Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/03/dr-pepper-overtakes-pepsi-as-americas-second-most-popular-soft-drink.html
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Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure, fair trade coffee?
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I don’t notice a big difference in taste between coke, pepsi, rc,etc. That’s the reason they have to advertise so heavily.
Whenever I am in a new (to me) supermarket, I look for the knock-off store-brand Dr. Pepper, and send a pic to my daughter, who enjoys seeing them. Dr. Bob, Dr. Pete
, etc.
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Irn Bru’s time will come.
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Dr. Pepper isn’t tied to a distributor like Pepsi or Coke, so it an be sold where Pepsi paid to have all the soda in a restaurant, or Coke. So if you are one of those people who find Pepsi to be too bland, usually you can switch to a Dr. Pepper instead of drinking a Pepsi.
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Mr. Pibb also has his doctorate; he just doesn’t make a point of bringing it up in every goddamn conversation like some people.
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“Oh please! Mister Pibb is my father! You can call me–”
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Is it just me, or does that graph look sus? I mean the four top competitors to Coke all converge on 8% market share in nearly straight lines? Humans almost never act like that naturally. I’m also curious to see only a small blip starting at the pandemic. We know restaurants saw a huge dip in clients, did everyone decide to simultaneously increase their home consumption of Dr. Pepper?
I mean it could be that Dr. Pepper’s marketing strategy was picture perfect in creating growth. But did Pepsi decide to cut marketing at the same time and at a nearly constant rate?
I think there’s more info that’s not visible here. (Also, it’s paywalled behind the WSJ, and I’m not giving them a tainted nickel.)
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And don’t forget the time they wouldn’t live up to their offer of a Harrier jump jet for 7 million pepsi points.
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I was wondering if Coke Zero is lumped in with Coke or Diet Coke. I looked for outside data for a few minutes before I gave up.
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Are you suggesting *collusion” in the carbonated sugar (and sugar-flavored) water markets?
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I can explain: this is the swicy trend in action. Pepsi is more sweet and less spicy than Coke and certainly than Dr Pepper.
I think fountain vs bottle vs can have to be rated individually, though.
Also the Pepsi at Taco Bell works well cause I get my spicy from the fire sauce packets I dump on my food.
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And how much of generic “cola” gets lumped into the “Coke” bucket? Did they search for “Coca Cola” and pick up those generics as well? I can’t read the article without paying WSJ and I’m not going to do that.
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Heavens no, our esteemed and benevolent corporate overlords would never conspire to manipulate the markets!
/s
Not necessarily, although we can’t rule that out either. I just think the graph looks too coincidental for such a stochastic process.
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Given that most of these soft drinks started as patent medicines, perhaps he’s a British Surgeon?
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I’m just here to say that there is no punctuation in Dr Pepper (at least since the 1950s).
You have all failed the pedantic boingboing test of the day.
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Ah yes Leonard v. Pepsico:
In 1996, PepsiCo began a promotional loyalty program in which customers could earn Pepsi Points which could be traded for physical items. A television commercial for the loyalty program displayed the commercial’s protagonist flying to school in a McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II vertical take off jet aircraft, valued at $37.4 million at the time, which could be redeemed for 7,000,000 Pepsi Points. The plaintiff, John Leonard, discovered these could be directly purchased from Pepsi at 10¢ per point. Leonard delivered a check for $700,008.50 to PepsiCo, attempting to purchase the jet. PepsiCo initially refuted Leonard’s offer, citing the humorous nature of the offer in the advertisement. Leonard then sued PepsiCo, Inc. in an effort to enforce the offer and acceptance perceived by Leonard to be made in the advertisement. In her judgment, Wood sided with PepsiCo, noting the frivolous and improbable nature of landing a fighter jet in a school zone that was portrayed by the protagonist. PepsiCo would re-release the advertisement, valuing the jet at 700,000,000 Pepsi Points.
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Fun(?) fact: Michael Avenatti was John Leonard’s Lawyer in that case, and in Stormy Daniels 2016 NDA lawsuit against TFG.
It’s a Stormy Season all around.
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I used to think that Sgt. Pepper went to medical school on the GI bill and eventually became Dr Pepper.
It turns out, however, that Dr. Pepper was a real person (Charles Taylor Pepper, 1830–1903) who may or may not have served as the inspiration for the name. Dr. Pepper did employ Wade Morrison, the co-inventor of the beverage, for a time, so there’s a connection there – but the details are in dispute.
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