Anyone who’s watched a football game recently has likely seen ads for “Pepsi Throwback”, and their placement and number indicate that real money’s being spent on the campaign.
They feature scenes of old football games cut and split-screened with modern ones, and emphasize that “Pepsi Throwback” is available for a limited time and is “Made with Real Sugar”.
I know that soft drinks in the US have been pretty much exclusively made with various other sweeteners than “real sugar” for a long time. And I’m far from an expert on drink marketing, but does it strike anyone else (as it did me) that it might not be such a good idea to spend millions to remind everyone their drinks do not normally contain real sugar?
How many people thought to themselves after seeing on of those ads, “Wait, what’s it usually made of?”
Ah, I’ll take my Pepsi made of incinerated Chinese newspapers and endanged panda tears over this any day.
It’s made from what everything else in the United States is made from: corn!
I studied abroad in an East Asian country a couple of years ago, where they lack FDA-style regulations and the corn lobby. You can definitely tell the difference between real sugar and substitutes in soft drinks. When I returned to the states, all U.S. soft drinks tasted rather bland.
ChrisH, its common knowledge among many people, but certainly not all, and even reminding those who know didn’t seem like a good idea to me.
some dork, my understanding is that it is not the “corn lobby” but the “sugar lobby” that limits sugar imports, and keeps sugar prices high and prices it out of the soft drink use.
@ Bill Gorman, some dork is right, it is the corn lobby and not the sugar lobby that makes corn syrup cheap so cheap that it’s used in just about every food product you can think of. Check out “King Corn,” the DVD, when you have a chance (it’s very similar to Super Size Me). It’s actually a pretty interesting movie, even if the whole plot is just about corn. Here’s the synopsis via amazon.com:
“Picking up where Super Size Me left off, King Corn examines America’s health woes through the multifaceted lens of one humble grain. Director Aaron Woolf and co-writers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis offer irrefutable proof that the US is virtually drowning in the stuff. Corn meal, corn starch, hydrologized corn protein, and high fructose corn syrup fuel a multitude of products, from soft drinks to hamburgers. The starchy vegetable grows with ease and government subsidies insure over-abundant production. Woolf documents the 11-month effort of college friends Cheney and Ellis, who trace their ancestry to the same small Iowa town, to raise their own crop. After finding a farmer willing to lend them an acre, they meet with agronomists, historians, and other experts before plowing, seeding, and spraying. Prior to harvesting, the easygoing Yale grads travel to Colorado to compare the grass-fed cattle of yore with today’s corn-fed counterparts; then to New York to explore the links between corn syrup, obesity, and diabetes. With assistance from author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), a whimsical score, and stop-motion animation–farm toys and corn kernels–Woolf and associates bring biochemistry to vivid life. On a micro level, this genial eye-opener celebrates friends and farmers; on a macro level, King Corn bemoans the subsidies and genetic modifications that have turned a formerly protein-filled product into the fatty “yellow dent no. 2.” Bonus features include a music video, photo gallery, and “The Lost Basement Lectures,” an amusingly fake instructional movie about the aims of agriculture. –Kathleen C. Fennessy”
Yikes! So much for my purported understanding of agricultural commodity politics!
lol
I’m sipping on a Pepsi Throwback right now. It’s lighter, less syrupy.
I’d pay a premium price for it. Wish they’d leave it on the shelves permanently.
But you have a point about the marketing – it would be like NBC’s new fall campaign being “Now with compelling characters and well-written scripts!”
It’s funny you posted this as everytime I see this commercial I have the same reaction.
FYI… Kosher Pepsi and Coke (available pretty much everywhere around Passover time), also uses REAL sugar. It’s basically Throwback Pepsi. That’s the time to stock up on it.
I’m holding out for Coke Throwback. . . the original recipe. You know, the one with actual cocaine in it.
@ hessian: ‘But you have a point about the marketing – it would be like NBC’s new fall campaign being “Now with compelling characters and well-written scripts!”’
And 100% Less Conan! Hee. But seriously, Dominoes Pizza is doing essentially that in their new marketing campaign. I wonder what other companies might try this novelty called truth in advertising.
I’ve traveled all over the world the last 20 years and have noticed a couple of things about sodas. First, Coke is Coke pretty much everywhere – it tastes the same out of a can in Alabama as in South Africa. Fountain Coke has variability but then again, it’s variable in the US (that’s why McDonald’s Coke tastes a bit different and better than elsewhere).
Now, Pepsi, it can be very different depending on where you go. In some countries it’s sweeter, in others a bit more tart. I’ve been to some places where it’s just a bit different tasting than the US, others where I would have guessed it was generic cola or an old Tab or something.
In the US, I generally only drink Pepsi if it’s cans and bottles but tend to prefer fountain Coke in restaurants. Outside the US, I tend to stick with Coke since I know what it will taste like, even though in US the only time I’ll drink a can or bottle of Coke is if Pepsi or good old RC Cola isn’t available.
So there’s my .02 on sodas, written on a site talking about TV. I feel ashamed for having nothing better to do this afternoon than actually writing this up.
Food Inc also covers what has been done to corn, chicken, soybeans, beef and other various things we consider food.
Remember that the whole New Coke – bring back old Coke was nothing more than a way for the bottler to get rid of sugar and give us corn syrup back in 1985 without people protesting about the formula being changed. You’ve had 25 years of corn syrup in your drinks versus that sugar stuff.
Cal, the big difference between Dominoes marketing and Throwback Pepsi, is that Dominoes isn’t making their change temporary.
