All language subtitles for The Food That Built America S02E05 Cola Wars

More than
10,000 drinks every second,

generating over $2
billion in sales a day.

And in the 1970s, one brand
is synonymous with soda.

- Coca-Cola was this
exalted product.

It was the drink God consumed.

But a forgotten
rival rises from the ashes

to launch an all
out assault on Coke.

- Pepsi.

Igniting
a bitter war.

- A little taste test is a joke.

- Come up with a
formula that beats Pepsi

in a taste test
every single time.

Between two of
the most iconic brand names

in history.

- Coca-Cola people wouldn't
even utter the name Pepsi.

- Americans love a
particular brand.

And they're fanatics.

The battle
between Coke and Pepsi

spawns new products
and new innovations.

- No one has ever
paid anyone $5 million

for a celebrity endorsement.

And only one
cola will be crowned King.

- Get them on the phone
with me right now.

This is Cola Wars.

It's the
early 1970s,

the Vietnam War is raging.

The Cold War has reached
its third decade.

And after nearly
20 years of growth,

the US economy is in freefall.

- 1970s were a bad time.

You have high unemployment
and high inflation

at the same time.

Arab oil producing
countries put an embargo

on selling oil to
the United States.

- When the oil crises
of the early 1970s

hit the United States,
families took it very hard.

People are earning
incredibly low wages

and that required
them to think about

how they could keep costs down.

- There is a moment in which
everyone has to take stock.

Will the economy rebound?

How long will this last?

All of these questions
have to be negotiated.

But there's
still one product

that offers Americans
a sugary escape,

and it's remained unchanged
for the last 40 years.

Coca-Cola.

- You know, people
they are looking for

something that was distracting.

And you know, I mean
sugar does wonders

with everything, right?

- Coca-Cola was mom.

It was apple pie.

It was your trusted friend.

It was always there for you.

There was nothing like it.

Since 1886,

Coca-Cola has grown from
a local health tonic

into a global superpower.

And in the 1970s, it's
woven into the fabric

of everyday life.

- Coke had always been seen
as the perfect product.

There were other companies
as well doing the same thing,

but no one had done it on
the level of Coca-Cola.

After 50
years of chipping away,

one small competitor
has still only captured

6% of Coke's market
share, Pepsi.

- Pepsi was created in 1898 in
a pharmacy in North Carolina.

Pepsi was labeled
a failing brand

and a man named Charles
Guth ended up buying Pepsi

and he became rather successful.

But when sugar was rationed
during the second World War

and only Coca-Cola
got the contract

from the United
States government,

then the bottom
completely fell out.

In New
York by the early 70s,

Coke is outselling
Pepsi three to one

in grocery stores
and soda fountains.

- What do you have for me?

- Coca-Cola it had
always been the best,

but now Pepsi had a
terrible market share.

It was worse, not
only than Coke,

but it was worse
than Dr. Pepper.

Chairman of
the board, Don Kendall

has been searching for ways to
cut into Coke's market share

and overtake them as the number
one soda brand in the world.

- Kendall earned his
stripes by heading

the international operation.

He actually tripled sales.

He was a very smart,
shrewd incisive man.

- Kendall had a very
strong point of view.

When you can't outspend
your competitor,

you have to be smarter.

Kendall is
desperate to find out

if Coke's higher sales

are because of their
massive spending advantage,

or if it's a matter of taste.

And in 1974, Kendall sinks
much needed financial resources

into a secret large scale
operation to find out.

- Where are we on that?

- To compete head-to-head
with Coca-Cola,

in some desperation Don Kendall

decided to do this blind taste
test with Coke and Pepsi.

And he would have people sip
and tell which one they liked.

Kendall has
tasked his second in command,

CEO John Sculley,
to lead the project.

- You've run the numbers.

Based on the blind taste
test folks prefer Pepsi

52% of the time.

I know, it's not,

not quite what we were hoping.

- That's all we need.

- For Don Kendall realizing
that a slim majority

of consumers will pick
Pepsi in blind taste tests.

