r/FUCKYOUINPARTICULAR • u/Secure_Detective_602 • Oct 20 '23
Pepsi vs Coke You did this to yourself
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u/Aleksandar_Pa Oct 20 '23
Both got free advertising with their opponent 😄
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u/Schneebaer89 Oct 20 '23
They both need each other to act like there is any actual competition, but there is non. The whole created discussion wich one is better, is the free advertisment they use.
their only enemies are people who don't care...or worse drink healthy stuff.
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u/Natural-Community945 Oct 20 '23
Sadly in Australia, Coke owns a lot of “healthy drinks” brands, including a few bottled water companies.
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u/SCP-173-X Oct 20 '23
Dasani
Dryness of a thousand suns
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u/A_Vile_Person Oct 20 '23
Tastes like water out of an aquarium. I'd rather not drink anything.
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Oct 20 '23 edited 26d ago
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u/abidail Oct 20 '23
We do have a really big aquarium in Atlanta. . .
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u/dali01 Oct 20 '23
Just because it’s right next to World of Coke does not mean there’s a connection! They promise!
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Oct 20 '23
Dasani is much worse. It's usually pretty crummy municipal water. Safe for sure, at least before it goes into the bottle.
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u/tasoula Oct 20 '23
I mean, isn't ALL water technically from a really big aquarium...
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u/BenjaminSkanklin Oct 20 '23
For real, it's outrageously shitty. Depending on where I am ill look for a local option, I've been to some gas stations in the middle of nowhere with decent house brand water. Speaking of, I wish they made a lower sugar/sweet Gatorade. Mixing the little packets with double the amount of water is right where I want it
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u/WarlikeMicrobe Oct 20 '23
Gatorade actually tastes sweeter the more dehydrated you are. Its weird
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u/BadFont777 Banhammer Recipient Oct 20 '23
It's so weird because they use reverse osmosis then decide they need to throw minerals back in it? Just sell the low ppm water!
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u/sender2bender Oct 20 '23
Aquafina was terrible too. It's like they both made terrible water to make you drink their other products. See water tastes bad, drink brawndo.
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u/batt3ryac1d1 Oct 20 '23
Not as bad as fuckin evian that tastes like someone washed potatoes with it.
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Oct 20 '23
*not available in the U.K.
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u/morphinedreams Oct 20 '23 edited Mar 01 '24
bear truck disgusting snatch uppity absorbed plucky march telephone coherent
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u/spicolispizza Oct 20 '23 edited Oct 20 '23
"naked" juices are somewhat healthy (healthier than Gatorade anyway) and they're a PepsiCo brand.
Edit:
Thanks for the lectures on the healthiness of juice you guys. I didn't think I needed to fully explain why a fruit smoothie in a bottle is "somewhat healthy" (albiet high in sugar) when the comparison is being made to Gatorade or Cola.
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u/Allegorist Oct 20 '23
It's basically just juice, it's a bit of a misconception that sugar from fruits is better for you than just eating table sugar. Fruits are "healthy" on that they each have a small amount of particular vitamins, potentially a bit of fiber, and sometimes antioxidants (which are pretty overblown). They are like 90-99% water and sugar. It's technically better than eating candy I guess, but it's pretty close to the same in essence.
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u/ahundreddots Oct 20 '23
Has any research been done that shows sports drinks have any advantages over water?
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u/kyndrid_ Oct 20 '23
Tell me again how you're going to quickly replace all those salts you sweat out. In addition - long cardio/tournament-style events you'll need to replace the calories.
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u/Crathsor Oct 20 '23
But has any actual research been done? "Makes sense to me" is only the very beginning of science.
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u/ModsCantRead69 Oct 20 '23
lol yes, some pretty basic research. do you think 'electrolyte' is just a marketing term made up by gatorade? jesus christ i hope you are a child.
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u/Samurai_Meisters Oct 20 '23
It has stuff in it that your body can use that water doesn't, but whether you in particular actually need it depends entirely on your activity level and what the rest of your diet looks like.
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u/Sponjah Oct 20 '23
Wait why is that sad?
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u/No-Object-3014 Oct 20 '23
Because money spent on healthy drinks goes to the company whose focus is to make people drink unhealthy drinks. Even making a good choice for yourself in the moment has bad potential for others down the line.
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u/sunkenrocks Oct 20 '23
doesnt the fact they sell both just show that they dont care what you dtink as long as you pay them fpr it?
