10 Surprising Pepsi Fun Facts That Will Quench Your Thirst for Knowledge

1. Pepsi: The Baby Formula

Turns out, Pepsi was once the "very best" infant formula: In the early 1900s, the Pepsi-Cola Company marketed their effervescent concoction to babies, insisting it would help them grow up strong and healthy, with the bottling works in New Bern, N.C., even distributing letters to mothers that featured an eight-month-old named Emma Woodley, who was delightfully plump thanks to her daily Pepsi consumption.
Source => exhibits.lib.unc.edu

2. Pepsi Challenge Showdown

In a fizz-tastic showdown of soda supremacy, the 'Cola wars' witnessed Pepsi pulling off a carbonated caper by sneakily sipping the victory: In 1975, the Pepsi Challenge saw blind taste tests conducted in shopping malls, with a majority of participants favoring Pepsi's taste over Coca-Cola, prompting Coke's PR scramble and their regrettable decision to alter their centuries-old secret formula.
Source => juiceboxinteractive.com

Did you know that Dr. Pepper, a famous soda, was born in a drug store as a non-medicinal fizzy delight? Discover its fruitful beginnings and surprising debut at the 1904 World's Fair Exposition! 🥤🎡

=> Fun Facts about Soda

3. Pepsi's Soviet Success

In Soviet Russia, Pepsi drinks you: Remarkably, in 1974, Pepsi made history by becoming the first American consumer product to be produced, marketed, and sold in the former Soviet Union, all thanks to a deal between PepsiCo and the Soviets, which even included importing vodka to the U.S. This sweet 'Cold War' truce, sparked by a sip shared between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev, resulted in Russia being Pepsi's second-largest market today, gulping down nearly 8 percent of its sales worldwide.
Source => npr.org

4. Cola Wars in Space

In a cosmic rivalry that's truly out of this world, Coca-Cola and Pepsi fought the ultimate battle – for space soda supremacy: In 1985, NASA sent specially designed cans of both cola brands aboard the Challenger shuttle, with Coke becoming the first soft drink to be consumed in space, while Pepsi's pop-top lid can contributed to understanding carbonated drinks' behavior in zero gravity.
Source => sodapopcraft.com

5. Pepsi's Submarine Fleet

Forget Poseidon's trident — Pepsi once held the keys to a fleet of submarines that could've left Aquaman all shook up: In 1972, Pepsi struck a deal with the Soviet Union to trade their soft drink for 17 submarines and outdated warships, making Pepsi the first American beverage available in the USSR; although the vessels were swiftly scrapped in Norway, it became a historic trade agreement, without Pepsi actually operating a navy.
Source => foreignpolicy.com

6. The Great Cheese Revolution

Behold, the secret weapon of the great cheese war: James Lewis Kraft! For it was he who outmaneuvered spoiling forces, sent shivers down the spines of moldy cheese fiends, and pasteurized his way toward world domination, one cheese slice at a time: On June 9, 1953, founder and president of Kraft Foods Inc., James Lewis Kraft was granted a U.S. patent for the manufacture of soft surface cured cheese, revolutionizing the cheese industry by developing a way to pasteurize cheese for long distance transportation without it spoiling, expanding his company to Canada in 1919, and fueling the U.S. government troops in World War I.
Source => manufacturing.net

7. Michael Jackson's Pepsi Era

The King of Pop's fizzy thriller: In the roaring '80s, PepsiCo shelled out a record-breaking $5 million to have Michael Jackson moonwalk to their beat for a decade, sponsoring his tours and remixing "Billie Jean" as the new cola anthem. Coca-Cola was left in a lurch, as their $1 million offer proved to be a mere drop in the bottles of Jackson's enthralling, Pepsi-filled paradise.
Source => billboard.com

8. Indra Nooyi's Health-Conscious Strategy

Once upon a Pepsi, in a land of "fun for you" snacks that occasionally flirted with "better for you" greens: Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo's former CEO, gallantly championed "Performance with a Purpose," ingeniously redefining products into three health-conscious tiers, green-lighting corporate spending on nutritious alternatives, driving environmental sustainability, and fostering social impact – all while ranking among the world's 100 most powerful women and boosting PepsiCo's annual net profit from a slightly thirsty $2.7 billion to a refreshingly fizzy $6.5 billion.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

9. Underdog Victory in Cola Wars

In a plot twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan jealous, the cola wars of the 1970s revealed an underdog victory that left taste buds reeling: Pepsi launched the Pepsi challenge, a blind taste test between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which triumphed as the preferred flavor by the majority of participants.
Source => coursehero.com

10. Pepsi's Storm Takes on Sprite

In an attempt to dethrone the reign of Coca-Cola's Sprite, Pepsi concocted a secret weapon with a twist of lemon, a dash of lime, and a sprinkle of caffeine; a Storm was brewing indeed: Pepsi unleashed Storm, a caffeinated lemon-lime soda, onto the world in 1998 and even got the Force on their side by featuring Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace characters on cans of "Storm" and "Light Storm" varieties in 1999.
Source => sodacancollection.weebly.com