He decided they would
capitalize on that.

Don
Kendall uses Pepsi's

slim margin of victory to launch
a bold assault on Coca-Cola

filming a series of commercials
featuring everyday Americans

picking Pepsi over Coke.

He names the campaign,
The Pepsi Challenge.

- I want you to tell me
what you picked, okay?

- Pepsi.

- Pepsi.

- Consumers at shopping centers
and malls and parking lots

blind taste testing.

I mean, it was really
quite remarkable.

- It becomes increasingly
important for competitors

to be able to identify
their product is superior.

And marketing will become
absolutely essential...

because really sometimes it
was very little difference

between these products.

- You know, it's
one thing to say,

"Oh, my car is faster
than the other guy's car."

You can quantify
that kind of stuff.

It was the first time
that superiority claims

were being made on something
as ephemeral as taste.

It was very, very
bold marketing.

The Pepsi
Challenge is a huge success.

As it propels the company into
the national consciousness.

Annual sales skyrocket from
775 million cases per year

to nearly 940 million.

- Pepsi hadn't
caught up with Coke,

but it was no longer a
drop in Coke's bucket.

This was a real
major competitor.

And Coke had to
acknowledge that.

They just couldn't
avoid it anymore.

- The Pepsi Challenge.

So, what's our move?

Robert Woodruff
has been chairman of Coca-Cola

since taking over from
his father in 1923.

In his five decades in charge,

the visionary Woodruff has
overseen an unprecedented era

of innovation from the
invention of the six pack

to the automatic soda fountain
to the modern vending machine

and has turned the brand
into a global icon.

But for the first
time in decades,

Woodruff is facing a direct
threat to Coke supremacy.

- For Woodruff,
Pepsi's marketing,

just ungentlemanly behavior.

You were never supposed to refer
directly to your competitor

and you certainly weren't
supposed to do anything

like the blind taste test.

- Paul?

- It's a stunt.

A cheap gimmick.

I'll talk to advertising,

come up with a
counter-marketing campaign.

That little taste
test is a joke.

And we'll make sure the
whole world knows it.

- Everyone in agreement?

Goizueta, any thoughts?

Unlike most
of Coke's executives

who have been in
place for years,

a young Cuban immigrant
named Roberto Goizueta

has recently been
promoted to Vice-President

of Research and Development.

- As a chemical engineer,

Goizueta gets hired in
Cuba to work for Coca-Cola.

Then Fidel Castro comes to power

and Cuba becomes a
communist society.

Goizueta decides to defect
to the United States

and eventually gets a job

with Coca-Cola
Headquarters in Atlanta

working his way up
through the ranks.

At age 35 he was the
youngest person ever

appointed to his position.

- Maybe...

Maybe we run some
taste tests of our own.

On the off chance
that Pepsi's right,

we should find out why.

- That's a waste of time.

America loves Coca-Cola.

No taste test is
going to change that.

- Goizueta was a
pragmatic businessman

and he was one of the few
people who actually recognized

that Pepsi became a
totally serious challenger.

- Run the counter-programming.

- Woodruff wasn't in complete
denial of the Pepsi Challenge.

They refuse to admit that
anybody can seriously

have a preference for Pepsi.

Basically, he didn't
want to change anything.

Robert
Woodruff's failure

to recognize the Pepsi threat,

opens the doors to a
fight for cola dominance

that will be waged
for years to come,

leading to even more of
the best known products

on the planet and the
most infamous in history.

By the mid 1970s,

the conflict in
Vietnam has ended

and the country falls
deeper into a recession.

- So after the Vietnam War,

there's this kind
of hangover effect.

Hundreds of thousands
of people unmployed

and they found
themselves at the mercy

of forces beyond their control.

- People are living
in conditions

in which they're
working multiple jobs

and they have very little
financial resources to draw from

in order to purchase food.

So fast food is often the
reasonable and practical choice

for people under
a lot of pressure.

