Subject: Pepsi-Cola

• When Artists Turn Huck Finn

  August 9, 2007

• Weekend Events, Suggested by David Foster Wallace

  September 28, 2007

• Kansas City: So Smart

  October 5, 2007

• Daily Briefs: City Market Eviction; Sugariness

  April 15, 2008

• Josephine Collective Release New Album, Video

  July 2, 2008

• Stevia coming: Nutrasweet and Splenda, you've been warned

  I don't want to boast, but a couple of times I've noted the upcoming domination of non-caloric stevia. Stevia is a naturally occurring (at least in Paraguay) herb that's incredibly sweet and may or may not be slightly mutagenic at high doses. The FDA has been stalling on releasing a report on whether stevia is safe. Yesterday, though, Coca-Cola announced it was releasing a stevia-based drink this week, before the FDA ruling.Coke is using stevia in its Odwalla line of drinks and fruit smoothies.

  December 17, 2008

• Drinking and smoking

  The word "taxes" makes people act irrationally. Take, for instance, this wide-ranging tax plan from New York State, which would tax everything from clothes to boats to license plates to caloric (non-diet) soft drinks. It's already got a catchy nickname -- the obesity tax -- and, not surprisingly, has already the ire of soft drink manufacturers. I received this dandy of a press release yesterday from the Center for Consumer Freedom. Titled "Taxing Soda May Shrink New York's Bloated Deficit, but I

  December 16, 2008

• Well that didn't take long. FDA clears stevia.

  If it seems like only yesterday that I wrote about the forthcoming FDA ruling on stevia, and today the FDA made its decision.Ladies and gentleman, stevia is safe.Not that it mattered much for Coke -- which released its stevia-based drinks think week -- but the ruling did have an impact on Pepsi, which was holding off on shipping stevia-flavored Sobe.Pepsi says it will release the Sobe next week. Pepsi's stevia-based sweetener is called PureVia, while Coke uses Truvia.Now the only thing holding s

  December 18, 2008

• Mouthing Off

  September 14, 2000

• Mastering Fogo de Chao and other buffets

  I am not what you would call a waifish person. I've got some fat that I've long-given up on losing and come to accept as a job hazard of writing about food. But I'm also not what the National Institute of Health would call obese. Instead, I am normal if a little pleasantly plump.As a normal-sized person, I feel I'm losing out to the Mark Manginos of the world when it comes to buffets. I am not alone. Surveying the crowd at Fogo de Chao last week, I saw many thin people flip the red card of surre

  January 28, 2009

• Eight best Super Bowl food and drink commercials

  I know everyone is making a list of favorite Super Bowl commercials this week, but being trained in the black arts of advertising I couldn't resist making my own. Culled from the dredges of YouTube and my memory, here are my eight best food and drink Super Bowl commercials of all time.Number 8: After losing the '96 election to Bill Clinton, Bob Dole showed he can shill product with the best of them. Here he is promoting his "little blue friend."

  January 30, 2009

• Sky is the limit for soda machine

  Coca-Cola Inc.At the same time as New York is trying to pass a soft drink tax, ABC News is doing an expose on Mountain Dew Mouth and doctors are urging all Americans to cut down on soda, Coca-Cola is debuting a new soda fountain that can hold more than 100 sodas. That's ten times more than current soda fountains.Currently, fountains work through syrup bags. The restaurant buys a bag (actually, a bag in a rectangular box) from Coke or Pepsi, hooks it up to a soda line and then the fountain combin

  February 19, 2009

• A throwback to pre-corn syrup controversy

  Pepsi Cola Inc.While Pepsi did not have any news this week as cool as a 120-soda fountain machine, it did announce it was bringing back old recipes for two drinks that never disappeared and calling them new drinks.That's not confusing right?The two drinks are Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback. In addition to the "so old they're cool" labels, the main draw of the drink is the sweetener. The throwbacks use good ol' cane sugar just like the original drinks did until 1984, when Pepsi switch

  February 20, 2009

• Who failed Tropicana?

  Tropicana I'm beginning to suspect Tropicana is just trying to drum up free press at this point. One month after announcing its new packaging that did away with the classic straw-in-an-orange logo, it's bringing it back because of demand. The New York Times is calling this fiasco "Pepsi Co now has its own version of New Coke." Pepsi owns Tropicana. The idea to change the label falls at the feet of a major advertising firm called Arnell Group, which is based out of New York. (Close to becom

  February 25, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Friday, 3/06

  No surprises here. Older drinkers have a hard time distinguishing between being a little tipsy versus three sheets to the wind. Moral of the story: Don't let grandpa drive. [Time]Which is sadder: Childhood obesity has reached such an epidemic that we don't have seven-pronged approaches to curing it or the fact that one of the steps is gastro-bypass surgery for kids? [Scientific Blogging]Wait, aren't people supposed to be drinking like mad during a recession? It can't be a good sign that liquor g