It’s one thing to say “Our old way was crap, we’ve changed” another to say “Our new, temporary way is great! But our old, not as great way, will be back soon!”
I don’t even think it’s that people don’t KNOW that their soda’s made with chemicals instead of sugar. It’s that people don’t THINK about it until you remind them of it.
Pepsi Throwback has been out for a while. It used to come in dark blue packaging instead of the new “old” design.
I agree with the point you are trying to make that this is terrible marketing. Keep in mind that most people who consume these products aren’t that concerned with their health in the first place so it probably will not make much difference.
It’s not just Pepsi. It’s Dr. Pepper. It’s OceanSpray and Snapple. The only difference is, the changes from High Fructose Corn Syrup to sugar is permanent in OceanSpray and Snapple. But, I have a feeling that the corn industry must be scared right now that people are no longer buying their bullcrap about HFCS.
I doubt that Dominoes is really going to stick with their upgrade. They’ll be back to cardboard and red ketschup. Remember when Chuck E Cheese upgraded their pizzas? That didn’t last long.
Sugared Dr. Pepper is available year round in West Texas.
Wasn’t Chuck upgraded this year… What was wrong with old Chuck?
Corn syrup is cheaper than sugar because sugar is artificially expensive in the US. Corn and sugar growers are both behind the protectionist tariffs that keep cheap sugar imports out. It is however incorrect to claim that corn syrup is cheaper–the competition is more expensive.
Bill: You obviously got the same giant fortune cookie that I did:
You are about to be crushed by a giant ADM corn…”
When I saw the current Pepsi Throwback packaging in a store back in December and decided to pick some up, I thought the exact same thing. Can’t believe they’re marketing it this way. Tastes great though!
Lurker – huh? Please explain that last bit – I was just crushed by a giant corn
I got a 12 pack of Pepsi Throwback last year when they first marketed it and have to say I really like it. The taste reminded me of my childhood. I’m 41 btw. I wish all soda’s were made with sugar. Corn syrup just doesn’t have the flavor and takes away the “bite” that I crave from a soda. Now if we could have Coke with real sugar all the time I could die a happy man..lol
What neither the corn lobby or the sugar lobby is telling you is that TOO MUCH of EITHER one is bad.
This is politics. Anytime you see a DVD, documentary, read an article that is terribly damning of anything – you can almost be sure that (1) certain facts have been omitted (2) the competitor of the industry being thrown under the bus stands to gain and is behind it all.
So what if Pepsi Throwback is made with natural sugar?!?! It’s still not good for you. It’s not suddenly a health food.
So what
Kevin Trudeau and Alex Jones say that HFCS is much worse for you than sugar.
Alex Jones on HFCS towards the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=s26FwCgA42A&feature=youtube_gdata
Fixed the link: http://tinyurl.com/y9l75pt
Theoacme: If the tariffs were not in place sugar would be cheaper than corn syrup. That has nothing to do with subsidies.
I’m an employee at a corn processing plant, and let’s just say I don’t feel like I’m making cigarettes.
As everyone else has said (or should), ANYTHING in excess is unhealthy. So the comments about both sugar and HFCS are correct. The fact that the HFCS market is slowly declining every year is no surprise to the industry, and has led to multiple plant closures after most companies expanded in the mid-90′s in advance of NAFTA and hoping to see the Mexican market open up. The industry’s message is well-captured at a website you may remember seeing in some TV ads: http://www.sweetsurprise.org
Bottom line, the two (sugar and HFCS) are essentially equivalent in nutrition/health, but for numerous reasons (and I’m on the engineering/production side, NOT sales
), corn syrup is cheaper than sugar.
Typo, http://www.sweetsurprise.com
Nathania: A while ago the science suggested that HFCS was metabolically different from cane sugar. A general anti-HFCS hysteria developed that lingers. More specific research that is better designed than the initial reports have convincingly shows there is no actual difference between the two (besides flavor, I mean).
Throwback Mt Dew is better than the Pepsi. It “works” better.
I had a 20 oz bottle of Pepsi Throwback last week, to try it, and I thought it tasted like diet or flat. I did not like it at all. Pepsi in a can usually tastes better than in a bottle though unlike Coca Cola which to me tastes better in a 20 oz bottle than in a can.
Kosher for Passover Pepsi is NOT the same as Pepsi Throwback, Kosher for Passover Pepsi has Citric Acid in it, Pepsi Throwback doesn’t.
Perhaps with this commericial they are promoting Pepsi Throwback in order to gain even more popularity so the sales will increase the more and then it will persuade Pepsi to make it a permanent product. Pepsi Throwback is already very popular a local market supply did not even last the weekend.
This is really fascinating! I loved the soda-fountain cokes as a child (in the 1950´s) and then the big glass bottles of Coke. Also the small bottles of Coke found in Hong Kong in the 1970´s. Then after the “New Coke” experiment, I preferred Pepsi. Now I drink Diet Pepsi since neither of the others tastes the same! Give me back my old Coke. They didn´t really bring it back, that´s for sure!! (Pepsi with a slice of real lime is OK too!) And no way would I buy a Domino´s Pizza after this recent ad-campaign! Give me “Pizza Hut”!!!!
I bought 10 12 packs of throwback pepsi. I love it and the gentler, less syrupy liquidity it offers me.
some dork says:
“You can definitely tell the difference between real sugar and substitutes in soft drinks.”
If you were a real dork, you’d distinguish between beet and cane sugar, too.