HOW THE “TASTE THAT BEATS THE OTHERS COLD” MADE PEPSI # 2 COLA

In 1964, seeking to directly challenge the eminent status of rival Coca-Cola, the ambitious Pepsi-Cola Company deployed their iconic "Taste That Beats The Others Cold" campaign across television, radio and print media.

Aiming to situate their sweet cola as a refreshing, competitive alternative to Coke's dominance of the growing soda market.

This comparably brash promotional effort effectively elevated Pepsi into the #2 spot within the soda industry while ingraining their slogan deeply within the popular culture of the 1960s.

Though initially retired by the mid-1970s, echoes of this successful campaign strategy that catapulted Pepsi into contention as Coca-Cola's foremost competitor can still be observed occasionally even today.

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THE GOAL WAS TO GAIN MARKET SHARE AGAINST MAIN COMPETITOR COCA-COLA

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While the upstart Pepsi-Cola Company aggressively touted their reinvigorated cola recipe under the brash new slogan, "Taste That Beats The Others Cold," directly targeting the soda crown of eminent market leader Coca-Cola in 1964.

The Coca-Cola Company eyed their junior rival's encroaching market gains warily, continuing their respected tradition of wholesome advertising that humanized their century-old namesake beverage as an enduring American staple.

Seeking to further elevate Coke above the rising cola competition, Coca-Cola subtly shifted creative marketing direction in the mid-1960s, debuting the influential, iconic "Hilltop" television commercial highlighting Coke as the world's intrinsic bond of harmony, correspondingly dethroning Pepsi as the fastest growing soda brand by the end of the decade.

Though initially domineering the soda landscape as an American cultural emblem into the 1950s, Coca-Cola found itself increasingly challenged to uphold its trademark market supremacy against Pepsi-Cola's determined onslaught.

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THE TASTE THAT BEATS THE OTHERS COLD SLOGAN WAS ACROSS MANY MEDIUMS

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Hoping to greatly expand public impression of their reinvigorated cola's taste, Pepsi saturating the commercial airwaves in 1964 with television ads depicting enthusiastic bottling plant tours and jingles boasting of a superior formula.

While also flooding widespread periodicals like Life magazine with colorful splashy print promotions of glamorous Hollywood stars like Joan Crawford joyfully sipping their caramel-hued beverage poolside.

Mass broadcasting mediums like NBC Radio likewise echoed Pepsi's pervasive new “Taste That Beats The Others Cold” slogan through clips of rapid fire Pepsi taste tests overwhelming random shoppers on bustling public streets.

Establishing Coke as the outclassed “other” unable to beat Pepsi's confident cold crispness.

This multidimensional media blitz delivering both image-transforming lifestyle scenes and hard hitting side-by-side taste challenges successfully implanted Pepsi as a cervical national brand name associated with enjoyment, youth, and quality taste assurance in the 1960s consumer psyche.

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IT MADE PEPSI-COLA THE #2 COLA BRAND

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While Pepsi waged a media war with dominant Coca-Cola in the 1960s, smaller cola competitors like the 150-year-old Dr Pepper soft drink hardly posed the same spirited market rivalry.

Instead continuing old-fashioned soda fountain promotions appealing more to faithful Southern patrons than new generation consumers of mass advertising.

Benefitting tremendously from wartime sugar rationing easing before rival major brands, upstart regional sodas like New York’s Royal Crown Cola peaked by the mid-1950s.

However, RC Cola found difficulty keeping a national foothold once Coca-Cola and the rejuvenating Pepsi reclaimed production means and promotional terrain, quickly relegating RC Cola into a discount store aisle afterthought within the expanding soda industry by the start of the 1960s.

Outfacing and outselling soda brands boasting longer histories, Pepsi achieved over a 6% US soda market share by 1969 while others like RC slipped to under 2%—firmly establishing Pepsi behind only Coca-Cola itself as the indisputable number two carbonated giant.

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THE SLOGAN HELPED DRIVE PEPSI'S SUCCESS FOR NEARLY A DECADE

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While most Pepsi-Cola advertising eras like the star-studded “Pepsi Generation” of the 1980s or the pop celebrity “Pepsi Stuff” loyalty ads of the 1990s captured public imagination for some 2-3 years on average.

The comparably minimalist “Taste That Beats The Others Cold” media blitz resonated with consumers for nearly a decade straight before the tagline’s retirement in the mid-1970s, demonstrating the initial campaign’s shrewd understanding of the rising Purchasing Power of American Youth that deliberately targeted the nation’s first TV generation.

Though later iconic Pepsi jingles and slogans like the celebrity-centric “Choice of a New Generation” or sports celebrity-led “Be Young, Have Fun, Drink Pepsi” followed memorable, youth-angled strategies linking soda preference to youth identity.

Few campaigns matched the straightforward, taste-focused competitive framing vs Coca-Cola at the heart of Pepsi’s breakthrough 1960s promotional drive.

While most other Pepsi slogans burned brightly before fading fast, Pepsi’s inaugural salvos declaring taste superiority over the “Others” enduringly secured Gen X soda loyalty for years, laying crucial groundwork for its future pop culture resonance.

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THE SLOGAN HAS BEEN REVIVED A FEW TIMES SINCE

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Though Pepsi attempted to channel the stripped-down, direct engagement of its breakthrough “Taste That Beats The Others Cold” message in limited-run retro slogan revivals in 1996 and 2004.

Leaner comparative assertions lacked the ambitious subcultural traction of the 1960s original amidst an increasingly fragmented soda market dominated more by unique diet variants rather than traditional cola purity, dulling the rebellious Pepsi persona originally cultivated contrasting it to the classic generality of Coca-Cola’s cross-generational appeal.

While later generations exhibited less intrinsic brand loyalty, instead pursuing novelty flavor experiences, Pepsi failed to adapt its nostalgic adversarial slogan revamps to effectively position their flagship cola as the bold American pop culture innovator anchoring the evolution of soda preferences into the 21st century and beyond.

Having ceded the dynamic momentum of its upstart 1960s identity to Coca-Cola’s diversified holding company model offering endless new beverage spin-offs, Pepsi struggled in its referential retread ads to meaningfully adopt and update the proto-youth brand insurgence which initially fueled its rise.

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IT IS AN ICONIC EXAMPLE OF COMPARATIVE ADVERTISING

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Pepsi's mass deployment of the taste-driven “Beats The Others Cold” slogan in 1964 stands as an iconic development in modern comparative advertising.

Directly spotlighting inferior aspects of leading brands like sweeter Coca-Cola to brashly elevate consumer perception of Pepsi's formula freshness.

A template emulated to similar teen-targeting effect against adult top banana Budweiser just 5 years later by disruptive beer upstart Miller Brewing's memorable ``Tastes Great, Less Filling'' debate hook versus the king of beers.

In later decades, the reduction of regulation upon direct cross-brand comparisons enabled an escalation of rival calls-outs, with brands like breakfast also-ran Malt-O-Meal bluntly denouncing category dominators Post and Kellogg's by name in 1980s TV spots and ads that nonetheless fell under FTC scrutiny for conveying misleading cereal purity claims versus competitors.

While legal allowance of corporate name-checking expanded the comparative communications toolkit substantially, responsible accuracy standards ensured leading national brands maintained enough factual protection from the verbal volleys of their contenders.