  March 6, 2009

• Obey William Penn

  Flickr: Gary SoupEven if you've never heard of Shepard Fairey's name (and who hasn't at this point?) you know his work from the iconic Obama "Hope" poster. The graffiti artist is the hottest thing in the art/design world, and with Web sites devoted to copying him. It was just a matter of time until a company tried ripping off his style, too.But I would have never guessed the first Shepard Fairey wannabe is Quaker Oats. The company wasn't founded by the original Quakers but it might as well have

  March 13, 2009

• Working Clash

  July 28, 2005

• Breakfast Buffet: Thursday 3/26

  An ingenious idea for taco trucks to let people know where they are -- Twitter! It's proving to be a hit on the taco-truck-heavy West Coast. [NPR]Scientists have figured out part of the reason that dogs chase their own tails. Weirdly, it's linked to high cholesterol. [Discover] What is it with the exhaust vents in Colorado? A naked man was found in one, and a dead man in another. [Barf Blog]Coca-Cola is still the number one power brand in the world. Starbucks and Pepsi both fell, the latter dram

  March 26, 2009

• Tropicana numbers just in, with a lesson on branding

  The amount of money spent to brand and advertise everyday items can be bewildering. The single largest advertiser in the world is Procter & Gamble (more than $5 billion a year) and it's tough not to think, "If P&G stopped running ads for a day, would its sales really fall?" Or how about some of the other largest advertisers?  Yes, sales would really fall and Pepsi has the Tropicana experience to prove it.

  April 6, 2009

• The Download

  October 9, 2008

• Meet the Maker

  Jeremy Madl left Kansas, started creating some of the coolest stuff in the world, and then came home.

  November 1, 2007

• Call Him "Crazy"

  It takes a special type of person to stay optimistic about Kansas City's pro teams.

  July 26, 2007

• Popcorn Tubs Runneth Over

  How do you get through another dismal Royals season: gluttony.

  July 5, 2007

• The Dumb Defense

  Saundra McFadden-Weaver has a simple strategy to survive controversy. She claims ignorance. Can Saundra McFadden-Weaver beat the feds by claiming — again — that she's been duped?

  January 25, 2007

• TGIE6

  October 19, 2006

• Jay's Anatomy

  September 14, 2006

• Life’s a Snap

  The Van Benthusen family’s unschooling experiment turns out one extraordinary kid.

  April 13, 2006

• All the President's Men Deep Thoughts by Redford

  February 23, 2006

• Wave This!

  Dare we say it? Jay Norton's flag burning fizzles.

  July 14, 2005

• 'Cock Knockers

  The Nelson has nothing but net.

  July 8, 2004

• Kiss, Me

  A former Kiss Army soldier recalls his torturous tour of duty.

  June 24, 2004

• Roll Out

  The Prairie Dogg finds the dirt on Playboy, Popeyes chicken and Harry Potter with Ludacris.

  February 19, 2004

• "Craigslist Killer" headlines threaten to overshadow Craig Newmark's memorial speech for victim

  April 30, 2009

• Millions of people have used the popular forum, including at least one killer

  May 7, 2009

• What's with the new Lay's ads?

  Driving along highways such as I-35 South or 70 West or 29 North, you're bound to see billboards for Lay's potato chips looking like this:The billboard is part of Lay's new nationwide ad campaign to promote itself as local. It's putting up specialized billboards and ads for every state in the union. Whether you're in Alaska or Florida, Lay's wants you to know it's your local mom-and-pop chip. Even if it's owned by Pepsi and has a market cap of more than $80 billion.  Not surprisingly the ad

  May 20, 2009

• Coca-Cola and Pepsi are no longer content to feud quietly

  \While it may not be Hatfield vs. McCoy, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have enough bad blood between them to fill a Wikipedia page and even cause skirmishes among drivers. The rivalry may have flattened a little since its Pepsi challenge/New Coke days, but things got heated again last Friday in court.At contention was whether Coke's brand Powerade had lied in advertisements for its ION4 sports drink. Billboard ads showed a Powerade bottle looming over a Gatorade bottle lopped in half, while the tag "

  June 9, 2009

• Sweeteners in disguise

  Avoiding sugar and its cousins doesn't sound like it should very complicated. All you need to do is look at the ingredient list and see if sugar is one of the items. Easy, right? Wrong. Sweeteners can be labeled under a score of different names, making certain products seem healthier than they are and causing problems for diabetics.IVillage Total Health has put together a list of 24 ingredients that are really sweeteners in disguise. Some are sugar-based, some crop-based and some artificial. The

  June 23, 2009

• The quality of gabachos in Tijuana and the rules of funeral food

  June 18, 2009

• Unlikely romances: Coke and Pepsi on Twitter

  After enduring a spate of bad publicity from feuding in court, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have decided to make up. On Twitter.The idea was proposed by advertising agency Razorfish, whose co-founder Iain McDonald (the @eunmac in the tweets) suggested that it would be like "a public hug" for the two to follow each other. Coke took the initiative and 18 hours later, Pepsi followed.Razorfish called it "a historic moment in branding." Actually, it was more like a nice gesture, if totally meaningless. Follow

  July 8, 2009

• Pepsi with a hint of mouse?

