The Cola Wars in Commercials

Hi, this is Kevin Conroy and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. A gentleman is

on his way to fix summer. Just look for a black

car. No, this black car will be rather difficult

to miss. And by the way, the gentleman is usually

in quite a rush. There is nothing wrong with

your podcast player. Do not attempt to adjust

the volume. Hello and welcome back into our studio.

You are now inside Studio 2009. I am TFSU and

Mike and joining me as always, Steve Megatron.

Hello. Yo. Yo. And I think this is his, no, this,

yeah, this is his, it's the triple shot with

Mr. Neil, TV's Mr. Neil, the raving hipster.

Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too? Now don't

start that again I Didn't say anything uh -huh.

I'll give you a pepper to Frickin hate play.

Well, he's got the touch. That's right. I Dare

you to say that one more time you stupid head

anyway tonight we are kicking off episode 26

of studio 2009 by going back to the 80s and the

90s because I did not realize of course I was

a little too young in the 80s to really realize

that the the soda wars the pop wars the cola

wars Between Pepsi and coke have been going on

a hell of a lot longer than the 80s and 90s actually

but that's when we remember the ad campaigns

of you know Coke is better Pepsi's better blah

blah blah blah blah Mmm. Rock and roll is okay,

but I prefer rap. Awesome. Wait a second. Shady

Acres was supposed to get the Coke and the Frat

House was supposed to get the Pepsi. Coke, Pepsi,

what's the difference? I -24. Pepsi, it's got

what it takes. This is radical. Anyway, so let's

go around the room. Steve, you can start. What

do you remember about the Cola Wars? Well, as

you were so kindly to provide the funny commercials.

Just because like it's, you know, a nostalgia.

I haven't seen it in a long time, but it brings

back memories of seeing it on cable. Because

you really don't see stuff like this anymore,

mostly because nobody watches TV. Well, they

watch TV, but they just prefer ad -free television,

at least smart people do. Yeah, or they just

do other methods. I remember them being kind

of funny and all of the different... Ways that

they were trying to outdo each other. It was

almost like the Apple verse Mac commercial. Yeah

So yeah, it's just it's it's entertaining to

watch because you get to see how Smart and witty

the marketing people get to be comparing the

two Mm -hmm What about you Neil? What do you

remember? I'm old enough to remember when Coca

-Cola changed its formula Mm -hmm to taste more

like Pepsi and everyone immediately rejected

it That was that was fun and I also remember

for a while there the slogan was coke is it which

prompted my cousin and I to To change that around

a little bit and say coke is shit. Yeah You know,

I was firmly on the on the Pepsi side of this.

Mm -hmm. And you know Who's the king of pop?

Michael Jackson, which pop did Michael Jackson

pick Pepsi? So well take a pop So it was wrong

Yeah, exactly. Michael Jackson was wrong. You

heard it here first folks. I want to speak ill

of the dead I do and I stop it The funny thing

is is I oh my god You know, I can't resist doing

a mock of somebody that's you know famous in

that I can at least hit one note. That's it.

Wow. Choice of a new generation. What's that?

It's the choice of a new generation. The choice

of a wrong generation is what it's the choice

of. Oh, man. I bet you if he were still here,

he would drink Coca -Cola. Probably he would.

