Pepsi-Cola Company: Pepsi Challenge campaign

Rebecca Stanfel

Between 1975 and 1983 the Pepsi-Cola Company ran a comparative advertising campaign claiming that its flagship cola, Pepsi, tasted better than that of its nemesis from the Coca-Cola Company.

Pepsi-Cola Company: Pepsi Challenge campaign

Rebecca Stanfel

Overview

Between 1975 and 1983 the Pepsi-Cola Company ran a comparative advertising campaign claiming that its flagship cola, Pepsi, tasted better than that of its nemesis from the Coca-Cola Company. This "Pepsi Challenge" campaign was quite different from Pepsi's usual advertising. Although for most of its history Pepsi trailed Coke in sales, Pepsi had slowly narrowed the gap in market share between the two. Since 1963 Pepsi had used lifestyle advertising successfully to differentiate itself from its rival. Instead of touting the particular attributes of its product, the company presented scenes of Pepsi...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands