Pepsi – stop the madness

To the PepsiCo Company
Attn. Mr. Indra Nooyi
700 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577

Amsterdam, July 31st 2008

Dear Mr. Nooyi,

I write this letter to make an appeal to you, as President of PepsiCo, not just for myself but also for millions if not billions of others. People who encounter Pepsi Cola wherever they go, be it in bars of restaurants, in cinema’s or holiday resorts. People who, like me, can’t stand the stuff.

I’m sure you’re aware there is a product out there that tastes much, much better than Pepsi. It is called Coca Cola and, like your product, it’s available in both regular and light. Both versions of these are far more palatable than Pepsi or Diet Pepsi, which results in the Coca Cola being the market leader.

In my local supermarket, in fact in any supermarket I visit, I will find large sections reserved for bottles of Coke. That’s because a lot of people prefer it. Sure, there’s Pepsi too because given the size of the worlds population there will always be a few people who have no sense of taste or don’t drink cola themselves and go for the cheaper brands to serve their guests. You can’t blame them for that.

However, I can and do blame you for the fact that you and your distributors seem to have a stranglehold on the beverage selection in an awful lot of venues. I know there’s such a thing as free choice and I can choose not to visit such an establishment or even just stick to orange juice, but the fact is I LIKE Coca Cola and I WANT Coca Cola. You are in essence violating my right to my favorite drink! I’m beginning to resent you for this. It seems like any time I’m out and enjoying myself, PepsiCo Inc. company is there to spoil my enjoyment.

Like yourself, I work hard, so when I do have time to relax I do it properly. I book a room in a nice bed & breakfast, take the wife out for dinner and a movie, you know, the works. I’m in cities I don’t usually visit where I have no idea which venues serve proper Cola or Pepsi. So after having spent all this money it’s really quite depressing to be unable to purchase my favorite beverage and instead being confronted with a bottle of Pepsi. I resent that. It’s not just that I dislike your product, but you’re also actively pissing me off. I’ve spent a few hundred euro’s on that weekend break and now what should have been a good meal is spoiled for not having a proper drink to go with it. How is that fair?

Here’s what I propose: stop producing Pepsi.

Now I know what you’ll say: ‘But we’re actually selling this stuff to cheapskates and business that have no choice! Jobs will be lost! People who don’t know or care about cola will, when asked, even claim they prefer it to Coke!’

I’ve taken this into account. Heres the plan: all you need to do to preserve these jobs is to ask the Coca Cola company to provide your production facilities with the syrup used to produce Coke! It’s what they ship to their own plants worldwide anyway, where they simply add water and carbonate it. Why not do the same? You can even stick with the same labels because the people who now drink Pepsi won’t know any better and the people who drink Coke I’m sure will breathe a sigh of relief.

You’re very welcome. Best wishes in your negotiations with the Coke-people and tell them I said hi.

Martijn Warnas
The Netherlands

Tags: appeal, branding, coke is better than pepsi, cola wars, customer is king, injustice, pepsi taste test, petition