At a time when a
big Mac costs only 15 cents,

fast food offers an affordable
meal for an entire family.

By the end of the decade,

McDonald's will have
over 6,000 franchises

all across the country.

And only Coca-Cola
is served exclusively

at every single one.

- Coke owned the market.

People would go to
fast food restaurants

and be shocked if they
would serve Pepsi.

Pepsi
President Don Kendall

is fresh off the success
of the Pepsi Challenge

and his market share is growing

for the first time in a decade.

Now, he's looking for
new ways to defeat Coke

and become the world's
best-selling cola.

- I want Pizza Hut.

I want Taco Bell.

I want KFC.

I don't care what it costs.

Just put the contract on
my desk and I'll sign it.

But Kendall
isn't satisfied signing deals

to just serve Pepsi
in restaurants.

In 1978, he invests
over $1 billion

to buy the restaurant
chains themselves.

- At the time, the notion
of a soft drink company

acquiring restaurants
was quite shocking.

- By acquiring these
restaurant chains,

Pepsi could be assured that
only Pepsi would be sold

at all of these
stores, nothing else.

So it was the shrewd move.

- To think this plan out
and then go ahead and do it.

He had to be pretty ruthless.

Now selling Pepsi
in over 5,000 restaurants,

profits increase by
$3 billion a year,

fueling Kendall's
continued assault

on Coca-Cola's dominance.

- That just shows what
an underdog can do

with enough perseverance,

enough imagination
with risk-taking.

You may not be number one,

but you're a very, very
threatening number two.

900 miles away,

Coke's vice-president of
research and development

recognizes the growing threat

and uses his background in
chemistry to fight back.

- He had an incredible
understanding of Coca-Cola

down to its very formula,

the cinnamon oil,
lemon oil, orange oil,

and the vast amounts of sugar.

So he struck out on his own.

Goizueta
starts experimenting

with ways to cut costs
and increase profits.

- Goizueta is willing to
do anything necessary.

And sugar was expensive.

So he became obsessed with
high fructose corn syrup.

- Chemists invent high
fructose corn syrup.

They're basically taking glucose

and converting it
into a fructose.

Things like corn syrup are
used to replace cane sugar

in order to keep
their costs low.

High fructose
corn syrup is 1.5 times sweeter

and roughly one quarter
the cost of cane sugar.

But widely consider to
have a different flavor,

it has failed to catch on.

- Which is which?

No, no, no, no
wait, don't tell me.

This is sugar,
that's corn syrup.

- So he would take a
certain amount of the syrup,

mix it with a standard amount
of the carbonated water

and Goizueta became convinced
that high fructose corn syrup

didn't change the taste.

- Thanks for seeing me.

- You've got five
minutes. Let's hear it.

- Tell me how much do you know

about high fructose corn syrup?

It's an artificial sweetener,

astronomically cheaper to
manufacture than cane sugar,

but it tastes exactly the same.

- Woodruff after
all these years,

he had created
this whole mystique

around the Coca-Cola formula

and was very, very
protective of it.

- So, you're suggesting we
change Coca-Cola's recipe?

The same recipe
that's been unchanged

for nearly a hundred years?

Is that what you're suggesting?

- Goizueta was a chemist

and he regarded it
simply as a formula.

And he had said, "There
are no sacred formulas."

- Back during World War II,

when the government
rationed cane sugar,

you yourself approved switching
Coca-Cola to a beet sugar.

What I'm suggesting is
the exact same thing.

We'd simply be switching
to another kind of sugar.

- Okay.

In 1980
with Woodruff's blessing,

Coca-Cola introduces

high fructose corn
syrup in its recipe.

Goizueta's use of the ingredient
pioneers a massive change

in the soda industry
and has food brands

like Heinz and Kellogg's
quickly following suit.

- Goizueta takes
a risk, huge risk

and was incredibly successful.

With the change,

company profits soar by
$150 million per year.

- Goizueta proves
to Robert Woodruff

he's a brilliant
chemist and scientist,

but also had great
business acumen.

