Editing Pepsi (section)

====Rivalry with Coca-Cola====
{{Main|Cola wars}}
According to Consumer Reports, in the 1970s, the rivalry continued to heat up the market. Pepsi conducted [[blind taste test]]s in stores, in what was called the "[[Pepsi Challenge]]". These tests suggested that more consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi to Coca-Cola. The sales of Pepsi started to climb, and Pepsi kicked off the "Challenge" across the nation. This became known as the "cola wars".

In 1985, [[The Coca-Cola Company]], amid much publicity, changed [[Coca-Cola formula|its formula]]. The theory has been advanced that [[New Coke]], as the reformulated drink came to be known, was invented specifically in response to the Pepsi Challenge. However, a consumer backlash led to Coca-Cola quickly reintroducing the original formula as "Coca-Cola Classic".

In 1989, [[Billy Joel]] mentioned the rivalry between the two companies in the song "[[We Didn't Start the Fire]]". The line "Rock & Roller Cola Wars" refers to Pepsi and Coke's usage of various musicians in advertising campaigns. Coke used [[Paula Abdul]], while Pepsi used [[Michael Jackson]]. Both companies then competed to get other musicians to advertise its beverages.

According to ''[[Beverage Digest]]''{{'}}s 2008 report on carbonated soft drinks, PepsiCo's U.S. market share is 30.8 percent, while The Coca-Cola Company's is 42.7 percent.<ref>[http://www.beverage-digest.com/pdf/top-10_2009.pdf "Special Issue: Top-10 CSD Results for 2008"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419085508/http://www.beverage-digest.com/pdf/top-10_2009.pdf |date=April 19, 2009 }}, ''Beverage Digest'', March 30, 2009 (PDF)</ref> Coca-Cola outsells Pepsi in most parts of the U.S., notable exceptions being central [[Appalachia]], [[Montana]], [[North Dakota]], and [[Utah]]. In the city of [[Buffalo, New York]], Pepsi outsells Coca-Cola by a two-to-one margin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rivals4ever.com/history-of-Pepsi-vs-Coke-Rivalry-5-3.htm|title=History of Pepsi vs. Coke Rivalry at Rivals4Ever|publisher=Rivals4ever.com|access-date=December 10, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127094359/http://rivals4ever.com/history-of-Pepsi-vs-Coke-Rivalry-5-3.htm|archive-date=November 27, 2011}}</ref> As of 2024, Pepsi had fallen behind [[Coca-Cola]] and [[Dr Pepper]] as the third most popular soft drink in the United States, losing its second place spot to the aforementioned Dr Pepper, a position it had held since 1985.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://people.com/dr-pepper-passes-pepsi-as-the-second-favorite-soda-brand-in-the-u-s-8657892 | title=Dr Pepper Passes Pepsi as the Second Favorite Soda Brand in the U.S. }}</ref>

Overall, Coca-Cola continues to outsell Pepsi in almost all areas of the world. However, exceptions include: [[Oman]], [[India]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Pakistan]], the [[Dominican Republic]], [[Guatemala]], the [[Provinces and territories of Canada|Canadian provinces]] of [[Quebec]], [[Newfoundland and Labrador]], [[Prince Edward Island]], [[Nova Scotia]] and [[New Brunswick]].<ref>[http://www.strategymag.com/articles/magazine/20041015/vive.html Vive la difference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927025142/http://www.strategymag.com/articles/magazine/20041015/vive.html |date=2007-09-27 }}, ''Strategy Magazine'', October 2004</ref>

Pepsi had long been the drink of [[French-Canadian]]s, and it continues to hold its dominance by relying on local [[French-speaking Quebecer|Québécois]] celebrities (especially [[Claude Meunier]], of ''[[La Petite Vie]]'' fame) to sell its product.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cassies.ca/caselibrary/winners/PepsiMeunier.pdf|title=The Pepsi 'Meunier' Campaign|publisher=Canadian Advertising Success Stories (Cassies) Case Library|access-date=August 21, 2007|archive-date=September 26, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926065845/http://www.cassies.ca/caselibrary/winners/PepsiMeunier.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> PepsiCo introduced the Quebec slogan "here, it's Pepsi" ({{Lang|fr|Ici, c'est Pepsi}}) in response to Coca-Cola ads proclaiming "Around the world, it's Coke" ({{Lang|fr|Partout dans le monde, c'est Coke}}).

In [[India]], by most accounts, Coca-Cola was India's leading soft drink until 1977, when it left India because of the new foreign exchange laws which mandated majority shareholding in companies to be held by Indian shareholders; Coca-Cola was unwilling to dilute its stake in its Indian unit as required by the [[Foreign Exchange Regulation Act]], which would have forced them to share [[Coca-Cola formula|their formula]] with an entity in which it did not have majority shareholding.<ref>[http://www.mindfully.org/Water/2005/India-Coca-Cola-Pepsi14mar05.htm "India: Soft Drinks, Hard Cases"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060203085741/http://mindfully.org/Water/2005/India-Coca-Cola-Pepsi14mar05.htm |date=February 3, 2006 }}, ''The Water Dossier'', March 14, 2005</ref> In 1988, PepsiCo entered the Indian market by creating a joint venture with the [[government of Punjab, India|government of Punjab]]-owned Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation and Voltas India Limited. This joint venture marketed and sold Lehar Pepsi until 1991, when the use of foreign brands was allowed; PepsiCo promptly bought out its partners and ended the joint venture in 1994. In 1993, Coca-Cola returned to the Indian market in pursuance of India's [[liberalization]] policy.<ref>[http://www.mindfully.org/Water/2005/India-Coca-Cola-Pepsi14mar05.htm "India: Soft Drinks, Hard Cases"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060203085741/http://mindfully.org/Water/2005/India-Coca-Cola-Pepsi14mar05.htm |date=February 3, 2006 }}, ''The Water Dossier'', March 14, 2005</ref> As of 2012, Pepsi is the third most popular carbonated drink in India, with a 15% market share, behind [[Sprite (soft drink)|Sprite]] and [[Thums Up]]. In comparison, Coca-Cola is the fourth most popular carbonated drink, occupying a mere 8.8% of the Indian market share.<ref>[http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-06-26/the-top-5-sodas-in-india-by-market-share The top 5 sodas in India by market share, Euromonitor International via Bloomberg, June 26, 2012] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121128080745/http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-06-26/the-top-5-sodas-in-india-by-market-share|date=November 28, 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Classic Pepsi bottles in supermarket in Kyiv.JPG|thumb|Pepsi bottles in [[Soviet period]] style in supermarket in [[Kyiv, Ukraine]]]]

