judd apatow set to direct Coke Warsa Coca-Cola and Pepsi movie, also produced by Steven Spielberg through his Amblin Entertainment banner.
Sony Pictures picked up the project last year for more than $1 million. It will tell the true story of PepsiCo’s attempt to challenge Coca-Cola’s century-long dominance as the world’s top cola.
This led to the Coke Wars of the mid-1980s, a fierce competition between PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, the world’s two largest soft drink manufacturers.
The battle intensified in the late 1970s when Pepsi launched its aggressive “Pepsi Challenge” marketing campaign, a blind taste test in which participants unanimously chose Pepsi over Coca-Cola. This allowed Pepsi to position itself as the choice of the younger generation, gain market share and challenge Coca-Cola’s dominance.
Coca-Cola responded by launching the ill-fated “New Coke” in 1985 in an attempt to reformulate its iconic drink to better compete with Pepsi’s sweetness. However, the decision sparked public outrage, resulting in the original recipe being quickly reintroduced as Coca-Cola Classic.
The competition goes beyond taste tests and product recipes, with both companies pouring millions into advertising campaigns and using celebrity endorsements, catchy slogans and sponsorships to outdo each other.
Pepsi taps into the popularity of stars like Michael Jackson, while Coca-Cola relies on its association with tradition and nostalgia. The cola wars also saw each brand innovate with new product lines, such as Diet Coke and PepsiCo, to meet changing consumer preferences.
In the wake of it all, Coca-Cola maintained its dominance in the market, while Pepsi gained a strong position as the younger alternative, cementing their continued rivalry in pop culture.
Promotional materials for Coke Wars were created by Jason Shuman and ben quin. Schumann is the co-founder of Apple/author acapulco series and serves as executive producer for HBO winning time. He is also ” Cars 2 and Cars 3 For Pixar.
The project is in early development, so there’s still a long way to go, but there’s a fun and interesting story to tell here.
Source: Deadline
