Pepsi Max

This article is about the beverage available outside North America. For the North American beverage, see Diet Pepsi Max. For the roller coaster, see Pepsi Max Big One.

Pepsi Max

Type	Cola
Manufacturer	PepsiCo, Inc.
Country of origin	international
Introduced	April 5, 1993; (30 years ago)
Related products	Pepsi ONE, Diet Pepsi
Website	pepsi.co.uk

Pepsi Max (also known as Pepsi Zero Sugar and Pepsi Black in some countries) is a low-calorie, sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo as an alternative to Pepsi and Diet Pepsi, except for Norway, where it is the main Pepsi flavor. Pepsi Max is available primarily in Asian, European and Australia/New Zealand markets. While Pepsi Max was released in April 1993.

A drink with the same name but different formulation (containing ginseng and higher quantities of caffeine) was sold in the United States until it was renamed "Pepsi Zero Sugar" in late 2016.

History

Pepsi Max debuted in the United Kingdom and Italy in April 1993. The rollout was expanded to Ireland the following September, and to France, the Netherlands and Australia the following December. By the end of 1994, Pepsi Max was sold in approximately twenty countries. By the end of 1995, that figure had more than doubled.

The product remained unavailable in the United States until only recently (the U.S. is PepsiCo's native market, and the largest consumer of carbonated soft drinks), where one of its principal ingredients had not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The ingredient in question—acesulfame potassium—is combined with aspartame to provide the beverage's sweetness, whereas some other diet colas are sweetened by aspartame alone.

On 28 May 1994, England's Blackpool Pleasure Beach amusement park opened the Pepsi Max Big One steel roller coaster. At the time, the Pepsi-sponsored attraction was the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster. (Both records subsequently were broken elsewhere.)

In early 2005, Pepsi Max Twist (with added lemon-lime flavour) joined the UK and Australian product line.

In autumn 2005, Pepsi Max Punch was marketed in the UK for the festive season. Containing ginger and cinnamon, the product was similar in flavour to Pepsi Holiday Spice, a sugar-sweetened variety of Pepsi that was marketed in the U.S. one year earlier.

In late 2005 and early 2006, a coffee-flavoured variety was introduced in France, Finland, Ireland, Norway and the UK. Known as Pepsi Max Cappuccino (Pepsi Max Coffee Cino in the UK), the product is predated by the similar Pepsi Kona (briefly test-marketed in the U.S. in 1996) and Pepsi Tarik (available in Malaysia since 2005).

Pepsi max was introduced into South Korea, Bulgaria and the Philippines during 2006, as well as being reintroduced into Argentina in the spring of 2006 after being phased out after its launch in 1994.

As well as this, Pepsi Max was introduced into Brazil, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the UAE during early 2007.

A separate formulation of "Pepsi Max" was introduced in the United States on June 1, 2007 as "Diet Pepsi Max". Unlike the international beverage, its ingredient label mentions ginseng, and the drink contains nearly twice the caffeine (46 mg vs. 24 mg per 8 fl oz) compared to Diet Pepsi.

In October 2008, Pepsi announced they would be redesigning their logo and re-branding many of their products. Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max uses all lower-case fonts for name brands, Mountain Dew was renamed "Mtn Dew," and Diet Pepsi Max was re-branded as Pepsi Max. The brand's blue and red globe trademark 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 Pepsi Max, besides the renaming of the drink to its international name, the logo has a large "smile" likely to emphasize the North American drink's "Wake up people!" advertising campaign, and also uses black in the bottom half of the globe as opposed to the more standard royal blue. The new lower-case font used on Pepsi's products are reminiscent of the font used in Diet Pepsi's logo from the 1960s to the mid-1980s.

It is expected that the version of Pepsi Max outside North America will adopt the new logo used by its U.S. / Canada counterpart; however this has not yet occurred as of late May 2009.

Product positioning

Recent UK/Australia Pepsi Max television advertisements have featured the taglines "Maximum taste, no sugar" and "Don't worry, there's no sugar." Some have incorporated extreme sports and video games such as Motocross Mania in an attempt to appeal to young men (in contrast to other diet cola drinks, which tend to target young women). The British advertising campaign involved retouched versions of the American "Do the Dew" commercials for Mountain Dew (a drink not available in the UK), rebranded as "Live life to the Max". In December of 2008, advertisements for Pepsi Max that depicted a cartoon calorie committing suicide were run in a German lifestyle magazine, which resulted in a scandal and the revoking of the ads.

Coca-Cola Zero, a sugar-free cola from the Coca-Cola Company, is marketed in a similar manner. In the UK some Coke Zero advertising alluded to Pepsi Max, leading to a robust counter-campaign by Pepsi directly extolling the virtues of the concept of "maximum" over that of "zero."

Citron Citron Vert: Lemon Lime flavored sold in France.

Twist: Lemon Lime flavored sold in the United Kingdom.

Punch: Sold in the UK during Christmas 2005. Similar to Pepsi Holiday Spice.

Cino : Coffee flavored briefly sold in Europe.

Cool Lemon: Lemon flavored sold in Europe.

Chill: Apple flavored sold in Sweden and Finland (limited edition, summer 2007).

Mojo: Mint and lime flavored sold in Finland (limited edition, 2008). Also sold in Denmark to this day August 2009.

Pepsi ONE

Main article: Pepsi ONE

On 30 June 1998, acesulfame potassium finally received FDA approval. PepsiCo responded within an hour, announcing the introduction of Pepsi ONE (which reached store shelves the following October). This new variety contained the same sweeteners as Pepsi Max, but not an identical formula or flavour. Pepsi ONE was among the twelve brand names that were considered and rejected when creating Pepsi Max.

In early 2005, Pepsi ONE was revised, with Splenda brand sucralose replacing the aspartame ingredient.

Canadian formulation

Beginning in early 1994, an entirely different Pepsi Max was marketed in Canada. Now regarded as a precursor to Pepsi Edge, it was sweetened with a combination of aspartame and high fructose corn syrup. As a result, it contained 2/3 fewer calories than full-sugar colas (including regular Pepsi), but more calories than conventional diet/light colas (or the version of Pepsi Max sold elsewhere). The Canadian product was discontinued in 2002; the Diet Pepsi Max product introduced in 2008 has no direct relationship to the earlier formulation.

In popular culture

In the Nintendo 64 game Conker's Bad Fur Day and its Xbox remake, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Conker meets a scarecrow named Birdy, who asks for "Mepsipax" in return for a manual. Mepsipax is a play on words of Pepsi Max, switching the first two letters of each word.

In the fictional Borat TV series, a Pepsi Max factory is relatively responsible for the decrease in Kazakhstan's Aral Sea.

See also

• List of Pepsi types

References

• Kotabe, M. and Helsen, K. Global Marketing Management, John Wiley & Sons, 2004. ISBN 0-471-23062-6

External links

• Pepsi Max (Argentina)
• Pepsi Max (Australia)
• Pepsi Max (Brazil)
• Pepsi Max (United Kingdom)
• PepsiCo
• Pepsi Max page on PepsiCo UK & Ireland
• Pepsi USA Pepsi Max, brand promotional site "wakeuppeople.com".