- How would you like
to run the company?

In March, 1981,

Roberto's Goizueta, a
Cuban American immigrant

is named CEO of the largest
soda empire on earth.

- Everything you're eating has
been brought to this country

in this culture by an immigrant.

And I think that more
and more are entering

executive positions,
board positions

and they're solving problems.

You know, so this notion of it,

what is American is very fluid.

- Roberto Goizueta had an
unerring, unswerving devotion

to Coca-Cola and he was
willing to take chances.

He was willing to
go out on a limb.

Now
in charge and armed

with the windfall profits

from the inspired
switch to corn syrup,

Goizueta will risk it all

and the Coca-Cola reputation

to try to bring
Pepsi to its knees.

In the late 1970s,

American rates of obesity,
heart disease and diabetes

are on the rise.

In response in 1977,

the US Health Department
releases the first guidelines

on Americans diet.

- It is led by
doctors and physicians

raising the concerns around

what the American
diet should be.

And the reality is
people are thinking about

what they believe
is healthy food.

As a
result by the mid 1980s,

there was a massive
boom in fitness videos,

diet clubs, and gyms
all raking in millions.

For the first time
in half a century,

the soft drink
industry is struggling.

- So all of these diet
and nutrition trends

impact these companies

and these companies
are now willing

to cater to the
concerns of consumers.

- Okay, what else?

With
the future prospects

of the unhealthy soft drink
business looking bleak,

Don Kendall is
desperate for ideas

to keep pace with their rival.

- Coca-Cola is outpacing
us on ad spending

by 150 million a year.

Sales a drag until we can
find a way to keep up.

- Well, short of me finding
$150 million in my desk drawer.

What have we got?

Oh, come on.

You guys are the
marketing wizards.

What are your big ideas?

- Sir? If I may.

- I'm sorry. Who is this?

- My new assistant.

- Does he have a name?

- Roger Enrico, sir.

- Roger Enrico was
an interesting guy.

He was very young at the time

and he had served
over at General Mills

as the brand manager for,

I believe it was Wheaties.

A very smart, shrewd man.

A whiz at marketing.

- Okay, Enrico.

What's your big idea?

- Maybe the move is to beat
them in a whole new category.

- Such as?

- Caffeine-free.

In addition to
the negative health effects

of sweeteners,
studies at the time

site caffeine as a potential
contributor to ulcers,

heart disease and
bladder cancer.

- Both Coke and Pepsi
are rife with caffeine.

You know, cola at this point

was the main source of caffeine

for the American food consumer.

At
just 38 years old,

Roger Enrico makes
the unprecedented move

of removing the highly
caffeinated cola nut

from the Pepsi formula
and develops a new weapon

in the Cola Wars.

In 1982, Enrico
unleashes Pepsi Free.

- Roger Enrico was
incredibly entrepreneurial.

It's really kind of amazing

that most of these
great brands that we see

how the recipes change,

how the ingredients change,

how they have to pivot
when adversity strikes.

The product
is an instant hit

with health conscious Americans.

In its first year, Pepsi
sells nearly 2 billion

12 ounce cans,

bringing in a $500
million payday.

- For Enrico, he was
very, very effective

in ushering Pepsi
into a new age.

- Pepsi's was the Rodney
Dangerfield of soft drinks.

Until the mid '80s, it
didn't get no respect.

In Atlanta,
Roberto Goizueta

readies an immediate response

with a health conscious
product of his own.

Taking on the fitness craze
with a low-calorie soft drink,

he calls Diet Coke.

- Soft drinks are
loaded with sugar,

but Diet Coke begins using a
new sweetener called aspartame

which we know as NutraSweet.

That was said to be healthy.

To sell Diet Coke,

Goizueta takes advantage
of a revolutionary

advertising tool,

cable television.

- So by the mid '80s,
TV really just explodes.

- 24 hours a day you have
things that you wanted to see

oftentimes simultaneously.

And that's something that had
never been experienced before.