Yes, because at least Casey is smart The funny

thing about Michael is from what I've heard and

from what I've seen and from what I've read He

didn't even like the taste of Pepsi. I Don't

know you're wrong. Yes. Yes rumors unsubstantiated

Mm -hmm. They're famous people. They're allowed

to change their mind depending on who's paying

in the check Like Rod Stewart. Yeah, we change

our we change our opinion based on who signs

the check Oh boy. Alrighty then. What I remember

from this is I didn't get a chance and I'm sure

you guys have seen it because it's always everywhere

but there was one year, it was in more recent

years I think because the Coca -Cola bear campaign

is still going on to this day I think, a couple

years ago. But anyway before I go into that story

I told you that story tell you listen as a kid

what I remember was Well, the one commercial

I do remember is the kid in the middle of nowhere

Looks like he's in a western town and there's

this beat -up soda machine that has both of them

in it He buys three sodas He buys two to stand

he buys two cokes to stand on to hit the Pepsi

button because he's not tall enough to hit the

Pepsi button smart kid Oh my god. That's because

Pepsi will get crushed under the pressure. That's

true. The old folks versus college dorm ad. I

remember that one. I don't think I sent you the

guys that one, but basically... The old folks

home gets the Pepsi and the college dorm gets

the Coke and the old folks are out in the middle

of the street partying and swinging their walkers

around and all this other stuff and you go to

the college dorm and they're like sitting around

the table playing poker and smoking cigars for

Coca -Cola. This wasn't really a part of the

war itself, but the two biggest. commercials

I remember for soda in the 80s were the Batman

Diet Coke commercial. Hello, Gotham Cornerstone.

Yes, we seem to be down to our last Diet Coke.

A gentleman is on his way to fix some up. Just

look for a black car. No, this black car will

be rather difficult to miss. And by the way,

The gentleman is usually in quite a rush. And

anytime Ray Charles started singing Diet Pepsi.

Got it right, you got it right. Whether you're

talking about this, or whether you're talking

about the one and only Diet Cola that does it

for Ray, Diet Pepsi. You know, nothing tastes

as good to me as Diet Pepsi. Alright, now who's

the wise guy? You know when it's right You know

when you feel it baby You hold it, you hear it

Taste it, it's right You got the right one baby

I'll give Pepsi a pass for Ray Charles. He was

quite entertaining. Yes, yes he was. May the

man rest in peace. Oh man, God, both of the stars

of those commercials are dead now. I think Michael

Goff is dead. He died a couple years ago. Yeah,

I watched one of these commercials and they had

Tyrese Yeah, Transformers movies in there and

yeah fast movies and he hasn't really done much

since but I did see the guy that played the trickster

God in Supernatural though on one of them. Oh

cool Pepsi max commercial. Yep Very cool. Very

cool There's one I never actually saw before

that's in the compilation that I'll link to in

the post. It's a Pepsi machine and a Coke machine

look like they're in a dank, dark basement of

some building. And the Pepsi machine is a guy,

the Coke machine is a girl, and they fight like

an old married couple by shooting their cans

at each other. I couldn't tell which that was

an ad for. I'm like, what is this? I know, right?

It just looked to me like they were just shooting

cans at each other the whole time. I was trying

to figure it out and then Then yeah, it was just

really weird. Yeah, and there's another one where

it's got the two The two stock guys trying to

like stack up the the boxes of pep Pepsi and

coke and again I couldn't tell like what what

the commercial is for until the very end when

Snoop Dogg came out Soon as Snoop shows up, you

know, what's up? Yeah Oh man. Uh -huh. Pepsi.

The advertising between these two companies,

whether they're at war with each other or not,

is always, most of the time, always amazing.

Like I mentioned earlier, the Coca -Cola polar

bear Christmas time thing. And I remember one

year where they started doing Coca -Cola polar

bears and Pepsi penguins. And... One of the I

think it's the I think it's just one of the commercials

of that where it has the Cub the bear cub and

then the little penguin Come together and bring

the families like we can both drink this we can

each drink our thing. It's fine It's whatever

like, you know, whatever but I just I've always

loved the coca -cola polar bears cuz Pepsi ain't

got no Santa Wait a minute. No, there was there

was a there's a penguin at the North Pole Oh,

I'm dying. Mm -hmm. Yeah, Hoboken? Yeah. Really?

Hoboken? Yeah. And that's probably going over

Steve's head, but that was a Bugs Bunny... Yes.

It's a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but I always... Oh,

it's Playboy Penguin, isn't it, Neil? I don't

know. That's probably an ad hoc name. Yeah, I

don't know. I remember it because I always used

to think it was Chilly Willie as a kid. Oh, no,

Chilly Willie is. No, no, no. I know it's not.

