Diet Pepsi, also known as Pepsi Light in some countries, is a sugar-free carbonated cola soft drink produced by PepsiCo. As an alternative to regular Pepsi, it contains no sugar, relying instead on artificial sweeteners, primarily aspartame.
History and Evolution
First test-marketed in 1963 under the name Patio Diet Cola, it was rebranded as Diet Pepsi the following year. This made it the first diet cola to be distributed on a national scale in the United States. Distribution of the product has since expanded to other countries around the world
Diet Pepsi competed primarily with The Coca-Cola Company's Tab in the 1960s and 1970s; however, The Coca-Cola Company introduced Diet Coke in 1982, which has since been the principal competing product to Diet Pepsi. In 1986, Diet Pepsi was the fourth highest-selling soft drink in America with a market share of 4.3 percent, one spot under Diet Coke which had 7.1 percent. In 2000, Diet Pepsi had a marginally higher share of 4.7 percent but placed seventh in the ranking, below Dr Pepper, Sprite, and Mountain Dew (also from PepsiCo) in fourth, while its main competitor Diet Coke remained third. 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.
PepsiCo introduced two further sugar-free cola drinks during the 1990s: Pepsi Max (primarily Europe) in 1993 and then Pepsi One (for the United States) in 1998.
Variations
Additional variations of Diet Pepsi/Pepsi Light have been introduced over the years since the drink's debut, wherein other flavors (such as wild cherry, vanilla, lemon, and lime) have been added to the cola. There is also a variant that has no caffeine: Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi was the first Diet Pepsi variant and introduced by PepsiCo in 1982. Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry was launched in 1988. Both are still produced today.
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Ingredients and Nutritional Information
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. Diet Pepsi is a zero-calorie, zero-sugar drink.
Packaging and Logo
When it was first introduced in 1964, Diet Pepsi was packaged in glass bottles and was also made available in can format. The logo 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 rebranding many of its products, including Diet Pepsi. At this time, the brand's blue and red Pepsi Globe logo became a series of "smiles," with the central white band arcing at different angles depending on the product. The Classic Sweetener Blend variety was distinguished by its use of the 2003-2006 wordmark along with the "smile" logo, and a light blue label background in contrast to the modern formulation's silver label. By mid-2017, packages of Classic Sweetener Blend dropped the 2003 wordmark and began using the modernized wordmark instead.
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, the game's respective quarterbacks, Joe Montana (of the San Francisco 49ers) and Dan Marino (of the Miami Dolphins), met in a hallway of what appeared to be a football stadium. In the late 1980s, Michael J. Fox appeared in commercials for Diet Pepsi, including a memorable commercial that featured him making a robot clone of himself. In that commercial, Fox's girlfriend (played by Lori Loughlin) shows up and accidentally hits Fox with the door, causing him to fall down a chute into the basement. During the early 1990s, R&B singer Ray Charles 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 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 on a hot summer day.
Sweetener Controversy
Diet Pepsi has undergone changes in its sweetener composition over the years, leading to consumer reactions. In 2015, PepsiCo replaced aspartame with sucralose in Diet Pepsi in the United States, a decision driven by consumer concerns about aspartame. However, this change was met with negative feedback, and in 2016, PepsiCo announced that it would bring back the aspartame version of Diet Pepsi, branded as "Diet Pepsi Classic Sweetener Blend."
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