Pepsi’s six-to-one deficit showed brand power can override price advantage.

Evidence

Over the 1950s, Pepsi depended entirely on identifying itself not as healthful, or even better tasting, but the cheaper cola, occupying the market niche that generic colas hold today. Its most successful jingle, the one McLuhan borrowed for Leary’s psychedelic venture, had gone like this: “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot; 12 full ounces, that’s a lot.” Truth in advertising: Pepsi was sold in a 12-ounce bottle for 5 cents, the price of 6.5 ounces of Coke. By 1957, when Pottasch joined the company, despite all its efforts Pepsi was being outsold by a factor of nearly six to one, giving a classic demonstration of the power of brand to undermine the concept of choice—but without anyone feeling they had sacrificed any freedoms. They were just choosing Coke, that’s all. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 548

Categorization

• XREF: The last line prefigures the attention-economy theme of soft coercion: consumers feel free while their options are effectively pre-decided.
• SHARE: The ‘price of 6.5 ounces of Coke’ detail and the outselling ratio are perfect for an ad-marketing or history-of-capitalism person.