Yeah, no, no. I know it's not. But I'm just saying

I always think it was. So back then you chose

Pepsi, right, Neil? Mostly. I mean, I wasn't

like hardline, like I'm only picking Pepsi products

and nothing else. You know, I drink seven up

and like Green River and all those other Sub

like sub there were colas, but like sub sodas

that are like other companies Yeah, and sometimes

I would pick the coke products sometimes I Just

mainly coke. I was never really keen on the flavor

of coke. It's like this is just a little too.

I don't know It just it just didn't quite hit

my taste buds the way Pepsi did So what about

you Steve? Well for me I definitely prefer Coke,

the flavor of it, or even the knockoffs that

taste like Coke, because there's knockoffs that

taste like Pepsi and taste like Coke. I know

when I lived close to a Meyers store in Michigan,

they had a blue cola and a red cola. I'm not

joking. They had a different label around it,

and it was whatever Meyers brand is, but it says

it's got a blue label. for the Pepsi flavor and

a red label for the Coke flavor. And I figured

that out very quickly because my wife grabbed

me the wrong one. No, I still drink it. It's

still a cola. I have an appreciation for cola

in general. I'll drink an RC cola. I'll drink

a Kroger brand cola, which is basically Coke.

I'll drink a Coke or Pepsi it just depends like

if I if I go out to eat and they have one or

the other and I want pop regardless And I want

a cola I'm gonna get whatever they have Yeah,

and I'm fine with it and my in -laws they used

to buy diet coke and diet Pepsi and there's like

a definitive taste When you get into the diet

ones of which one is better, although I can't

remember now because I haven't drank it in years

I haven't lived there but I definitely stick

with Coke. That's always been my go -to. My dad

even bought it when we were on visitation when

my parents were divorced and everything. My dad

would get Coke and Sprite. My brothers would

drink Sprite. I was down on the Coke. Sprite's

a whole other realm. It's not carbonated. It's

not caffeinated. Yeah, it's a whole other realm

of obey your thirst and again, that's another

ad campaign For the Coca -Cola company because

they have sprite those obey your thirst ads.

Oh my god Those were so funny sometimes are either

of you guys like partially like Don't really

care when they or were partially offended that

they ruin the taste by making like 50 different

flavors of each one Not really not really because

I don't it was okay. Yeah, I don't even drink

the flavored ones. I drink the cherry Coke or

cherry Pepsi like cherry Pepsi. I really like

but as opposed to regular Pepsi because I when

I worked at Little Caesars, I I bought a two

liter of it every night that I worked and That

was I didn't drink the water, thankfully, because

it was Flint water. So I was better off drinking

pop every night than I was city water, which

thank goodness for that. But so Pepsi saved me

from drinking that. But when I was at the dealership,

Coke saved me. So, yeah, I don't know. I still

I prefer like the solid flavor of it. I will

go to the cherry flavor, but the rest of them,

I'm like, it's kind of a bastardization of the

original. Mean we so they'll they all have like

yes, they're still I Don't want to say original

coke because I know it hasn't been original since

1970 something whatever but you know what I mean

we have regular coke you have diet coke you have

regular Pepsi of diet Pepsi and Then there's

these like you said, you know cherry for either

either one There's vanilla now for both of them

or there was at least I know vanilla coke is

still a thing. I don't think Pepsi vanilla is

still a thing. I don't know because Pepsi is

the incorrect choice, you know And the funny

thing is is that whatever my Dad drank the most

or whatever my mom drank the most is what I would

end up drinking the most as a kid When I was

allowed to have it My dad at one point switched

sides He used to, no seriously, he was a diet

Pepsi drinker for all of my young life and somewhere

in 1986, I think it was after that ball got through

Bill Buckner's legs, my dad switched from diet

Pepsi to diet Coke and he has never looked back

since. My dad drinks two things, orange juice

and diet Coke. So you welcomed him to the dark

side. Exactly. Let's see Yeah for me it was it

was easy it was whatever my parents were drinking

and then once my dad made the diet coke choice

I I never looked back and I've been drinking

diet coke ever since every once in a while I

Will like very like I don't even like the last

time I remembered drinking a diet Pepsi out of

like and like Steve said I'm not talking about

Restaurant I'm not talking about fountain. I'm

not talking about restaurant. I'm not talking.

