Diet Pepsi
Encyclopedia
Diet Pepsi is a no-calorie carbonated
Carbonation
Carbonation is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in water. The process usually involves carbon dioxide under high pressure. When the pressure is reduced, the carbon dioxide is released from the solution as small bubbles, which cause the solution to "fizz." This effect is seen in carbonated...

 cola
Cola
Cola is a carbonated beverage that was typically flavored by the kola nut as well as vanilla and other flavorings, however, some colas are now flavored artificially. It became popular worldwide after druggist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886...

 soft drink produced by PepsiCo
PepsiCo
PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company...

, introduced in 1964 as a variant of Pepsi-Cola
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...

 with no sugar. First test marketed in 1963 under the name Patio
Patio (soda)
Patio Diet Cola was a brand of diet soda introduced by Pepsi in 1963. It was created in response to Diet Rite Cola, which was the first diet cola on the market. Debbie Drake was Patio Diet Cola's spokesperson. In 1964, Patio released orange, grape, and root beer flavors...

 Diet Cola, it was re-branded as Diet Pepsi the following year, becoming the first diet cola to be distributed on a national scale in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In the 1960s and 1970s its competition consisted of Tab soda, produced by The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...

, and Diet Rite
Diet Rite
Diet Rite is a brand of no-calorie soft drinks originally distributed by the RC Cola company. It was introduced in 1958 and initially released as a dietetic product, but was marketed to the general public as a healthful beverage in 1962...

 soda, produced by Royal Crown. Diet Coke
Diet Coke
Diet Coke is a sugar-free soft drink produced and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company. It was first introduced in the United States on August 9, 1982, as the first new brand since 1886 to use the Coca-Cola trademark...

 was a later entrant to the diet cola market; though shortly after entering production in 1982 it became the primary competing diet cola to Diet Pepsi.

While the U.S. represents the largest single market for Diet Pepsi, it was launched in the U.K. in 1983 and has since become available on a global scale. The beverage composition, flavor variations and packaging varies based on the country of production. In some countries - primarily in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

 - the product is labeled and sold under the name Pepsi Light. In the UK it is called Pepsi Diet.

History

Diet Pepsi was originally created in the U.S. under the name Patio
Patio (soda)
Patio Diet Cola was a brand of diet soda introduced by Pepsi in 1963. It was created in response to Diet Rite Cola, which was the first diet cola on the market. Debbie Drake was Patio Diet Cola's spokesperson. In 1964, Patio released orange, grape, and root beer flavors...

 in 1963. Following a positive reception attributed to the shifting dietary habits and preferences among the Baby Boom Generation at the time, the drink was re-branded as Diet Pepsi the following year. It became the first diet cola to be distributed on a national scale in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Distribution was extended to the U.K. in 1983, where it is also referred to as Diet Pepsi. Distribution has since expanded to other countries around the world; though an alternate name is used in certain countries. In Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

,Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, and Brasil, the beverage is known as Pepsi Light.

Diet Pepsi competed primarily with another diet cola named Tab
Tab (soft drink)
Tab, stylized as TaB, is a diet cola soft drink produced by the Coca-Cola Company, first introduced in 1963. The soda was created by Coca Cola after the successful sales and marketing of Diet Rite cola, owned by The Royal Crown Company; previously, Diet Rite had been the only sugarless soda on the...

 in the 1960s and 1970s; however the Coca-Cola Company introduced Diet Coke
Diet Coke
Diet Coke is a sugar-free soft drink produced and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company. It was first introduced in the United States on August 9, 1982, as the first new brand since 1886 to use the Coca-Cola trademark...

 in 1982 and this product has since been the principal competing product to Diet Pepsi. As of 2010, Diet Pepsi represented a 5.3 percent share of all carbonated soft drink sales in the United States, and was ranked as the #7 soft drink brand by volume. In the same year, Diet Coke was recorded as having a 9.9 percent market share.

Flavor variations

Additional variations of Diet Pepsi have been introduced over the years, wherein other flavors (such as wild cherry, vanilla, lemon, and lime) have been added to the cola. A caffeine-free version of Diet Pepsi is also produced. The availability and brand identification of Diet Pepsi flavor variants varies by country. In addition to Diet Pepsi, PepsiCo produces other low-calorie colas known as Pepsi Max
Pepsi Max
Pepsi Max is a low-calorie, sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo as an alternative to Pepsi and Diet Pepsi.It differs from Pepsi in that it contains aspartame, potassium benzoate, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium EDTA and panax ginseng extract while it does not contain high fructose corn...

 and Pepsi ONE
Pepsi ONE
Pepsi ONE is a sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo in the United States as an alternative to regular Pepsi and Diet Pepsi....

