Pepsi overtakes coke.

I'm not one of the people who actually believes this was intentional, but one possible, if slightly unexpected POD could be never introducing New Coke all together and keeping the old formula all the way through. The introduction of the New Coke formula as the total replacement for Coca Cola spiked sales for Coca Cola when they brought back "Coca Cola Classic." Some, including one of my uncles, who is a super coke fanatic, think this was some conspiracy theory to make small formula tweaks and make everyone remember how much they loved the old product. However, I tend to agree with former COO of Coke, Donald Keough, when he says, "Some critics will say Coca-Cola made a marketing mistake. Some cynics will say that we planned the whole thing. The truth is we are not that dumb, and we are not that smart."
 

kernals12

Banned
John Pemberton gets hit by a streetcar in 1881. Although that's a Pre-1900 POD.

Also Fun Fact: Coca Cola was offered the opportunity to buy Pepsi on several occasions during the 1920s.
 
Pepsi uses its Soviet-purchased warships to bombard Coke’s Atlanta headquarters. The Coca-Cola Company surrenders and cedes its stock in the subsequent peace treaty.
 
While coke has a reputation as a major party drug, I'm pretty sure that meth has more users these days.

So Pepsi probably already has far more consumers than coke.

Oh. You meant Coke! Different thing altogether.
:)
 
I'm gonna go with a wild card POD, and go with a more prosperous and larger African American population in the 1st half of the 20th century. (don't know how, but a more militant US and/or a longer involvement in WWI would work, or the Washington Naval conference collapsing, whatever. Just need industries to be desperate for labor to the point of employing more African Americans than OTL)

Why? Because this: https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/brief-history-racist-soft-drinks/318929/

So if Pepsi has higher growth then (because its targeted demographics have more spending cash), that would give them a chance to dethrone Coke. If they could capitalize on that (like funding/backing civil rights groups in the 60s, for example), they might just be able to do it (for a while anyways).
 
Pepsi once turned down an offer to get a sample of a new Coke product.
Instead of calling the police, they jump at the chance for corporate espionage.

The person making the offer was a secretary at Coke's global headquarters, so if Pepsi plays its cards right they could turn the one time offer into a long term spy.
 
I am not sure I would want to live in a world where more people prefer Devil's urine known as Pepsi over the sweet nectar that is Coke.
 
I am not sure I would want to live in a world where more people prefer Devil's urine known as Pepsi over the sweet nectar that is Coke.

I don't know if this makes me some kind of freak...I kind of prefer RC over each.

Edit: However, as I sit here, I am drinking a Diet Coke.
 
Shortly after this ad campaign is launched, certain allegations about the emcee's personal behaviour hit the news.

Coke figures, "Nah, that's just too crazy, America's Dad doing THAT? This is all bullshit, 100%, and if we pull the ads now, we're gonna look like total assholes when it's all exposed as vicious slander".

Unfortunately for Coke, it doesn't go that way, and there's soon an entire subset of rape jokes involving their product in gleeful circulation. They take out full page ads in major newspapers apologizing for their grotesque error in judgement, but it's too late.

This might seem like ASB, as it's hard to imagine Coke responding that way, even pre-Anita Hill. But keep in mind that when the accusations against that particular individual were first aired in the 2000s some time, they were given very little credibility, and he continued to tour and make appearances on respectable talk shows, until that one comedian's monologue brought the stories back to popular attention.
 
also cant check right now, but they politically finagled there way out of political fallout and for getting one of there security firms away from bwing designated a terrorist org
 
Pepsi once turned down an offer to get a sample of a new Coke product.
Instead of calling the police, they jump at the chance for corporate espionage.

The person making the offer was a secretary at Coke's global headquarters, so if Pepsi plays its cards right they could turn the one time offer into a long term spy.
Pretty sure that was stuff about a marketing campaign. Besides, secretaries are hardly going to get information on experimental new things. And if they do? Hardly as if Pepsi can use it.

Anyways, PepsiCo is a larger company than Coca-Cola, helped along by them having Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats, Tropicana, etc.
 
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