I'm just talking about the cans the bottles the

whatever The last time I can remember drinking

a diet Pepsi was maybe 2000 1999 Just I don't

know anyway So Neil fights on the side of Pepsi

and Steve and I both fight on the side of coke.

So it's two against one You lose. I don't think

that's how it works I'm really surprised. I know

they've tried like they've had the war ads come

up every now and then because I think that that

Snoop Dogg ad was like for Like a Super Bowl

ad at one point or another or something And that

was like in the last five or six or seven years,

I think. I could be wrong. But what would happen

or should it happen that the Cold War is returned

for the current generation of kids? So imagine

us as kids in the late 70s, all throughout the

80s and the 90s, to the kids of today. Like,

Steve, I'm sure you're going to raise your boys

right on the side of Coke. Neil, you don't have

kids to my knowledge. No. Well, my kids haven't

drank pop for the most part, other than like

they've had like stuff that's non caffeinated.

But yeah, I generally stick with like they've

had Sprite, they've had orange soda. My son's

stolen my Coke on occasion, but. What was that

like? Well, when I had a fountain pop, he's like,

I got out of the vehicle when we were moving

over cross country. He's like, I drink some of

your pop. And I was like, don't you touch my

pop. You can also clearly tell folks if you're

listening to this that two of us prefer the right

way it's supposed to be termed and the other

one doesn't. Neil and I are on the side of soda

while Steve calls it music. Yeah, bite me. I

came from Michigan. We call it pop. I call it

pop, dude. They call it soda here, but I don't

care for that terminology. Mary's even switched

to calling it soda. I'm like, you're wrong. I

think that might be one of the only rare times

I actually agree with your wife. There's strange

people who call like every sort of pop coke.

That's what I don't understand. That's an inaccuracy.

It's not a nothing. Not everything is a cola.

That's like calling every game console on a Nintendo.

It's like what? No, wrong. Yeah, every search

engine googled it. Yeah, exactly. I googled it.

Really? Really? You really googled it? Was Clippy

sitting next to you when you did it? Clippy is

on Google. He googled it. You know, that would

be an interesting collaboration. What? Bring

back Clippy and have it attached to Google. Anyway,

that's a discussion for another day. I think

they brought back Clippy. He's just evil. And

then they made fun of it in Star Trek Lower Decks.

Yeah. They make fun of everything in Star Trek

Lower Decks. Yeah, but it deserved it. What would

happen I? Assume we'd all just switch to whatever

but what would happen if one of these companies

actually went out of business never happened

No, and even if even if it did happen like someone

somebody would pick up the rights and the craft

the Trademarks and the and the recipes and they

just make it all over again like hostess Like

everyone thought Twinkies were gonna go away

and then they came right back. Yeah, like two

other companies bought it and split up the company

and they're selling the same exact products.

Little Debbie is one of them. Oh my God. That's

hilarious. Yeah. Oh, Lord. Little Debbie got

her Twinkie after all. That has so much. Don't

you ever say that again on a fucking podcast?

Jesus Christ. All right Yeah, it was until I

realized I'm like it hit the joke hit me a little

late I'm like I was I was wondering how long

it was gonna take to hit you. Oh crap That's

not right God can you imagine if Comcast had

coke and AT &T had Pepsi or Warner Brothers or

whatever? Oh Wow, that would be interesting if

a media, an actual media company owned soda companies.

Oh lord. You should watch Company Man. I'm pretty

sure the cola companies have owned media companies

from time to time. I do watch him all the time.