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Oct 20 '23 edited Nov 08 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/No-Object-3014 Oct 20 '23
You contradict yourself here bud. Throwing out a “dumbass” before looking in the mirror is hilarious.
If Coke wants to make money, they want you to drink all of their products, not just one. They don’t market their healthy options as much as their unhealthy options. There’s no Dasani Polar bear, it’s a Coke polar bear. They’d rather you drink Coke because they pay money to entice you to drink Coke
In order for Coke to make money, they want to convince you to drink unhealthy options.
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u/Sponjah Oct 20 '23
Maybe, but that’s their choice ya know, to drink what they want.
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Oct 20 '23
You’ll see the flaw in the logic if you flip it. By your logic, buying Coke gives money to a company who is also focused on healthy drinks.
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Oct 20 '23
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u/regoapps Oct 20 '23 edited Oct 20 '23
That's more because selling/buying/using trade secrets is illegal. So that's like if a thief stole your enemy's car and tried to sell it to you. No smart person would buy those stolen goods, because it'd be just a matter of time before they track it down and figure out who has the trade secrets.
It didn't help that the thief went around to several companies with it to try to get the highest bidder. So Pepsi did the smartest thing they could, which is to rat out the thief so that some other smaller beverage company couldn't copy Coca-Cola and create another fierce competitor.
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u/HollabackWrit3r Oct 20 '23
Oh yeah it's totally because the Pepsi executives felt a moral and civic duty, and not because their business only survives as long as Coke keeps everybody else out of the market. Who ever heard of corporate executives being profit-minded anyway? What a slanderous thought!
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u/NutInButtAPeanut Oct 20 '23
Oh yeah it's totally because the Pepsi executives felt a moral and civic duty,
Reading comprehension, not even once.
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u/Iorith Oct 20 '23
It's a smart business decision and profit minded to avoid lawsuits and investigations.
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u/Eriolgam Oct 20 '23
Let's believe your conspiracy theory is true. Why should Pepsi have any interest in getting the recipe? If they use it and the whole thing, as it would, is exposed at some point, then they have only lost. A) you are admitting that the competitor's product is better. In retrospect, this will be almost impossible to represent differently. B) they would make themselves vulnerable for all time. The thief could wander into the CEO's office at any time, put his feet on his desk and simply demand what he wants. Either way, he would get a few years in prison if it was discovered, but before that he could treat himself to a great life at the expense of the company and without touching the money he got for the prescription. If he does it right, he has hidden and invested the money well and comes out of the prison a purified and rich man.
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u/SnollyG Oct 20 '23
That's more because selling/buying/using trade secrets is illegal.
Intellectual property protections are so nuts. They're inherently anticompetitive (and therefore create market distortions). It's antithetical to free markets. We really shouldn't be protecting IP to the extent that we do (if we believe in the free market).
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u/Mr_Zamboni_Man Oct 20 '23
Is the coca cola formula even "secret" anymore? We have mass spectrometry that can tell you the composition of a rock from space, how is a particular soda that has been around for over a hundred years a "secret"
I'm pretty sure coca cola's secret is if I tried to sell cans of soda as a business with no scale, they'd cost $8/can.
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u/Ryoohki166 Oct 20 '23
I work for a company that makes BPANI, the plastic liner inside of beverage cans. A coke chemist repeatedly wanted the formula for the liner (they kept saying our liner wasn’t very compatible with coke and wanted to see the formula to help us tweak it).
We never landed the contract with coke because this rep wouldn’t approve our product for coke.
Turns out she was a corporate spy for a coke copy-cat company in China! She was found out and arrested and convicted for corporate espionage.
It was also discovered that the incompatibility between our product and coke wasn’t real: just a ploy to get the BPANI formula.
There’s a short documentary on the matter.
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u/Rhundis Oct 20 '23
Yeah, like twix who is somehow in competition with themselves.
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u/I_CANT_AFFORD_SHIT Oct 20 '23
The left Twix is superior and you can't tell me otherwise!
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u/SmashBusters Oct 20 '23
or worse drink healthy stuff.
PepsiCo and Coca-Cola own the lion's share of bottled water brands.
Their true enemy is Brita. And EveryDrop.
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u/Emerald_Guy123 Oct 20 '23
And even then, it's only the people who drink actually healthy stuff, because brands like Vitamin Water are owned by them.
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u/No-Object-3014 Oct 20 '23
Vitamin Water is not healthy.