. These products, however, are marketed separately, and are not labeled under the Diet Pepsi brand.

Composition

In the United States, Diet Pepsi is marketed as having zero calories, as FDA
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

 guidelines categorize products with fewer than five calories per serving to be labeled as containing “zero calories”. It is also positioned as having no carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...

s, as represented in the primary slogan, which as of 2011 is “0 carbs. 0 calories. It's the diet cola.”

Though Diet Pepsi is represented worldwide as a low- or no-calorie beverage, the ingredients comprising its makeup vary in some cases by the country of origin. In the U.S., its ingredients are recorded as “carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (preserves freshness), caffeine, citric acid, natural flavor; phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine.” In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the ingredient listing reads: “carbonated water, caramel color, phosphoric acid, aspartame (124 mg/355 ml, contains phenylalanine), sodium benzoate, caffeine, flavor, acesulfame potassium (32 mg/355ml), citric acid, dimethylpolysiloxane.” Comparatively in the U.K., Diet Pepsi is listed as consisting of “carbonated water, colour (caramel E150d), flavorings (including caffeine), phosphoric acid, sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame K), acidity regulator (sodium citrate), preservative (sodium benzoate), citric acid, contains a source of phenylalanine.”

In the composition of all no-calorie carbonated colas, an alternative sweetener is used in place of sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, which if used would result in the product containing calorie
Calorie
The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...

s. The initial formulation of Diet Pepsi was sweetened with the artificial sweetener saccharin
Saccharin
Saccharin is an artificial sweetener. The basic substance, benzoic sulfilimine, has effectively no food energy and is much sweeter than sucrose, but has a bitter or metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations...

; though concerns over saccharin emerged in the early 1980s, prompting a shift to an alternative sweetener, aspartame
Aspartame
Aspartame is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in some foods and beverages. In the European Union, it is codified as E951. Aspartame is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide. It was first sold under the brand name NutraSweet; since 2009 it...

, which was marketed as the brand NutraSweet, in 1983. Aspartame, which as of 2011 is the primary sweetener in Diet Pepsi, has been the subject of controversy, most notably in 1996 amid a 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

report on concerns alleging that aspartame might be linked to the development of brain tumors in humans. Critics of Aspartame have expressed concerns that numerous health risks may be associated with its consumption; however peer-reviewed comprehensive review articles and independent reviews by governmental regulatory bodies have analyzed the published research on the safety of aspartame and have described it as safe for consumption at current levels. Aspartame has been deemed safe for human consumption by regulatory agencies in their respective countries, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.K. Food Standards Agency, the European Food Safety Authority
European Food Safety Authority
The European Food Safety Authority is an agency of the European Union that provides independent scientific advice and communication on existing and emerging risks associated with the food chain, created by European Regulation 178/2002....

 (EFSA) and Canada's Health Canada
Health Canada
Health Canada is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for national public health.The current Minister of Health is Leona Aglukkaq, a Conservative Member of Parliament appointed to the position by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.-Branches, regions and agencies:Health Canada...

.

Packaging and logo

When it was first introduced in 1964, Diet Pepsi was packaged in glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 bottles, and was also made available in can format. In 1994, Diet Pepsi became the first product to list a “freshness date” on each individual can and bottle, a practice that would later become a widespread standard in the packaged food and beverage industry. As of 2010, the product is distributed in plastic recyclable bottles, cans and glass bottles, as well as via soda fountains in retail operations such as restaurants and convenience stores.

The logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

 used in the packaging and advertisement of Diet Pepsi has changed multiple times since its original iteration. In October, 2008, PepsiCo announced it would be redesigning its logo and re-branding many of its products, including Diet Pepsi. At this time the brand's blue and red globe trademark
Pepsi Globe
The Pepsi Globe is the name of the logo for Pepsi, called as such because of the swirling "red, white, & blue" design in a sphere-like shape. It is considered one of the world's most recognizable corporate trademarks...

 became a series of "smiles," with the central white band arcing at different angles depending on the product. The new imagery has started to be used. In the case of Diet Pepsi, the logo consists of the small "smile".