I've actually wanted to get him on here for an

interview at some point or another. He just had

one about Dr. Pepper. It's amazing how all of

the, there's like a whole bunch of like third,

Stringer sodas that were all had nothing to do

with each other and they all just kind of fell

under the dr. Pepper umbrella like seven up and

crush and RC and diet right now. They're all

under the same company See, I always thought

it like I always thought RC was the king and

then everything else fell under it. No It's dr.

Pepper. Yeah RC is not what you'd like to get

Dr. Pepper to Knock it off. I've got better things

to do tonight than die. Uh -huh. See, Rekgar

was quoting the commercial, Mike. You probably

don't remember. It's a very old ad campaign.

Wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too? I'm a

pepper. Wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too?

Oh, that's right. See, you thought I was referencing

Transformers. Well, yeah, cause hello, that's

what we've been arguing about for the past few

weeks. You're so vain, you probably thought my

song was about you. No, not about me. Funny guy.

The funny thing about diet, Dr. Pepper, is that...

The best ad campaign that diet dr. Pepper ever

had was and I could not but like I remember when

I first saw this commercial I literally I'm like

wait what no way the runner -up of the first

season of American Idol no way Justin Guarini

is little sweet. Oh, I really want a cupcake,

but not the calories Nice folding you deserve

a raise. Thank you You do deserve a raise in

the form of a sweet diet, Dr. Pepper. Ooh, sip

it. Mmm, that is sweet. These are my delicates.

Tumble dry, extra heat. I'll take these. He just

folds. Isn't she great? How do you guys know?

Yes, we're going back and it's been psycho. Diet

Dr. Pepper. It's the sweet one. I may not like

- Go ahead. I like Dr. Pepper better when they

did the chocolate rain guy. That guy was hilarious

like hilariously good, but his voice was so good

for that like just the deep voice. Yeah, that

was crazy I mean, what do you what does the audience

remember about all this stuff? Do you guys out

there who may or may not be listening to this

if you're not listening to this? Why aren't you?

What do you remember and what was your favorite

commercial? Let's go around the room. What was

your Favorite Pepsi wins the war commercial Steve.

Where Pepsi wins? Yes. Probably the one with

the guy from Supernatural where you got the Pepsi

Max and the Coke Zero. Okay. What about Coke

if Coke won? I would still go with the polar

bears. Just because that's the most memorable

thing like out of all their commercials is probably

the polar bears. Very true. Neil same thing Pepsi

then Coke. I don't really have to think about

that. I don't remember a lot of the commercials

specifically I I remember there was a there was

a comedy stand -up routine about the Mike Tyson

Diet Pepsi commercial, but I have never been

able to find this commercial it's like an it's

like a press conference and Somebody asked like

what what diet soda does does the champ drink

and he leans forward he goes diet Pepsi and The

stand -up is like now y 'all know that Mike Tyson

don't sound like that. And I've never been able

to find this commercial. And I vaguely remember

it. And it's funny because yeah, Mike Tyson does

not say, he sounds like, he sounds like a little

child when he speaks. He sounds like this. Yeah.

And Coke, um, God, it's been a long time since

I've seen a commercial. I mean, oops, I, uh,

yeah, I don't really watch commercial TV anymore.

Um, You know, I don't really remember Let's just

make it all unanimous and say the polar bears

because let's let's face it so Polar Bears How

are they creepy it was like early CGI all old

CGI is kind of uncanny to me. I'm like It's like

there's the money -for -nothing commercial and

then you could just fast forward to I don't know

Toy Story. That's my history of CGI. Wow. Okay

then. Well, as for me, I will definitely say

the Polar Bears for Coke for Pepsi. I'm going

to go with the kid who uses the two Coke cans

to stand on. That was for using a kid's imagination,

especially back then when Kids were all taught

to imagine things and that imagining things was

okay. It wasn't a problem unlike some anyway

Yeah, but that for me If I was gonna do a tie

between them it has to be and I'll have to link

this in the show notes not I don't I'm sure you

guys remember this but I'll send it to you anyway

For a tie, it would most likely be the Coca -Cola

Polar Bears and the Pepsi Penguins sharing it

together during the holiday season. Because that

was always just so cool and so interesting. Like,

there's Polar Bears and we all know the Polar

Bears and oh wait, but the other company has

to get in on the thing. One last thing I want

to mention, we covered it back in the pull bag

in January. It was episode 395 over there. It

was called Pop Kill. It's a four -issue comic

book series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Dave Johnson.

