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INTRODUCTION
During the 1980's, Madison Avenue advertisers created one
of our societies most bizarre phenomena yet, the pinnacle of a century
of pop culture and advertising prowess: The Cola Wars. In our
over-technological, media-driven, consumer-happy, product driven
culture, selling soda has become perhaps the biggest of American
pastimes. Coca-Cola and Pepsi squared off for years and
years of
advertising coups trying to sell more soda to the already gas-filled,
tooth rotted American public. A seemingly easy goal, but these
companies have tried everything from pop-stars to bold challenges to
the Americans persons.
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Pepsi.Com
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HISTORY
In the
early 90s, this trend continued. Among many new advertising campaigns,
many soda companies
tried introducing flashy
new products that would catch as much media attention as possible. Crystal
Pepsi was born in test markets on April 13th, 1992. (The guinea pig
cities were my home of Providence,
and also Denver & Dallas.) The
cola was created by Pepsi Cola as a 'Clear Alternative,' a variant cola
was formulated to lack any coloring, clear as water. Most clear sodas
were lemon or lime flavored, but this would supposedly retain the
cola's flavor. An American phenomenon was born.
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| Crystal Pepsi sailed
through the approval process. Focus
groups loved the stuff, and test marketing was stupendous. Crystal
Pepsi went national in 1993 with a full scale media campaign featuring
Van Halen's "Right Now". In the ad blitz that
followed, sales were
impressive... |
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And then it flopped.... |
| Perhaps the American
culture wasn't too easily fooled when
it came to taking a familiar product and putting a new spin on it.
Maybe the flavor difference was just too distracting. Maybe the g*ds
are fickle and Crystal Pepsi wronged them in some way. Crystal Pepsi,
much like New Coke or the Titanic, remains as a reminder
of
man's hubris, our stubborn pride in creating something that just
doesn't work and letting ourselves enough rope to hang ourselves. Or is
it too complicated to read such big themes into such a mundane
phenomenon? |
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The massive ad campaign
was impressive. The soda's splash
on the market was highlighted by being the focus of a Saturday Night
Live parody for 'Crystal Gravy'
featuring Kevin Nealon & Julia
Sweeney dipping turkey drumsticks into a clear, gel-like
replacement
for everyday gravy.
A band called Gravy has titled an album Crystal Gravy
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| The advertising campaign
has led to many lasting reminders
of the now defunct cola. |
 
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The SuperGraphics company invented the
world's first
photo-realistic, computer generated bus wrap printing as their part of
the campaign. Renting out the sides of buses, cars and trains with full
bleed artwork wrapping is now a standard marketing ploy, based on this
first experiment.
SuperGraphics:
Their site
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| The fledgling PepsiStuff
program featured for a short
time, a Crystal Pepsi pool float. |
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The last phase of
Crystal Pepsi's life was when it was
resolicited to the masses as a citrus flavor drink. It was quickly
drowned in a sea of other flavored, non-cola beverages. |
| Today, a web search for
the term 'Crystal Pepsi' reveals
that it has been mentioned about 160,000 times in various websites,
usually in passing as in 'It will fail quicker than Crystal Pepsi' or
'Remember Crystal Pepsi? Me neither..' It is a true urban legend among
the last wave of Gen-X-ers and the subsequent children of the 80s. |
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No mention of the product
can be found on the Pepsi website today. |
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INGREDIENTS
Contained:
Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup
and/or Sugar, Phosphoric Acid, Citric Acid, Natural Flavorings, and
Modified Food Starch.
Caffeine-Free....100%
Natural Flavors....Low Sodium....No Preservatives |
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NEWS
Frightening but
true! Crystal Pepsi still exists! People
are selling unopened bottles of the stuff on eBay:
search 'Crystal+Pepsi'
- The captainmike.org webmaster
has purchased one of these, although no one is brave enough to open it
an confirm the contents are really decades-old soda
There was a free promo Crystal Pepsi
compilation album entitled Slipped Disc.
Compilation CD (1993)
Origin: Canada
Label: Crystal Pepsi
1)
Life Is A
Highway - Tom Cochrane
2) Children -
EMF
3) Cat's In
The Cradle - Ugly Kid Joe
4) Pictures
of Matchstick Men - Camper Van Beethoven
5) Tones of
Home - Blind Melon
6) Fire - Red
Hot Chili Peppers
7) Just The
Way It Is, Baby - The Rembrandts
8) Head On -
The Pixies
9) I Don't
Want Your Love - Duran Duran
10) Sleeping
Satellite - Tasmin Archer
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LINKS
Pepsi Homepage
The
Crystal Pepsi Shrine
Pepsi
Feeds Off Public Ignorance To Promote Stupid Beverage (X-Entertainment
review)
German Crystal Pepsi fan-page
Some other foreign Crystal Pepsi page
Parody
Crystal Pepsi News Article
Save Crystal Pepsi
Crystal Pepsi Market analysis
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MISCELLANEOUS
Here is a excerpt
with a Guitar
World interview with Van
Halen concerning the CP ad campaign:
Guitar World: Were you criticized for
"selling out" when you let Pepsi use "Right Now" for their ill-fated
Crystal Pepsi advertising campaign?
VAN HALEN: Probably, but the only reason we
gave them the music was because they were going to use the song anyway.
They would just have recut the song with studio musicians, like they do
for some TV movies when they redo an old hit because they can't use the
original. If they use the original, they've got to pay, but if they
don't, all they do is give credit to the artist and then pay the studio
cats. Pepsi told us that they were going to do that, so we said, "Hey
wait a minute, we might as well get the money." I ain't that proud, you
know. I'm not going to say--"No, go ahead, rip us off. And keep the
money too!"
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MISCELLANEOUS
Here is the text of the
Crystal Pepsi can:
"You've
Never Seen a Taste Like This™
Right
now, there's a new taste loose on the planet...A completely
different kind of soft drink with a unique cola flavor. Absolutely
clear, wonderfully refreshing, it's everything you want...and nothing
you'd expect. What you get is purely the best - all natural flavors, no
preservatives, no caffeine and no artificial colors."
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Right
now... You've never seen
a taste like this."™®© |
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LEGAL
Pepsi, Crystal Pepsi and
the Pepsi cola advertisements,
graphics and logos are owned by the Pepsi-Cola
corporation. No profit or infringement is intended.
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CRYSTAL
CLEAR COLA FOR THE 90s
™®©