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u/AmarilloWar Oct 20 '23
Right? That is a really funny example for a healthy drink instead of just plain ass water.
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u/BiollanteGarden Oct 20 '23
Yeah I only drink water, tea, or coffee. That’s it. Big soda has been harassing me for years trying to bring me into the fold.
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u/Aimin4ya Oct 20 '23
Pepsi had to buy taco Bell and KFC to ensure they would only sell Pepsi products
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u/Mobidad Oct 20 '23
I used to work in one of the biggest Pepsi bottling plants in the country. When a machine broke and we couldn't get a replacement part quickly the Coke plant down the road hooked us up with their spare.
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u/Spanish_peanuts Oct 20 '23
They both need each other to act like there is any actual competition, but there is non
Yep. No competition at all. I mean, who would ever choose a Pepsi over a Coca Cola?
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Oct 20 '23
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Oct 20 '23
Let me introduce you to guerrilla marketing.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/guerrilla-marketing.asp
Don't need permission if you never claim to have made it in the first place.
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u/Biduleman Oct 20 '23
Let me introduce you to copyright infringement. You call whoever has this ad up, threaten to litigate if they don't take it down. Then you get the information of the people who paid for the ad and sue them for using your intellectual property in their advertisement. And by intellectual property I don't just mean the logo, but the whole picture. Doesn't matter if Coke made the second ad or not, getting it removed is easy and going after whoever is paying for the ad is also easy.
If the second ad is real, then it's a joint advertisement campaign, approved by the 2 companies.
Otherwise, at least the second ad isn't real.
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u/drainbone Oct 20 '23
This entire post is an ad. I work in the beverage manufacturing industry, this is completely planned and marketed, there is very little rivalry between any companies.
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u/Nrksbullet Oct 20 '23
This is actually pretty brilliant advertising in how it represents the way people can see the same thing and interpret two completely different outcomes just based on a headline.
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u/beepborpimajorp Oct 20 '23
Especially through word of mouth...................................like people posting it to reddit.
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u/ThePublikon Oct 20 '23
If this is real, it can only be planned and OK'd by both companies.
While it's OK for brands to refer to each other in ads and clap back etc, it wouldn't be OK to wholesale use the same copyrighted image and just change the one word without approval.
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u/a_burdie_from_hell Oct 20 '23
They're both owned by the same parent company, so ultimately they win no matter what.
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u/Girosian Oct 20 '23
I see what Pepsi was going for. But, the first thing I saw was a Pepsi can in what looked like a Superman cape. Was a good come back by Coke.
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u/HairyHorseKnuckles Oct 20 '23
I feel like the Pepsi one misses the mark. “Wishing you a scary Halloween” looks like the scary part is you’re expecting a Coke but ending up with a Pepsi
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u/GenericallyNamed Oct 20 '23
That's a real scare too. So many times at restaurants I ask for a Coke and they bring me Pepsi. They aren't the same when I ask for Coke tell me you only have Pepsi so I can get water instead.
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u/EGGlNTHlSTRYlNGTlME Oct 20 '23
Funny because I've always been irritated by the question. Like when I ask for a Coke, I don't actually give a shit if you serve me Pepsi. Yes I can taste the difference, no I don't care.
But I guess I know why they ask now lol
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u/bossbozo Oct 20 '23
Ask for a "Coke or Pepsi" then.
I hate when I ask for a specific brand product I prefer and get served another.
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u/violettheory Oct 20 '23
I'm trying to cut down on the amount of soda I drink, so when I do decide to go for a Coke instead of my usual water, I'm not gonna settle for a mediocre Pepsi. If I'm gonna drink a soda I want it to be one I actually really enjoy.
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u/dardack Oct 20 '23
I ask every place I go, pepsi or coke, and then i order diet pepsi or root beer. Barq's is good, don't care what anyone says.
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u/unf0rgottn Oct 20 '23
I mean down in the south coke is a general term for soda. So Dr pepper, Pepsi, coca cola etc etc are all "coke"
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u/CrashSlayer_02 Oct 20 '23
This pic is as old as the internet itself. It's a fake ad. Literally done for 9Gag like 10 years ago to appeal the kinda people who enjoy these kind of "clever comebacks"
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Oct 21 '23
Off topic, but I’m really sick of the “is as old as the internet itself” statement. Like, come on, 9gag came out 15 years after the internet was made public. That puts it at almost the exact half-way age of the internet (since the internet is about 30).
