About

Crystal Pepsi was a short-lived, caffeine-free drink sold by Pepsi in the early 90's. It is most known for being "crystal clear" in appearance, as a result of having no caramel coloring.

History

In response to a purity fad in the early 1990's, Pepsi decided to cash-in by releasing a crystal-clear variant of their iconic drink. For one whole year, Pepsi released Crystal Pepsi, a caffeine-free version of their drink, and had a huge advertising campaign (most notably the launch ad, featuring Van Halen's "Right Now)

Quick Decline

Although the initial sales of Crystal Pepsi were strong, the purity fad of the early 90's was dying out at an incredible rate. Almost immediately to respond, the Coca-Cola Company released Tab Clear (a clear, diet alternative to their already diet soda Tab) in order to stir confusion within the consumers over clear colas.

In part-due to the poor marketing of Crystal Pepsi, with claims of it being a diet alternative to regular sodas, consumers were quick to rationalize that if they were on a diet, they would be drinking water instead of Pepsi. As a result of the confusion and low sales, Crystal Pepsi was quietly discontinued in 1993, being classified as a commercial failure. To this day unopened bottles of the original drink have become sought-after collectors items.

The "Bring Back Crystal Pepsi" Campaign

In 2013, Youtuber L.A. Beast posted a video of him consuming an unopened bottle of Crystal Pepsi, where he vomits it shortly after. The video became viral in a short time, reaching 12,000,000 views as of November 8, 2015.

Because of the popularity of the video, L.A. Beast started a campaign two years later, and was a massive success, with more than 30,000 signatures on his petition to bring back the cola. Later on June 8, L.A. Beast released a video, with the response of PepsiCo. planning to re-sell the drink by the end of 2015.

Because of the sudden success of his campaign, L.A. Beast, in conjunction with That's Classic, released a Crystal Pepsi music video. It has over 500,000 views as of November 8.

Rooster Teeth also entered the talk about Crystal Pepsi. On October 13, 2015, they discussed the drink into detail, while indirectly referencing the variety of old Crystal Pepsi drinking challenge videos.

Official Re-release

On December 8, 2015, Pepsi released a video which confirms that Crystal Pepsi would be re-released through a limited sweepstakes from December 10 to the 11.

Despite remaining quiet for multiple months, on June 30, 2016, PepsiCo. officially announced that Crystal Pepsi would be officially sold once more, hitting Canada first on July 7, and American stores on August 8, but only for an eight-week run.^[3] The new formulation of Crystal Pepsi includes Caffeine and the preservative Sodium Benzoate, ingredients not found in the original 1992 formula. Release alongside Crystal Pepsi was a short-lived promotional flash game called "The Crystal Pepsi Trail." The gameplay is similar to that of the 1971 game The Oregon Trail, in which you must survive a 1,587 mile trip to reach a fountain of Crystal Pepsi.

Reception

When initially released, Crystal Pepsi had a positively strong reception, earning in approximately $474 Million dollars by the end of 1992.^[2] It was only until the death of the clear fad that sales would ultimately fall, and reception would be downgraded to anything but positive. Consumers ultimately failed to see the difference between Crystal Pepsi and water, and thus hammered in the final nail to Crystal Pepsi's coffin.

Fandom

Presumably stemming from the 90's Nostalgia fad from the 2000's, Crystal Pepsi has received on-and-off fan commotion. Social networks (such as Facebook and Twitter) had helped increase the word that Crystal Pepsi had at one point existed. It wasn't until 2013 that the fandom of Crystal Pepsi exploded when a variety of groups came together in an initial attempt to spread the word to "Bring back Crystal Pepsi."

Search Interest

External References

^[1] CNN Money – Crystal Pepsi is Back! Here's How to Get Some

^[2] Company News – Pepsi Tries New Diet Cola Abroad

^[3] PepsiCo. – Celebrate the 90s with Crystal Pepsi