The transcript is a humorous and detailed account of the rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola, with a focus on an alleged deal between Pepsi and the Soviet Union in 1989. The narrator, a character named "Matt Pat", presents a series of anecdotes and historical facts about the rivalry, including the formation of the Coca-Cola company and the Pepsi Cola rebranding.
Matt Pat also discusses the historical context of the rivalry, including the Cold War and the Soviet Union's attempts to establish trade with the US. He mentions a deal between Pepsi and the USSR, where Pepsi would become the exclusive soda for the Soviet Union in exchange for a fleet of warships. However, he points out that the claim of Pepsi having the sixth largest navy in the world is not accurate, and the deal was actually about building oil tankers, not buying old naval vessels.
The narrative concludes with a discussion about the modern state of the rivalry, with Pepsi still being a significant player in Russia's market. The narrator also mentions that Coca-Cola has a larger market share in Russia than Pepsi, possibly due to the perception of Coca-Cola as a more modern and appealing brand. The narrative ends with a call to do thorough research and not to trust clickbait headlines.
1. The text discusses the rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola, with the latter being formed a mere two years after the former.
2. Over the following decades, both companies would continue to introduce new and modern advertising techniques to prove their superiority.
3. Pepsi would always be the one playing catch-up, declaring bankruptcy not just once but twice in 1923 and 1931 due to fluctuating sugar prices.
4. Despite the opportunity to purchase the Pepsi Cola Company three times for as low as $35,000, Coca-Cola declined each time.
5. In 1934, Pepsi started selling 12-ounce bottles for a nickel, which was twice the amount of beverage that other soft drinks were offering at the time.
6. In 1989, Pepsi made a deal with the USSR to become the exclusive soda for the Soviets, with the payment being a fleet of warships.
7. The deal was to ship Pepsi syrup to Russian-based bottling plants in exchange for Pepsi having exclusive rights within the USSR.
8. The Soviets offered 17 submarines, a cruiser, a destroyer, and a frigate in order to pay for all that Pepsi.
9. The ships were obsolete to the Soviets, so they'd give them to Pepsico who could then send them to be scrapped, and the sale of said scrap would help pay for the soda syrup.
10. The deal was delayed, and the actual deal was due to be signed in Moscow on April 9, 1990.
11. The deal was changed, and the Soviets agreed to build at least 10 ships, mostly oil tankers, in the 25,000 to 65,000 metric ton range to help finance the estimated one billion dollars that Pepsico plans to invest in the project.
12. The ships would then be leased out to other countries to transport oil all over the world.
13. The USSR fell apart in December of 1991, just over a year after the oil tanker deal was signed, throwing Pepsi's investment into the region into chaos.
14. Pepsi had to piece together deals from across 15 separate countries with things like their bottles coming from Belarus and their partially built ships stuck in the newly independent Ukraine.
15. In 2020, Russia is still Pepsi's third biggest market behind Mexico in the US, with a reported revenue of three billion dollars a year.
16. In 2004, former Pepsi CEO Donald Kendall received the Order of Friendship for his contributions to Russian commerce from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
17. Surveys report that Coca-Cola is actually Russia's favorite soda, possibly because Pepsi felt old at the time, a marker of the Cold War.
18. The moral of the story is to do your research, don't trust clickbait headlines that sound too unbelievable to be true from the newspapers, and be careful when trying to solve communism using soda.