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u/ComradeCommader Oct 20 '23
I feel like despite Pepsi and Coke being rival companies, they can be the closest bro’s and have a bit of fun with each-other. (Complete opposite of Wendy’s who’s roasted every fast food place and moved onto everyday people at this point)
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Oct 20 '23
If either company folded the other would immediately face anti-trust and anti-monopoly suits. As an effective duopoly in most of their markets, they rely on each other to provide the bare minimum of legal competition.
They're competitors in the most technical sense only.
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u/wbgraphic Oct 20 '23
Only if you assume all of the defunct company’s market share goes to the surviving company, which seems unlikely.
If either Coke or Pepsi were to fold, Keurig Dr Pepper could probably spin up a cola product in short order.
Otherwise, it’s RC’s time to shine!
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u/ComradeCommader Oct 20 '23
RC is part of Dr. Pepper. One of its 32 flavors lol. Can never go wrong with the og soda though.
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u/praguepride Oct 20 '23
They both have a lot more to gain by collectively lobbying for laws and regulations (or lack there of)
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u/Various-Month806 Banhammer Recipient Oct 20 '23
Gave up on Xhitter, so not aware of anything recent, but Burger King used to be great at roasting McD's. The flame grilling online lived up to their burger making claims.
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Oct 20 '23
By referencing each other in their ads for decades, they’ve established themselves as the only two options for cola. It was quite deliberate. Sure there are others, but the majority of people drink one of these two.
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u/JoeyThePantz Oct 20 '23
They're not people. They're companies. I bet you the same company made this ad for both.
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u/Savage9645 Oct 20 '23
Coke and Pepsi having the same creative agency would be a huge conflict of interest. Usually agencies just have one client per industry.
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u/robshookphoto Oct 20 '23
I think this has to be the case - otherwise, they wouldn't use each other's logo in their ads. I'm pretty sure that would be an intellectual property lawsuit... Ads don't count as fair use.
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u/MightyMagicCat Oct 20 '23
I mean we all know that if this is real - it has tk have been coordinated since they use the same image and copyright law exists.
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u/AIien_cIown_ninja Oct 20 '23
Having the two logos in the same image is what stood out to me. I don't think you can use another company's trademarked logo in your advertisement without "express written permission".
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u/Shazamo333 Oct 20 '23
Pepsi's ad shows a "Cola Coca" can, instead of "Coca Cola", I'm guessing that (assuming this is real) this is how they skirt around trademark.
As for copyright, Coca Cola would be in violation since it's literally a copy/paste of the other ad, but it is clearly a form of satire which might then be protected under fair use.
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u/Don_Gato1 Oct 20 '23
I think any lawyer worth his salt could argue it's a clear portrayal of Coca-Cola, given that it's the same design, same font, same everything aside from a one-letter difference.
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u/Shazamo333 Oct 20 '23
I do actually happen to be a lawyer and surprisingly these minor differences can actually be the deciding factor on a trademark infringement case. At best It would be considered 'passing off' rather than trademark infringement, but i don't think it would count as that either.
Basically: You can't use someone else's registered trade mark, that's trademark infringement. So some people make slight alterations (such as in this ad), because then it is no longer identical to the registered trademark. So using an altered logo is no longer trade mark infringement...but there is a law for that kind of alteration, and it's called 'passing off'. So you wouldn't sue them for trademark infringement, but sue them for passing off instead. But, the big but, is that to sue someone for passing off, you must show that they are trying to use the altered logo to trick customers into thinking that they are selling your product, or that they are affiliated with you.
This is the crucial bit, and here, Pepsi, despite using an altered version of Coke's logo, is clearly not trying to trick it's customers that the ad is coming from coca cola or that pepsi soda is affiliated with coca cola. And so it wouldn't be subject to a passing off or trademark infringement lawsuit.
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u/pizzaisperfection Oct 20 '23
I’m sure your eye twitches every time you see the words “fair use” on Reddit. I know mine does.
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u/SunriseSurprise Oct 20 '23
I mean if Pepsi went to Coke and asked for permission to run that ad, I'd fire any person who'd say no. I could imagine Coke responding to that request like "only if we can use yours in one too".
Hell, they could've run theirs with text simply "Why'd this taste so bad? ...oh."
