Editors Note: We're blogging through We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel.
Coke and Pepsi are both trying to become the best-selling soda company and have been for over a century. Pepsi had the great idea to use the general public in their commercials and show that Pepsi was preferred over Coke. This worked well, since the people in the commercials and the people watching at home were both included in the ‘general public.
Coke didn’t like the commercial and went into it deeper. They found out that one of the glasses that Pepsi used was labeled ‘M’, and the other glass was labeled ‘Q’. They put Pepsi in ‘M’ and Coke in ‘Q’ and then asked their taste-tester to choose which glass of soda they liked better. The taste-tester always chose ‘M’, which held Pepsi. Coke decided to try the same experiment except they had both glasses filled with Coca-Cola. The taste-testers still consistently chose ‘M’. It was figured out that most people like the letter ‘M’ over the letter ‘Q’.
In double blind taste tests, people could not tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke.
Pepsi did not agree with Coca-Cola and continued their ‘Pepsi Challenge’ and were soon saying that Pepsi was preferred nation-wide.
Pepsi used Michael Jackson in one of their commercials, and Coca-Cola countered with Bill Cosby in one of their own ads.
Although in double blind taste tests, people could not tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke, most people can tell you which one they prefer.
Both Pepsi and Coke have been dropping in sales, due to people worrying about their health and taking soda out of their diet.
The war between Pepsi and Coke - sometimes called The Soda Wars - will never end. Some people like Pepsi better, and some people like Coke better, and to me, neither is wrong or right.