Cable television spread
immediately and rapidly.

♪ Introducing Diet Coke

♪ You're gonna drink it

♪ Just for the taste of it

- Diet Coke was one of the
best product introductions

of all times.

They basically carpet-bombed
the country with advertising.

They were able to piggyback
on all the brand recognition

that Coca-Cola had built
up over decades and decades

of advertising and Diet
Coke just took off.

Diet Coke
obliterates Pepsi Free,

becoming the bestselling
diet drink in the US

and eventually the number
two soft drink overall,

behind only Coca-Cola.

But Don Kendall still recognizes

the ingenuity of his young
marketing savant, Roger Enrico.

Got a minute.

- Oh Don.

What can I do for you?

- Oh, I'm assuming you've heard.

Sculley accepted a position
as CEO at Apple Computers.

- Huh.

Do you know who's
taking his place?

- You.

Congratulations.

- When Roger Enrico's
appointed CEO of Pepsi,

he was 38 years old.

- Enrico who's one of
the youngest presidents

of any major corporation.

- He was a ferocious marketer.

He was the hardest worker
anyone had ever seen.

He was an original thinker.

- Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

- Coca-Cola's still number one,

Diet Coke is number two

and Pepsi-Cola is number three.

And I'm sure a very
difficult time for Enrico

to become president
of the company.

With
Coca-Cola sales once again

dominating the
soft drink market,

it's up to the
untested Roger Enrico

to fire the next shot
in the Cola Wars.

And what comes next will be
the biggest marketing maneuver

of all time.

It's 1981
and youth culture

is driving television
advertising.

A
game so challenging,

you need this combat
control panel to play it.

- The rise of the
American teenager

was something that was a
phenomenon in the 1950s.

Well, in the 1980s,

you have the adolescent
now extended into the 20s

with disposable income.

Without the burdens
of a mortgage, kids,

that now becomes a major focus

of anybody who wants
to sell products.

And so the entire kind
of commercial culture

gets geared to the young.

On August 1st,
MTV officially launches

triggering a new era of pop
stardom like never before.

- MTV combined entertainment,
music, information,

hangout culture and
videos as radio

into one unified
form of inclusion

for a demographic of
people 18 to 34.

And I think that's something

that effectively
changed everything.

MTV's importance to the
evolution of humankind

cannot be understated.

To keep
up with Coca-Cola's

surging Diet Coke sales,

Pepsi's new CEO needs
another revolutionary idea.

Using the new cultural shift
toward the power of celebrity,

Roger Enrico makes
a bold proposition

unlike any CEO before him.

- I'm not sure how
to phrase this,

so I'm just gonna come
right out and say it.

- Okay.

- I want to pay Michael
Jackson $5 million

to be the face of Pepsi.

- Michael Jackson is the biggest
thing since sliced bread.

And at the height of his
popularity Enrico decides

I am going to get the biggest
pop star on the planet

to endorse Pepsi.

Michael Jackson

is fresh off the
success of thriller,

which will go on to sell
over 66 million records,

making it the best
selling album in history.

Leading the "Guinness
Book of World Records"

to dub him the most successful
entertainer of all time.

- You want to pay
him $5 million?

- Yes.

For two commercials
and a concert tour.

Oh, also Coca-Cola
is interested in him.

- Well, then you
better do it quick.

- If you can latch in with
advertising a potential consumer

at the age of 16 and
then grow with them,

then you have a
lifetime consumer.

And ultimately for advertisers

being able to create
lifetime consumers

at a far younger
age than ever before

effectively it made commerce
an industry unto itself

like it had never been before.

Roger Enrico
inks Michael Jackson

to the largest celebrity
endorsement contract in history,

equal to over $12.5
million today.

And in 1984, filming begins
on his first Pepsi spot.

- And famously what they
did was they leaked

the amount that had
been spent on him.

And it became this big moment

where this brand,
the number two soda

got the number one pop
star on the planet.

