Pepsi Challenge

You don't need to be Editor-In-Chief to add or edit content to WikiDoc. You can begin to add to or edit text on this WikiDoc page by clicking on the edit button at the top of this page. Next enter or edit the information that you would like to appear here. Once you are done editing, scroll down and click the Save page button at the bottom of the page.

The Pepsi Challenge has been an ongoing marketing promotion run by PepsiCo since 1975. It is also the name of a cross country ski race at Giant's Ridge Ski Area in Biwabik, Minnesota, an event sponsored by Pepsi.^[1]

Method

The challenge is designed to be a direct response to critics who allege that Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are identical drinks, with no meaningful differences.^{[citation needed]} The challenge takes the form of a taste test. At malls, shopping centers and other public locations, a Pepsi representative sets up a table with two blank cups: one containing Pepsi and one with Coke. Shoppers are encouraged to taste both colas, and then select which drink they prefer. Then the representative reveals the two bottles so the taster can see whether they preferred Coke or Pepsi. The results of the test leaned toward a consensus that Pepsi was preferred by more Americans.^[2]

In the early 1980s, Pepsi ran a contest which would hand out a large prize to anyone who could gather Pepsi bottle caps that spelled out "challenge". Each cap had a single letter beneath it. The letter "A" was the rarest, making it appropriately difficult to win the prize.

In 2001, ex-MTV VJ Ananda Lewis hosted that year's challenge.

Other companies have also introduced promotions similar to the Pepsi Challenge, such as the Hyundai Challenge and the Altoids Challenge.^{[citation needed]}

Criticisms

In his book, Blink, author Malcolm Gladwell ascribes the success of Pepsi over Coca-Cola in these tests to being a result of the nature of "sip tests", which would fail to account for the cloying effect of excessive sweetness and glutamate and the complimentary but counter-intuitive long-term preference for an item that would consistently lose in a blind sip-test comparison.

See also

• Pepsi Stuff
• New Coke

References