Pepsi makes incursion into Coca-Cola territory on National Have a Coke Day

PepsiCo says all who participate will get a free 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi Zero Sugar, “because even those with questionable taste deserve a second chance.”

The return of the Pepsi Challenge — and doing so in Atlanta-based Coke’s backyard — adds a bit of fizz to the long brewing cola wars.

There will be Pepsi Challenge taste testing over the next few days at The Interlock on Howell Mill Road, on Friday at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta, and this weekend at Park Tavern and the Chastain Park Arts Festival. A Pepsi vehicle will also be stopping around the city to give out samples.

Pepsi relaunched the challenge this year at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, and has since held taste tests in cities across Florida and Pennsylvania; in Charlotte and Wilmington, North Carolina; in Green Bay, Wisconsin; in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Boston and New York.

According to PepsiCo, “So far, Pepsi Zero Sugar is the preferred cola in 100% of markets.”

It’s yet to be seen if that will remain true after Pepsi’s sojourn in Atlanta.

Coca-Cola, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Pepsi Challenge, is celebrating National Have a Coke Day in a different way. The World of Coca-Cola web page says visitors to the nearby Bottle Cap Cafe can get a free fountain drink by showing a May 8 ticket to the World of Coca-Cola.

The return of the cola taste test marketing campaign comes on the 50th anniversary of the original Pepsi Challenge.

That also seemed to show that people preferred the taste of original Pepsi, in an early battle of the cola wars that eventually prompted Coca-Cola to question its original formula and launch the ill-fated New Coke.

Back then, Pepsi was deep in a battle to try to take down Coca-Cola. A film by Sony on the cola wars, involving Judd Apatow and Steven Spielberg, is in the works, according to Deadline.com.

Now, Pepsi is facing an even steeper uphill battle.

According to Beverage Digest, Pepsi has fallen to the No. 4 spot among the nation’s soft drinks measured by volume, behind Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and now Sprite after an “Obey Your Thirst” campaign by Coca-Cola for its Sprite brand, Marketing Dive reported this week.

Even if the Pepsi Challenge seemed to show people prefer the taste of Pepsi, Coca-Cola has still long outsold Pepsi.

Phil Mooney, a longtime archivist at Coca-Cola before retiring in 2013, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month that he thinks taste tests may not reflect long-term preferences.

If people have a sip of two beverages and are asked which they prefer, they might prefer the sweeter one, like Pepsi.

“Now if you ask them long term, would you drink that every single day? The answer might have been very different,” Mooney said.

And there are broader issues beyond the Pepsi vs Coke battle.

Beverage companies including both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola also face the challenge of adapting to shifting tastes, including preferences among younger drinkers for seltzers, sparkling water, prebiotic drinks and other soda alternatives.

Soda has also been vilified by some health experts, while the plastic bottles many soft drinks come in have been criticized for their carbon footprint.