- Now, unfortunately,
during the filming

of one of these ads
in the very last take

Michael Jackson's hair,
through a wayward fireworks,

caught fire and he was
taken to the hospital

and it caused a big sensation.

- That only served to grow

the legend of Michael
and Pepsi even more.

When the ads air,

they're an instant sensation

seen by 99% of the
American public

dozens of times over
a series of months.

- Yes. Come on in, have a seat.

The campaign boosts
sales by nearly $2 billion,

leading to a massive 7.7
billion in total sales for 1984.

- Michael Jackson really
became the linchpin

of Pepsi is cool.

Pepsi is hip.

Pepsi is where we want to be.

Coke still doesn't have that.

At Coca-Cola,
Roberto Goizueta

watches the company
post a net loss

in market shares for the
first time in decades.

And the brand that
once seemed invincible

is suddenly exposed.

- Yeah.

Whoa, slow down.

What do you mean Burger
King is pulling out.

No, you get them on the
phone with me right now.

I don't care. Just do it.

- It was the conception
that Coke lost to Pepsi

with their marketing and
with their advertising,

which is why Burger
King defected.

Infuriated by
Pepsi's rising popularity,

Roberto Goizueta is determined
to regain Coca-Cola's crown.

- Can I have your attention.

By
doing the one thing

that has been unthinkable
for almost a hundred years.

- From now on your assignment,

your only assignment is
to come up with a formula

that guarantees Coke beats
Pepsi in a taste test

every single time.

He's
going to change

the sacred Coca-Cola
formula itself.

- Don't look at me.

Get to work.

- Now in 1985.

And it's certainly the
peak of the Cola Wars.

It doesn't get any more intense.

Pepsi had won a battle, but
they didn't win the war.

In a response
to a flurry of victories

by his greatest rival,

Roberto Goizueta is planning
the most radical change

in Coca-Cola's nearly
100 year history,

modifying its sacred formula.

- It was called Project Kansas,

and it was done on
secrecy worthy of the CIA,

worthy of the Kremlin.

No one knew about it.

- Coca-Cola and Goizueta we're
so obsessed with the idea

that they were going to
break the commandments.

They were going to go ahead

and have a dramatic
flavor change

that it would go down in
history as one of the boldest

and most brilliant moves
that he could make.

While the
project is a secret

from the rest of the world,

news leaks to Pepsi
Headquarters in New York.

- My source tells me it'll
either be called Coke Light,

Coke II or New Coke.

- And it's supposed to be what?

Just another new product.

- No, that's the thing,

it's replacing Coca-Cola.

- They're admitting defeat.

We won.

- Enrico realized,
Hey, wait a minute.

What this means is
that Pepsi was so good,

so effective and so
superior to Coca-Cola

that Coca-Cola after 99
years of hammering away

about how great it was
had to take its flagship,

iconic product off the market
and replace it with a new one.

Meanwhile,
Roberto Goizueta forges ahead

with his bold plan.

That's
regular, plain old Coca-Cola.

- Okay.

- And this, this is the
formula for Diet Coke

but sweetened with the same
high fructose corn syrup

found in regular Coca-Cola.

- It tastes better.

- We know.

- The flavor was as though
you had mixed two-part Pepsi

to one part Coke.

And the greater lemony
note was prevalent.

The taste was eerily like Pepsi.

- Coke had done
a lot of research

and they had done
focus groups too.

They certainly thought
that they would come out

with Coke II, the
great fanfare and say,

"We've improved it.

It's the same
Coca-Cola, only better."

In
the spring of 1985,

Goizueta shuts down
production on Coca-Cola

and dedicates all his bottling
lines to the new product.

Introducing
the new taste of Coca-Cola.

That's right, a
new taste of Coke.

on April 23rd,
New Coke replaces Coca-Cola

as the flagship
product of the largest,

most legendary cola
manufacturer in history.

- It is catching on.

The taste is better
and newer than,

than, than, than--

Pepsi!

- You just said the P word.

- I thank you all for coming.

I'm opening up the
floor to any questions.

