Cola War Replaces Cold War

Sat., April 27, 1996

New York Times

Pepsi-Cola unleashed a space age, rock-and-roll push Thursday to recapture from Coca-Cola a bigger piece of the Russian market Pepsi once held exclusively.

With its $550 million investment and marketing campaign in Russia, Pepsi is trying to buy back some of the ground it lost after Coca-Cola barged its first major investment into Russia in 1991.

Pepsi’s powerful television ad campaign combines a parody of Russia’s best-known nightly news show with an MTV-style head-shot zoom on a fast-talking “anchorman” and cameos by notables including tennis star Andrei Agassi and model Cindy Crawford.

On Thursday, two Russian cosmonauts now circling the globe in Mir joined the Pepsi presentation in a live satellite feed.

Pepsi is trying to capitalize on the new wave of nationalism and anti-Western sentiment in Russia, just as Coke capitalized on the pro-West rush of the early 1990s, when Pepsi was negatively identified with the old Soviet order.

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Cola War Replaces Cold War

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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