Pepsi Zero Sugar, is a zero-calorie, sugar-free, ginseng-infused cola sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame K, marketed by PepsiCo. In Fall 2016, PepsiCo renamed the drink Pepsi Zero Sugar from Pepsi Max. A new logo was introduced in 2020. It has nearly twice the caffeine of Pepsi's other cola beverages. Pepsi Zero Sugar contains 69 milligrams of caffeine per 355ml, versus 36 milligrams in Diet Pepsi.
History
Diet Pepsi Max was introduced in the United States on June 1, 2007, and in Canada in March 2008. "Diet" was dropped from the name in early 2009. On June 29, 2015, PepsiCo announced several product changes which, among other changes, announced that Pepsi Max would be renamed in North America as Pepsi Zero Sugar. It is not known if it will come into trademark conflict with Coca-Cola, which uses the "zero" moniker for Pepsi Max's primary competitor Coca-Cola Zero, as well as Sprite Zero. The unrelated international drink will retain the Pepsi Max name.
Marketing
Pepsi Zero Sugar competes in the energy drink market, as is implied by it being marketed as an 'Invigorating Cola.' Compared with other common energy drinks, Pepsi Zero Sugar gives the consumer a relatively low dose of caffeine. Pepsi Zero Sugar provides 5.75 mg caffeine per 30ml, while Red Bull provides 9.64 mg/30ml, AMP Energy provides 8.93 mg/30ml, Monster Energy provides 10 mg/30ml, and Cocaine brand soda provides 33.14 mg/30ml. Pepsi Zero Sugar commercials present the beverage as an alternative to Diet Pepsi. In 2007, the official marketing website for the product contained an 'odd cast' featuring a spoofed telethon urging viewers to donate yawns and uses the slogan 'WAKE UP PEOPLE'. Also, there was a featured commercial of a spoof on the Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator yawning, when calling a play, thus, causing Tony Romo to be sacked, he was then replaced by Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones who gives him a Diet Pepsi Max. The scene then cuts away to the words "WAKE UP PEOPLE" while a voiceover shouts the slogan. An ad for the product that ran during the 2007 Super Bowl featured the song "What Is Love" by Haddaway, and showed people sleeping in inappropriate places and at inappropriate times, while bobbing their heads to the rhythm of the song. After the 2009 Super Bowl commercial aired, another, more recent campaign has emphasized that the product is intended to be a men's diet cola. In one commercial, entitled "I'm Good," men are shown in various dangerous and painful situations, and after each brief sequence, the "injured" actor states, "I'm good!" The take-away message is that men can handle anything, except for the taste of the average diet cola. Pepsi Max is intended to be the diet cola that men will enjoy. Another commercial entitled "Ingredients" shows men in various situations listing fictitious ingredients that essentially make Pepsi Max seem "tough." The fictitious ingredients include pepper spray, scorpion venom, crushed Viking bones, and the saliva of a rabid wolverine. The actors also state that the can is made from the hull of a nuclear submarine, and subsequently crush the cans in their bare hands, stating, "I just crushed the hull of a nuclear submarine." This commercial ends with "Maximum Taste, No Sugar, and Maybe Scorpion Venom. Pepsi Max, the First Diet Cola for Men," signaling a definitively different message than the one used in the "WAKE UP PEOPLE" advertisements. These more recent commercials have portrayed Pepsi Zero Sugar consumers as unremarkable, average, and heavy men, explicitly identifying the target market. For Super Bowl XLIV in July 2010, Pepsi Max did a reboot of a well-received ad that ran during the 1995 Super Bowl XXIX. In the original ad, a pair of delivery drivers from Coca-Cola and Pepsi began a tentative friendship while listening to"Get Together" by The Youngbloods; in a peacemaking gesture, the two rivals taste each other's soda. But the friendship ends in humorous conflict when the Coca-Cola driver refuses to return the Pepsi product. The new ad riffed on the same story, with the drivers this time coming to blows over the then-Pepsi MAX at the expense of Coca-Cola's much more popular Coke Zero, with the song "Why Can't We Be Friends?" by the American funk band War as the soundtrack. In 2011, Snoop Dogg was featured in an ad campaign around the time of Super Bowl XLV. In early 2010, Pepsi released a limited edition called "Pepsi Max Cease Fire." It is Diet Pepsi Lime in the Pepsi Max formula, and is being cross-promoted with Doritos Burn flavors. In July 2010, Pepsi Zero Sugar, then under the Pepsi Max name, was once again redesigned, this time to match its global branding. In the process, Pepsi Max began using the medium-sized "smile." The "Max" typeface was changed to appear similar to what is used worldwide, and a distorted blue background borders the Pepsi globe. Pepsi MAX was also advertised by "Uncle Drew" with the slogan "Get Buckets." Richard Speight, Jr. is the "Pepsi Max" delivery guy for all commercials the last two years, with ads featuring major baseball and football stars, and also with Snoop Dogg and 4-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, who worked with Pepsi Max in 2013 to create , along with Road Trip to the Race Track two years prior. Pepsi Max also sponsored Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne during the 2013 Cup Series season. Pepsi Max's current slogan in the US is "Maximum taste. Zero calories." Coke Zero, also known as Coca-Cola Zero, is Pepsi Zero Sugar's primary competing product, which was introduced in 2008. In August, 2017, Coke Zero changed its name to Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, or Coke Zero Sugar, as well as changed its taste by tweaking the blend of natural flavors proprietary to Coca-Cola. Pepsi sponsored the Superbowl LIHalftime Show, naming it "The Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl LI Halftime Show" with its headlining performer being American Singer-Songwriter Lady Gaga. This halftime show became the most watched Superbowl Halftime Show in history.
