxchar

Because of the recent Coke threads, I was skimming through a book on the history of Coca-Cola and found out that in the 1920s and 1930s, the owners of Pepsi offered to sell the company to the Coca-Cola Company three times. This was also around the time when Coca-Cola was cracking down on all the imitators that had appeared. IIRC Pepsi was pretty much the last one standing.

So, my question to you all is what if Coca-Cola had bought Pepsi in the 1920s. Would another major competitor to Coke have appeared eventually? Conversely, could the Coca-Cola Company have maintained a near monopoly status to this day? Also realize that the lawsuits that Coke filed against the imitators pretty much wrote modern American trademark law.

Here is my source.
 

NKVD

The world would finally be at peace under one world soda. We'd probably invent flying cars and FTL by now.
 

Douglas

The Dr. Pepper Company is the present-day Coke competitor. Good news for Waco, TX. :)

Instead of a tradition/youth divide vis-a-vis advertising, perhaps a geographical North/South divide between the competitors?
 

wilcoxchar

Dan1988 said:
Won't happen - at this early stage, the Interstate Commerce Commission is going to block it.
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Hmmm. I think if the Interstate Commerce Commission was going to do something, they would've done it in OTL. Coca-Cola filed lawsuits against every other competitor on the basis of similar name, using red barrels to store the syrup, using the same font as the Coke logo, using a similar label, and they won pretty much every suit short of claiming the caramel color of a soft drink for Coke. It really is amazing that Howard Hirsch got away with everything he did.

However, maybe the Coca-Cola Company would be prohibited from expanding into as many other varieties of soft drink, and so wouldn't expand its brand ownership as much as it has.

EDIT: Oh, and you have to remember that at the time, Pepsi was as big as the other companies that Coca-Cola was buying out and suing. So it's not like one company suddenly buying out its major rival.

Douglas said:
The Dr. Pepper Company is the present-day Coke competitor. Good news for Waco, TX. :)

Instead of a tradition/youth divide vis-a-vis advertising, perhaps a geographical North/South divide between the competitors?
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Ah yes, forgot about Dr. Pepper. And if what Wiki says is true, any sue-happy attempts by Coke for trademark infringement will be lost because it was first introduced in 1885. :D A Coke-Dr. Pepper rivalry instead of a Coke-Pepsi rivalry would be really interesting.
 

Preternatural imagination

Interesting!

I think Dr Pepper might have alot more types of soda And I might have it more often(I like it but it is hard to find most places).

Also Coca-Cola Might have a slightly different taste since they have refomulated it before and this time the can use Pepsi recipes inorder to improve their taste.

Also if Dr Pepper is more popular and wide spread maybe when the health craze starts they will make more use of the "Dr" in their name and make healthier sodas and have the money to perfect it. And if they go healthy they might also go "green" with their materials and factories.
 

wilcoxchar

Preternatural imagination said:
Also if Dr Pepper is more popular and wide spread maybe when the health craze starts they will make more use of the "Dr" in their name and make healthier sodas and have the money to perfect it. And if they go healthy they might also go "green" with their materials and factories.
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I like that idea. I could also see Dr Pepper combining this with some of Pepsi's OTL slogans. (maybe something about the "Pepper Generation")
 

NothingNow

Banned
wilcoxchar said:
Ah yes, forgot about Dr. Pepper. And if what Wiki says is true, any sue-happy attempts by Coke for trademark infringement will be lost because it was first introduced in 1885. :D A Coke-Dr. Pepper rivalry instead of a Coke-Pepsi rivalry would be really interesting.
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And More Delicious.:D
(I'm a big Dr.Pepper / Coke drinker with a thing for Mountain Dew.)
Also on the "Dr. for Health" thing. WI Dr. Pepper doesn't move to HFCS as a replacement for Sugar and spins any attempt by Coke to do so as Unnatural, Possibly Unhealthy and Under Tested? Also Might there be some 7up Counterpart in TTL like "Dr.Lithia" (from Lithiated Lemon)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Up
 

Orville_third

Banned
Douglas said:
The Dr. Pepper Company is the present-day Coke competitor. Good news for Waco, TX. :)

Instead of a tradition/youth divide vis-a-vis advertising, perhaps a geographical North/South divide between the competitors?
Click to expand...
I'd see more independent soda brands being out there...
And, I'd also see no regional divide, since all three sodas are from south of the Mason-Dixon line. (Pepsi was made in NC, Coke was from Atlanta.)
 
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