Crystal Pepsi [related: PepsiCo, Tab Clear]
Short-lived clear cola drink released by PepsiCo at the height of the
error
. Circulated between 1992 and 1994, Crystal Pepsi marked an effort by its parent company to capitalize on new marketshare created by consumer interest in "health-adjacent" products
1
and New Age branding
3
. The product experienced modest success in the months following its unveiling, garnering over 1% of the "refreshment beverage" market
5
. Approximately nine months after Crystal Pepsi's debut, the Coca-Cola launched Tab Clear, a low-quality
saccharin
-sweetened beverage of similar appearance. Tab Clear's off-puttingly medicinal taste, syrupy consistency, and general air of artificiality proved repellent to consumers - so much so, that Crystal Pepsi, along with other "tighty white" products, experienced an almost immediate decline in sales. In 1995, it was revealed that Coca-Cola had chosen to release one of the lowest scoring of Tab Clear's perspective formulas, leading to rumours that it was a "kamikaze" job - a deliberate effort to undermine not only the success of Crystal Pepsi but the commercial New Age movement more broadly. Ironically, the first clear cola product was released by Coca-Cola itself in the mid-1950's: "white coke" - a secret vodka-containing one-off released in partnership with the Soviet Union.
1
Reportedly instigated by the relaunch of Ivory soap with the slogan "99 & 44/100 percent pure"
2
.
2
The industry's fixation on clear and/or white products, dubbed "tighty whiteness", was based around the public's tendency to equate purity and quality with an absence of color
3,4
.
3
Unsurpringly, media theorists retroactively pointed towards "tighty whiteness" as an example of widespread implicit racism.
4
A concept not limited to the free market - throughout the 1990's, impure cocaine was often treated with (often poisonous) chemicals to bleach its hue.
5
Roughly equivalent to a billion dollars.