For many years, Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola got along well, with so many competing brands in soft drinks to choose from, but in the 1980s, the Cola Wars began, with each trying to get a dominant share of the cola market. Portions of this war are in the addition of celebrities in advertisements (such as Britney Spears in the series of Pepsi ads).Coca-Cola originally contained cocaine, which gave it
. part of its name, but when this drug was outlawed, the ingredient was removed. During World War II, Coca-Cola wanted to continue selling soft drinks to Nazi Germany, but worried about negative publicity. Instead of backing off, they created the brand Fanta to sell to Germany which Coca-Cola retained after World War II. When MLK wanted to gather commercial businesses in Atlanta, most did not support meeting the civil rights leader until the Coca-Cola bottling company gave its support. The actual recipe of Coca-Cola is still a closely guarded secret, although Coke allowed the vault containing the recipe to go on tour starting December 2011.Pepsi Cola was originally introduced as " Brad's Drink" but the name was changed to Pepsi-Cola, then Pepsi. Originally, the drink was advertised as a cure for an upset stomach. One of its greatest marketing strategies was offering a 12 oz. bottle for the same price as a Coca-Cola 6 oz. bottle. This helped establish it in the soft drink market. In the 1940s, few companies targeted African-Americans as a market audience, but Pepsi decided to pursue a progressive market and advertised directly to the African-American niche, although this strategy faded in the 1950s. In the 1970s, the " Pepsi Challenge" became a very successful marketing campaign. In blind taste tests, the majority of participants picked Pepsi.Most expect the Cola Wars to continue well into the next decade. Currently, Pepsi is in third place behind Coke, but that can change.More reference links: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/ourheritage.html http://www.pepsicobeveragefacts.com/
