Pepsi

Pepsi (Pepsi-Cola) is a carbonated soft drink similar to Coca-Cola.

Pepsi originated the marketing strategy known as The Pepsi Generation. This strategy was a constant repetitious advertising of Pepsi aimed at young people. It worked under the assumption that there are new consumers coming of age every day and if you stop marketing to the newest comsumers, you will have a shrinking base of established consumers of your product.

Pepsi may have derived its name from pepsin, an enzyme produced in the mucosal lining of the stomach that acts to degrade protein. Similar inspiration may have led to the naming of Pepsin Gum, first produced by Dr. Edward E. Beeman, whose bookkeeper, Nellie Horton, suggested that he put pepsin into gum "since so many people buy pepsin for digestion and gum for no reason at all."

Soft drinks produced by Pepsi include: Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Pepsi Max, Slice, Sierra Mist and Mug Root Beet. Aquafina water is also a Pepsi product.

Run by Pepsico, the company also owns and operates 7Up International (but not 7UP in the United States), Quaker Oats, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Tropicana.

Until the mid-1990's, it also owned Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, but these fast-food restaurants were spun off into Tricon Global Restaurants.

As with many soft drinks, Pepsi has had various celebrity spokespersons throughout its existence. Among them:

• Madonna (for less than two days; her contract was cut)
• Michael Jackson (who was badly burned while filming a commercial)
• Britney Spears
• Halle Eisenberg
• Halle Berry