Pepsi….The Only Choice for African Americans? — Mistakes Were Made
By: Marlon Mosley
Tags: Marketing, History, Blm, Racism, Business Strategy

Most people recognize Coca-Cola (Coke) and Pepsi as the two leading soft drinks in the world. Though Coke seems to be the clear number one favorite, there are people like me who prefer Pepsi over Coke. Both brands use diverse marketing strategies today to appeal to ethnicities of all types worldwide. These marketing strategies weren’t always the case, as the two brands went in two different directions in their earlier days.

Coke was mainly marketed to the White middle class in its earliest days. In the 1920s and 30s, Coke flat out ignored the African American market. Coke’s promotional material appeared in segregated locations that served both races (with all white models, of course), but rarely in those that catered to African-Americans alone.

Where Coke ignored the African American market, Walter S. Mack, president of Pepsi, saw the potential of a vast untapped market. Pepsi in fact established an all Black sales team in 1940.

Mack hired Edward Boyd in 1947 to help market to African Americans. Boyd’s key idea was to create advertisements that showed African Americans as normal middle-class people. One ad featured a smiling mother holding a six-pack of Pepsi while her son (portrayed by the future Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown) reaches up for one. Another ad profiled twenty prominent African Americans such as Nobel Peace Prize Winner Ralph Bunche.

Boyd led a sales team composed entirely of African Americans around the country to promote Pepsi. The team endured an impressive deal of discrimination as racial segregation, and Jim Crow was very much alive and kicking. Sadly, the team endured insults from Pepsi coworkers and threats from the Ku Klux Klan.

Boyd’s team used racism against its rival Coke. Boyd attacked Coke’s reluctance to hire Blacks and also the political support of Coke’s chairman for the Segregationist Governor of Georgia, Herman Talmadge. Because of Boyd and his team, Pepsi’s market share shot up dramatically. After the team visited Chicago, Pepsi’s share in the city overtook that of Coke for the first time.

All of this focus on the African American market didn’t sit well with everyone within the company and its affiliates. It scared them that the focus on African American consumers would push all the good White people away.

In a meeting with 500 bottlers of Pepsi, Mack told all in attendance that, “We don’t want it to become known as the nigger drink.” Those words didn’t sit too well with Boyd and his team. Mack left Pepsi in 1950, support for the Black sales team faded and Boyd was let go.

Mistakes were Made:

Why did Mack, who favored progressive causes and was the key factor in the African American marketing push, say what he said? Mack was facing the same dilemma that many politicians and CEO’s face today pleasing and reassuring ones master. If the bottlers left Pepsi to go to Coke because they feared Pepsi was too Black, it would screw Pepsi. Mack had to go against his morals and go out there and “perform” and give the people what they wanted so they would stay with Pepsi.

Look at the modern day case of Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler is a minority owner in the Atlanta Dream a WNBA team. Of the Dream’s 10 players, 8 are African American and the league in whole is 88% African American. With these percentages, it’s only right the WNBA would pay homage to the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM). Loeffler wrote a letter to the WNBA, stating her opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement, and she opposes the WNBA plans to honor the movement. In Loeffler’s words honoring Black Lives Matter, “undermines the potential of the sport and sends a message of exclusion.” Lets skip over the fact Loeffler statement is ridiculous, ignorant and tone deaf. There’s another fact about Loeffler, she’s one of the sitting U.S. Senators for the state of Georgia. She also is up for election this November, in a red state. Loeffler has voted with President Trump on legislative issues 100% of the time. Are you starting to get the picture?

Unlike Mack, I believe Loeffler believes the junk she spews. Her public remarks against BLM, is just like Mack’s speech, plain political pandering. That statement was for the Republican voters in Georgia, and to signal to the White House and the public she is still down for the cause. Her coming out in favor of her team’s players and their support of BLM, would not sit well with the core of supporters she needs to keep her Senate seat. It also wouldn’t sit well with Trump, who has demonized BLM many times himself.

It’s an understatement to say the 1940s were just different times from today, but couldn’t someone from Pepsi come up with the bright idea to market to Blacks and Whites equally? Maybe that was too much forward thinking. Mack had the brilliant idea to tap into a market that was being ignored, but still had to reassure his less enlightened colleagues with a hateful speech that undermined his vision. Even if you’re a CEO or U.S. Senator, you still have to appease and answer to someone.