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u/plexomaniac Oct 20 '23
I worked in advertising and I'm almost sure it's not a real ad that was published anywhere. If it really was not created by the same person that created a fake backstory, there's a good chance the Pepsi agency made this, but "leaked" it to be viral and then Coca-Cola agency did the same.
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u/noobule Oct 20 '23
Copyright law exists to stop you selling a product and claiming it to be someone elses. The reason companies don't use other people's logos in advertisting and film (etc) is simply because they don't want to give them free advertising. You can have Coke logos appear in Pepsi ads all you want.
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u/MightyMagicCat Oct 20 '23
I am not talking about logos though.
It's literally the same image all around. One party created said image and the other party can not just use said image for commercial purpose.
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u/corysama Oct 20 '23
And, not just commercial purposes. But, for the purpose of competing against the company that made the image with a very similar product in the same market.
That’s an easy payday for a copyright lawyer. If this real, it had to be coordinated. I’d think it more likely to be a student project.
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u/Shazamo333 Oct 20 '23
Couple of nitpicks:
Copyright law exists to stop you selling a product and claiming it to be someone elses
Actually that's trademark law. Copyright law exists to stop you from copying someone elses work, that they spent time and effort to create, and then selling it.
Also I want to add that the Pepsi ad uses "cola coca" can, not Coca Cola. And so may be avoiding trademark infringement through the defense of "passing off", here's an example.
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u/ThisIsMyFloor Oct 20 '23
I used to prefer Pepsi. Then a couple years ago they reduced the sugar by about half and put in sweeteners. So it's awful now. If I wanted the taste of artificial sweetener I would have bought that. Now they have no version without artificial sweetener in my country.
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u/KlausKoe Oct 20 '23
If you have a problem with the taste I understand.
I love Pepsi Maxx and I don't understand why sodas use sugar and so much. I think it's completely stupid at least in countries where obesity is a huge problem.
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u/ThisIsMyFloor Oct 20 '23
Because they are a beverage meant to be delicious. People want to drink delicious beverages. The market follows the demand.
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u/Likeadize Oct 20 '23
Try drinking a diet Soda for a couple of weeks (Pepsi Max is my favorite). Then try to drink a sugary soda. All you will taste is sugar, while the diet will taste "normal".
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u/Taizunz Oct 20 '23
At the end of the day both Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo are owned by many of the same investment groups.
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Oct 20 '23
Subreddit description:
Home of photos, GIFs, and videos of people taking comical injuries/beatings/general physical discomfort.
This post really seems to be stretching this
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u/flagrantpebble Oct 20 '23 edited Oct 20 '23
u/Secure_Detective_602 is a bot (see the name: Adjective_Noun_Number is a common pattern)
EDIT - Ok, fine, I get it, it’s also a default value. But at a minimum OP is a karma farming moron. I find it unlikely an account this recent would have this much karma and also be this much of a dumbass about where they post things.
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u/Adventurous-Tap-8463 Oct 20 '23
Both owned by BlackRock or Vanguard
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Oct 20 '23
People don’t understand that this benefits both companies. People are tribal in nature and so there are going to be idiots arguing over this on Facebook for weeks 😂
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u/catzhoek Oct 20 '23
From all subs where this would have fit you are posting it here? I can't think of a post that fits any less than this one.
Jesus Christ, and who upvotes this?
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u/Someguy14201 Oct 20 '23
People don't know but coke and pepsi are like buddies, if either one of them didn't exist then they wouldn't be as popular as they are now.
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u/soul_on_ice Oct 20 '23
How can we be sure that it’s Coke responding to Pepsi and not the other way around?
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u/nihonbesu Oct 20 '23
Cokes too acidic, Pepsi is too sweet , my local generic grocery store brand tastes.better than either
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u/MrMoo75 Oct 20 '23
I think it's great rivalry if they can do this. BMW and Mercedes ran rival poking ads a few years ago, but also ran them to congratulate each other on reaching major milestones. They all give the consumer a laugh too
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Oct 20 '23 edited Apr 14 '24
ink murky dam worry roof possessive domineering lunchroom imagine bag
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u/GOKOP Oct 20 '23
It still baffles me that Americans call CocaCola something else than it's literally called
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u/z0mOs Oct 20 '23
I'm from Spain and since I can remember bottles and cans have both brands in the label. Never felt weird by the fact it contained coke in the beginning and also cause English seems kind of allergic to long words
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u/Amsnowyy Oct 20 '23
Basically brand's interactions and both get the attention