In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola;[1] the two share a long-standing rivalry in what has been called the "cola wars".

[2] Pepsi, originally created in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and named "Brad's Drink," was first sold in his drugstore in New Bern, North Carolina.

Early on, Pepsi struggled with financial stability, going bankrupt in 1923 but was subsequently purchased and revived by Charles Guth, who reformulated the syrup.

Pepsi's expansion into international markets has seen varied success, with notable ventures into the Soviet Union via a landmark barter deal and enduring popularity in certain regions over Coca-Cola.

As of the early 21st century, Pepsi continues to innovate, both in product variations and marketing strategies, while maintaining a significant presence in the global soft drink industry.

[7] In 1923, the Pepsi-Cola Company entered bankruptcy—in large part due to financial losses incurred by speculating on the wildly fluctuating sugar prices as a result of World War I.

With the rise of radio, Pepsi-Cola utilized the services of a young, up-and-coming actress named Polly Bergen to promote products, oftentimes, lending her singing talents to the classic "...Hits The Spot" jingle.

[22] In 1992, the Pepsi Number Fever marketing campaign in the Philippines accidentally distributed 800,000 winning bottle caps for a 1 million peso grand prize, leading to riots and the deaths of five people.

[24] The launch included extravagant publicity stunts, such as a Concorde airplane painted in blue colors (which was owned by Air France) and a banner on the Mir space station.

The Project Blue design was first tested in the United States in June 1997, and was released that December in preparation for Pepsi's 100th anniversary.

The brand's blue and red globe trademark became a series of "smiles," with the central white band initially arcing at different angles depending on the product.

Mack, who supported progressive causes, noticed that the company's strategy of using advertising for a general audience either ignored African Americans or used ethnic stereotypes in portraying Blacks.

[32] To this end, he hired Hennan Smith, an advertising executive "from the Negro newspaper field"[33] to lead an all-black sales team, which had to be cut due to the onset of World War II.

They came up with advertising portraying black Americans in a positive light, such as one with a smiling mother holding a six pack of Pepsi while her son (a young Ron Brown, who grew up to be Secretary of Commerce)[34] reaches up for one.

Another ad campaign, titled "Leaders in Their Fields", profiled twenty prominent African Americans such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche and photographer Gordon Parks.

Racial segregation and Jim Crow laws were still in place throughout much of the U.S.; Boyd's team faced a great deal of discrimination as a result,[33] from insults by Pepsi co-workers to threats by the Ku Klux Klan.

[34] On the other hand, it was able to use its anti-racism stance as a selling point, attacking Coke's reluctance to hire blacks and support by the chairman of The Coca-Cola Company for segregationist governor of Georgia Herman Talmadge.

They visited bottlers, churches, ladies groups, schools, college campuses, YMCAs, community centers, insurance conventions, teacher and doctor conferences, and various civic organizations.

[36] Pepsi advertisements avoided the stereotypical images common in the major media that depicted Aunt Jemimas and Uncle Bens, whose role was to draw a smile from white customers.

However, exceptions include: Oman, India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

[43] Pepsi had long been the drink of French-Canadians, and it continues to hold its dominance by relying on local Québécois celebrities (especially Claude Meunier, of La Petite Vie fame) to sell its product.

[45] In 1988, PepsiCo entered the Indian market by creating a joint venture with the government of Punjab-owned Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation and Voltas India Limited.

In the early 1990s, the term "Pepsi-stroika" began appearing as a pun on "perestroika", the reform policy of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.

Pepsi quickly became popular in Romania, especially among young people, but due to the austerity measures imposed in the 1980s, it became scarce and difficult to find.

Many Israelis and some American Jewish organizations attributed Pepsi's previous reluctance to expand operations in Israel to fears of an Arab boycott.

Pepsi, which has a large and lucrative business in the Arab world, denied the claims, stating that economic, rather than political, reasons kept it out of Israel.

[58] Another more minor mascot, Pepsiwoman, also featured in a few of her own commercials for Pepsi Twist; her appearance is basically a female Pepsiman wearing a lemon-shaped balaclava.

As the titular character, the player runs "on rails" (forced motion on a scrolling linear path), skateboards, rolls, and stumbles through various areas, avoiding dangers and collecting cans of Pepsi, all while trying to reach a thirsty person as in the commercials.

Some regions, such as Sweden and the Netherlands have recently undergone a reduction of sugar in the standard variety, replacing it with the artificial sweeteners Acesulfame K and Sucralose.

[83] This formula change was expanded to the United Kingdom version (distributed by Britvic) in March 2023 (except where served in restaurants and bars).