What if the two biggest cola companies were owned

by a pair of Siamese twins that were no longer

conjoined? It's this whole super secret spy thing

and whatever, but it's based around the fact

that they own soda companies. So basically...

Pepsi is the FBI, Coke is the CIA kind of thing.

It was all really, really weird, but it was fun

for the most part. All right, folks, we hope

you enjoyed our cola talk tonight. Anything you'd

like to promote, Neil, before we get the heck

out of here? Ravinghipster .com is where all

my podcasts are. I do movie podcasts. I do a

gaming show that is also on GeekCast. I'm working

on a Saturn episode that is a little tardy, but

it's getting there. I'm a web artist. I do girly

pictures. If you want me to draw a girly picture

for you, we can work on something. I guess that's

it. I'm still waiting on that swimsuit Yeah,

the swimsuit issue is part of an older series

that I'm not sure is continuing at least not

right away You can still do it as a one -shot.

Yeah, I can still do it as a one -shot, but it

was just like I don't know Okay, what do you

got going on Steve? What would you like to promote?

Just working on some voiceover stuff and then

also Future things for podcasts on Geekcast radio

Absolutely, we're always working on future things

whether they actually come true or not is Beyond,

you know our control sometimes you're saying

the future is imperfect. Oh, of course We all

know that I mean, you know Don't know what's

going on with studio. I know we've got the next

episode that is gonna be quite interesting once

we actually get it recorded I Forget how this

started and Steve I still need those pictures

Those screencaps I don't know where that I don't

know where the hell they are anymore Steve's

lovely wife Mary you posted something oh it was

when you were like she's gonna let me get dominoes

oh my god because oh the pizza yes so anyway

and i commented on the post and i'm like but

pizza is healthy she's like no it's not i'm like

it has bread cheese it has meat it can have vegetables

and it has sauce how is that not healthy what

bread is so healthy Well, I mean, whatever. You

know, it was healthier when we were kids. It

was fine when we were kids. Nobody made any whatever

anyway. So, I came up with this whole thing and

this whole skit and whatever and I thought, oh,

this could be an episode of Studio where we talk

about the goodness of pizza and companies. That

and for me, I grew up with my aunt and uncle

owning a pizza place in Massachusetts. for about

10 years. Steve has worked at several, and our

other friend Optimus Solo, still to this day,

works at Pizza Hut. So I figured we could have

a trifecta of a pizza pie discussion kind of

thing. So that's what's coming up then. Episode

30 will be another podcast approach. In between

there... Not sure yet. We've got some plans that

I need to clue. I think I've already clued him

in on but we'll we'll talk about that off -air

but This this holiday season folks everything

comes wrapped in a bow That's all I'll say and

if you've seen the trailer, you know what I'm

talking about Where can the people find you online

Steve? They can find me on the Twitter at SCP

21 I'm at TF2 and Mike you can also follow at

geek cast radio and at its Studio 2009, ITS,

Studio 2009, all one word. You can check us out

on Facebook, Studio 2009 podcast for the show,

Geocast Radio Network for the network, TV's Mr.

Neil is over there. You're just under TV's Mr.

Neil on Facebook, right? You don't have a separate

one for gaming or raving. It's just TV's Mr.

Neil. It's facebook .com slash raving hipster.

Okay, there you go, folks. Yeah, and if you want

if you want to like get a drawing from me looking

up on Twitter under under TV mr. Neil Absolutely

All right, we're gonna get the heck out of here

folks, you'll hear us back in the studio soon

I'd like to invite you all in but uh, I really

don't have anything to offer you guys except

for frozen pizza Let's go for it Hey gamers,

TV's Mr. Neil here. The Gaming Hipster is my

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