Starting in mid-2010, all Pepsi variants, both regular and diet, began using the medium-sized "smile" logo.

Advertising and promotion

While it was initially advertised alongside Pepsi, Diet Pepsi began to be promoted independently in the late 1960s. The first television advertisement to feature Diet Pepsi as a standalone product was “Girlwatchers,” which placed focus on the cosmetic aspects of the beverage. The musical jingle from this ad generated popular culture appeal to the extent that it was eventually recorded and played on the radio, and later became a Top 40 hit.

Since its inception, musicians, professional athletes, actors and actresses have been featured prominently in the promotion of Diet Pepsi. In 1985, immediately following Super Bowl XIX
Super Bowl XIX
Super Bowl XIX was an American football game played on January 20, 1985 at Stanford Stadium, on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, to decide the National Football League champion following the 1984 regular season...

, the game's respective quarterbacks, Joe Montana
Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford "Joe" Montana, Jr. , nicknamed Joe Cool, Golden Joe, The Golden Great and Comeback Joe, is a retired American football player. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with the San Francisco 49ers, where he played quarterback for the next 14 seasons...

 and Dan Marino
Dan Marino
Daniel Constantine "Dan" Marino, Jr. is a retired American football quarterback who played for the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League...

, met in a hallway of what appeared to be a football stadium. Montana of the winning team, buys Marino a Diet Pepsi, and Marino promises to buy the drink the next time. A Diet Pepsi advertisement in the same year featured Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Anne Ferraro was an American attorney, a Democratic Party politician, and a member of the United States House of Representatives. She was the first female Vice Presidential candidate representing a major American political party....

, the first woman to run for vice-president in the U.S. When the feature film Top Gun
Top Gun
Top Gun may refer to:* Top Gun is a 1986 film starring Tom Cruise.**Top Gun , soundtrack to the movie**Top Gun , a number of games based on the movie...

was released on home video cassette in 1987, it was promoted via television advertisements – consisting of a Top Gun pilot flying upside down while holding a can of Diet Pepsi – which were paid for by Pepsi. In exchange, the film’s production studio, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

, included a 60-second Diet Pepsi advertisement on all Top Gun VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 tapes. The resulting cross-promotion was the first of its kind, and after it set record videocassette sales, it was described as “the beginning of a trend” by the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

.

During the early 1990s, R&B singer Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

 was featured in a series of Diet Pepsi ads featuring the brand's then-current tagline, "You got the right one, baby!" Supermodel Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford is an American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...

 became a recurring celebrity endorser for the Diet Pepsi brand at this time as well, beginning with a 1991 television ad in which she purchases a can of the drink from a vending machine
Vending machine
A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

 on a hot summer day. Cindy Crawford was also brought back in 2002 to introduce a new packaging design for Diet Pepsi, and again in 2005 to promote the revised slogan "Light, crisp, refreshing" with an ad which debuted during Super Bowl XXXIX
Super Bowl XXXIX
Super Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played on February 6, 2005, at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, to decide the National Football League champion following the 2004 regular season...

. In 2005 and 2006, recording artists Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...

 appeared in advertisements related to a campaign in which codes printed underneath Diet Pepsi bottle caps could be redeemed for music downloads on the Apple iTunes music store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...

.

See also

  • List of Pepsi types
  • Cola wars
    Cola wars
    The Cola Wars are a campaign of mutually-targeted television advertisements and marketing campaigns since the 1980s between soft drink manufacturers Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Incorporated.- Competition :...

  • Patio (soda)
    Patio (soda)
    Patio Diet Cola was a brand of diet soda introduced by Pepsi in 1963. It was created in response to Diet Rite Cola, which was the first diet cola on the market. Debbie Drake was Patio Diet Cola's spokesperson. In 1964, Patio released orange, grape, and root beer flavors...

  • Pepsi (soda)
  • Citrus Blast
    Citrus Blast
    Citrus Blast is a caffeine-free, grapefruit-citrus flavored soft drink produced by PepsiCo.-Packaging:Citrus blast comes in 12-ounce aluminum cans, 20-ounce plastic bottles, and 2-liter plastic bottles. The plastic bottles are light-green tinted. The label has a yellow background and the text in...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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