If anybody has any.

- Is it true you've
changed the formula

to make Coke more like Pepsi?

- No, I wouldn't say
that's accurate at all.

We've improved the
flavor profile.

It's better than Pepsi.

- New Coke was
absolutely atrocious,

disgusting, undrinkable.

It wasn't good.

And in fact,

the nation overwhelmingly
told Coca-Cola that.

- In this day and age
it's hard to understand

the visceral reaction
so many people had

to the loss of their
friend Coca-Cola.

People were convinced that
this was almost a betrayal

of the covenant that Coca-Cola
had built over the years.

And the American people
just rebelled against that.

The
unprecedented gamble

to change their renowned formula

could finally end their streak

as the number one
cola in the world.

Unless Goizueta can come up

with another
revolutionary maneuver.

- Can you describe
the taste of New Coke?

Roberto
Goizueta has just launched

a newly formulated recipe for
Coca-Cola called New Coke.

And the reaction is not at
all the victory he expected.

- It's uh...

It's rounder...

smoother...

more harmonious, yet bolder.

The failure of
New Coke is so catastrophic,

the company never releases
official sales figures.

But all across the country,

millions of cans and
bottles go unsold.

- In the 20th century,

a failure in business was seen
to be almost a moral failure.

And here the first person to
take over since Robert Woodruff

takes a huge risk.

Changes the very fabric
of Coca-Cola itself,

falls on his face.

For Pepsi,
it's a hard fought victory

after a hundred years of battle.

- Here, take this down will you.

To all Pepsi bottlers and
Pepsi-Cola company personnel,

it gives me great pleasure
to offer each of you

my heartiest congratulations.

After 87 years of going
at it, eyeball-to-eyeball,

the other guy just blinked.

Maybe they just realized

what most of us have
known for years,

Pepsi tastes better than Coke.

For now, I say victory is sweet

and we've earned a celebration.

- Enrico was so happy over this,

he put in the full page
in the New York Times,

touting the fact that
Pepsi-Cola had finally prevailed

over the Coca-Cola company
and he gave everyone

in the company a day
off to celebrate.

But at
Coca-Cola Headquarters,

with his back against the wall,

Roberto Goizueta quickly
realizes his mistake

and plans to relaunch
the original recipe.

- Despite the hoopla, the ads,

after three months
they finally came back

with what they call
Coca-Cola Classic.

Coca- Cola Classic.

It's the way you
said it should be

because you know what
you've always known.

- But the remarkable thing

was that when they brought
back Coca-Cola Classic,

it suddenly began outselling
Pepsi and gaining market share.

- You know, if you want people
to appreciate something,

the best way to do it is just
to take it away from them

for a little while.

That's what happened.

- Some people thought
that they had actually

done this whole thing as an
elaborate marketing stunt,

which was certainly
not the case.

They just screwed up big time.

- And in his failure,

Goizueta proves to have
the largest success

and becomes a catalyst

for one of the largest
periods of growth.

And had Goizueta not
taking that risk.

Had he not risked it
all, fell on his face,

they could not have generated
the amazing sales they had

in the wake of its
reintroduction.

And possibly saved
Coke in the long run.

After
a decade long war,

both companies
emerged triumphant.

- The Cola Wars ends
up being an environment

of cutthroat competition.

However, I think you had

a profound sense
of mutual respect.

And as we see in Brooklyn,
"Game recognizing game."

Today, annual
revenue from Coca-Cola

totals $32 billion.

And PepsiCo's combined
food and soda brands

rake in $64 billion.

- You are either a Coke person
or you're a Pepsi person.

It's like, you're a Democrat
or you're a Republican.

People still feel
really strongly

about their
preferred cola brand.

Coke and
Pepsi continue to compete

in a soft drink market
expected to grow

six and a half
percent every year

for the right to
declare themselves

the undisputed Kings of Cola.

- It used to be that Coca-Cola

was the best known
word on earth.

I don't know what
the future will hold.

It'll be interesting
to find out.