  ​It sounds like something out of a movie, but a Florida couple is claiming to have found a mouse in their Diet Pepsi. Amy and Fred Denegri were grilling at their home in Ormond Beach last week when they reportedly found the nasty surprise in the second-to-last can of Diet Pepsi in a 36-pack purchased from Sam's Club. Amy talked to WFTV Orlando about her husband's reaction:  "He made a face. I was sitting there and he said it tasted awful and something wasn't right." The couple has filed a

  July 30, 2009

• Official Guide: 2009 Pitch Music Showcase and Awards

  August 6, 2009

• Now you have plans for the weekend

  ​You need plans. Fat City has a recycle bin full of event listings. In this post, all of our problems are solved.The Missouri State Fair kicked off Thursday in Sedalia and runs through August 23. You should go if only for the pork chops on a stick or fried Snickers. The second-to-last-day of the fair will see a world record attempt for most exploding soda fountains, when 2,500 Pepsi bottles filled with Mentos will (hopefully) go off in unison. UNICO's first annual Microbrew Festival will featu

  August 14, 2009

• WWE SmackDown at Sprint Center tonight

  ​CM Punk doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs. He's straight edge (even has a Pepsi logo tattooed on his shoulder). Of course, in the world of WWE, he's the bad guy. Punk is chasing World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy. It's a natural feud since Hardy has twice violated the WWE's "wellness policy" (three strikes and Vince McMahon growls, "You're fired," for real). Punk and Hardy will rassle Sunday in a "tables, ladders and chairs" match at SummerSlam. But tonight, at the Sprint Center, Punk teams

  August 18, 2009

• KU Student Competes For Shot at the VMAs

  Thanks to some savvy cross-promotion between Pepsi and MTV, a bunch of KU students are going to the Pepsi website and watching videos, all while thinking about drinking sweet, sweet pop. ​MTV's got the Video Music Awards coming up next month, and as if the near-constant West Side Story themed ads weren't enough, they've got a contest going, where viewers can win the "Best Performance in a Pepsi Rock Band Video" by submitting a video featuring both Pepsi (natch) and Rock Band (coincidently

  August 25, 2009

• We'll all soon be drinking coconut water

  ​If you were sitting there during Cast Away wishing you could have a sip of coconut water instead of your 128-oz. Diet Coke -- boy are you excited about the latest potential growth market for Coke and Pepsi! As demand for bottled water has shrunk, beverage makers are trying to boost their market share by turning to new offerings, the latest of which appears to be coconut water. In the past two weeks, Pepsi has purchased Amacoco -- Brazil's largest producer of coconut water -- while Coca-Cola h

  September 3, 2009

• Slideshow No. 2 from a long weekend: Santa-Cali-Gon Days

  Ryan Gross celebrated Santa-Cali-Gon Days in Independence last week.​Santa-Cali-Gon Days, Independence's annual festival celebrating its place in history as the starting point for the Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails, was last week. Pitch Clubs Editor Berry Anderson was there to capture it all and put it in this slideshow, which includes a mohawk-sporting 3-year-old, foul-mouthed clowns and fried Pepsi.

  September 8, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Friday, October 9

  A photo essay on fall colors based on a recent harvest. [The Expatriate's Kitchen]A rave review for Jack's Discount Liquors on 95th Street and a wine recommendation to boot. [KC Beer Blog]From ice cucumber to fire, 13 Pepsi flavors you might not want to try. [Oobject]Is pumpkin the next super food? Here's a breakdown of the ubiquitous fall fruit's health benefits. [Miami New Times]

  October 9, 2009

• 63rd Street is ready for its close-up

  October 15, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Thursday, October 14

  An essay on the importance of buying local before a recommendation of the top 10 local chain restaurants. [The Making of a Foodie]Disappointment over the fact that the Osceola Cheese Shop can't even do cheesy well. [Gone Mild]A new study suggests that our sense of smell might be tied to emotional sensitivity -- so now you know the reason you cry at the sight of a dropped cupcake. [National Geographic]If you were having trouble picking up women, this iPhone app from Pepsi promoting AMP energy dr

  October 14, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Monday, October 19

  This "artistic interpretation" of KC Beerfest includes a sampling of Boulevard's Nutcracker Ale. [Show-Me Beer]A review of some of the most interesting offerings at KC Beerfest and thoughts on the crowd. [KC Beer Blog]Score a victory for cane sugar! Pepsi is bringing back Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback made with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup -- for eight weeks, beginning on December 28. [Pepsi Throwback Hub]Once you drop your Palm Pre in your beer, let it go, man. See what it

  October 19, 2009