In [[Russia]], Pepsi initially had a larger market share than Coke, but it was undercut once the [[Cold War]] ended. In 1972, PepsiCo struck a barter agreement with the [[government of the Soviet Union]], in which PepsiCo was granted exportation and Western marketing rights to [[Stolichnaya]] vodka in exchange for importation and Soviet marketing of Pepsi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=267835&area=/insight/insight__economy__business/|title=Pepsi's comeback, Part II|access-date=July 21, 2007|author=Robert Laing|publisher=Mail & Guardian online|date=March 28, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927215047/http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=267835&area=/insight/insight__economy__business/|archive-date=September 27, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060103044155/http://www.free-essays.us/dbase/b5/lvt48.shtml Coke Vs. Pepsi]}}. Free-Essays.us. Retrieved on February 4, 2012.</ref> This exchange led to Pepsi being the first foreign product sanctioned for sale in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite web|title=PepsiCo Company History (1972)|url=http://www.pepsico.com/PEP_Company/History/index.cfm#|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051103000727/http://www.pepsico.com/PEP_Company/History/index.cfm|archive-date=November 3, 2005|access-date=July 21, 2007|publisher=PepsiCo, Inc}}</ref> Reminiscent of the way that Coca-Cola became a cultural icon and its global spread spawned words like "[[cocacolonization]]", Pepsi and its relation to the Soviet system turned it into an icon. In the early 1990s, the term "Pepsi-stroika" began appearing as a pun on "[[perestroika]]", the reform policy of the Soviet Union under [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].<ref name="Pepsi-Stroika">{{cite book |last1=Lempert |first1=David |title=Pepsi-Stroika: The Colonization of Russia; an Ethnography of Russian Legal Culture During the Perestroika Period |date=1992 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n77IrQEACAAJ |volume=1 |access-date=2021-05-03 |archive-date=2023-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423105930/https://books.google.com/books?id=n77IrQEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Critics viewed the policy as an attempt to usher in Western products in deals there with the old elites; Pepsi, as one of the first American products in the Soviet Union, became a symbol of that relationship and the Soviet policy, reflected in Russian author [[Victor Pelevin]]'s book ''[[Generation "П"|Generation P]]''. In 1992, following the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], Coca-Cola was introduced to the [[Russian market]] and rapidly captured a significant market share due to public perceptions of Coca-Cola as representative of the new post-Soviet system (as opposed to Pepsi being exemplary of the old Soviet era), a market growth that might otherwise have required years to achieve. By July 2005, Coca-Cola enjoyed a market share of 19.4 percent, followed by Pepsi with 13 percent.<ref>[http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/12/30/041.html "Coke Versus Pepsi, Santa Versus Moroz"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060210103301/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/12/30/041.html |date=February 10, 2006 }}, ''The Moscow Times'', December 30, 2005</ref>

Pepsi was introduced in [[Romania]] in 1966, during the early liberalization policies of [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]], opening a factory at [[Constanța]] in 1967. This was done as a barter agreement similar to the one in the USSR, with [[Romanian wine]] serving as their bartered drink sold in the West. Pepsi quickly became popular in Romania, especially among young people, but due to the [[austerity]] measures imposed in the 1980s, it became scarce and difficult to find. After the fall of Soviet communism in 1991, PepsiCo entered the new Romanian market economy, and still maintains a bigger popularity than Coca-Cola, which was introduced in Romania in 1992, despite heavy competition during the 1990s (sometime between 2000 and 2005, Pepsi overtook Coca-Cola in sales in Romania).<ref>[https://www.wall-street.ro/articol/Companii/81826/Interviu-Cum-a-ajuns-Pepsi-in-Romania.html "Interviu: Cum a ajuns Pepsi in Romania"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806062345/https://www.wall-street.ro/articol/Companii/81826/Interviu-Cum-a-ajuns-Pepsi-in-Romania.html |date=2020-08-06 }}. Wall Street.</ref>

Pepsi did not sell soft drinks in [[Israel]] until 1991. Many Israelis and some [[American Jews|American Jewish]] organizations attributed Pepsi's previous reluctance to expand operations in Israel to fears of an [[Arab League boycott of Israel|Arab boycott]]. Pepsi, which has a large and lucrative business in the Arab world, denied the claims, stating that economic, rather than political, reasons kept it out of Israel.<ref>Tom Hundley [https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/05/19/israel-braces-for-new-conflict-the-soda-war/ Israel braces for new conflict: The soda war] . ''Chicago Tribune'', May 19, 1992</ref>