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The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2002–2004

Pepsi Blue was a bright blue berry-flavored cola. It lasted two years.

Pepsi launched a bright blue berry-flavored cola in 2002 with Britney Spears ads and a Super Bowl push. By 2004 it was discontinued.

PepsiCo · 2004-05

What happened

In August 2002, Pepsi launched Pepsi Blue, a bright blue berry-flavored cola. The company had tested over 100 flavors over nine months before settling on the 'Berry Cola Fusion'. The target was teenagers — the same demographic that had made Mountain Dew Code Red a success, boosting sales by 6% in 2001. Pepsi Blue was colored with Blue 1 (FD&C Blue No. 1), giving it an electric blue appearance that was unmistakable on shelves.

Pepsi backed the launch with a major marketing campaign. Ads featured Britney Spears, Sev, and Papa Roach. The product appeared in the films The Italian Job and Garfield: The Movie. NFL kicker Adam Vinatieri endorsed it. The launch was supported by a Super Bowl ad. In international markets, Pepsi Blue was launched in the Philippines to support the Ateneo Blue Eagles basketball team, and in India during the 2003 Cricket World Cup to support the blue-jerseyed Indian team.

Despite the marketing push, sales were low from the start. Critics described the flavor as overly sweet, syrupy, and artificial compared to regular cola. The novelty of the blue color attracted initial curiosity but failed to generate repeat purchases. In May 2004, Pepsi discontinued Pepsi Blue in the US and Canada. The product lingered in some international markets — the Philippines relaunched it as 'Pepsi Pinas' in 2011 before discontinuing it again — but the global run was effectively over.

Pepsi briefly revived the brand for a limited time in 2021, but it was discontinued again by July of that year. The failure was a rare miss for PepsiCo's innovation pipeline, which had successfully launched Mountain Dew Code Red, Sierra Mist, and Aquafina in the same period.

Why it happened

  • The flavor was described as overly sweet and syrupy — consumers who tried it once did not come back for more.
  • The novelty of the blue color attracted initial curiosity but could not generate repeat purchases — novelty is not a product strategy.
  • Pepsi was trying to replicate the success of Mountain Dew Code Red, but a blue berry-flavored cola had no natural audience in the way that a cherry-flavored Mountain Dew did.
  • The marketing push was large but the product was not good enough to sustain it — high awareness, low repurchase.
What it costunknown R&D and marketing spend; discontinued in 2 yearsembarrassing

The lesson

A blue cola might attract attention, but it cannot make people buy a second bottle. Novelty is not a product strategy.

Aftermath

Pepsi Blue was discontinued in the US and Canada in May 2004. It continued in some international markets — the Philippines relaunched it as 'Pepsi Pinas' in 2011, and it was sold in India during the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Pepsi briefly revived the brand for a limited time in 2021, but it was discontinued again by July 2021. The failure did not affect PepsiCo's overall performance — the company posted double-digit growth in the same period.

Sources

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