At the closing bell Sept. 15, when the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 504 points, the only member of the Dow 30 to show a gain on the day was Coca-Cola, up 0.5%.
Some support for the stock market was provided by the strong performance of several stocks, including Coca-Cola, up $1.50, to $62.38; Merck, up $1.56, to $91.13; Eastman Kodak, up 81 cents, to $39.44; and Exxon Mobil, up $1.80, to $88.
"The cola industry is already up and running.
"The cola wars are revved up again in a way they haven't been in a decade," said John D. Sicher, at Beverage Digest, a trade publication.
Then came the Pepsi Challenge where representatives from the cola company would set up a table in a public location and administer a blind taste test to passers-by.
The insipid green walls and bottles of Thums Up, the cola drink of India, screamed out with an anti-ambience, but that, of course, was its charm.
At Pepsi, Nooyi is credited with the bold moves to pretty up the cola firm with "healthy" acquisitions like juice maker Tropicana (1998) and Quaker Oats (2001).
If I could give an award for the most bewildering headline in recent months, it would be the story that the Wall Street Journal ran last week on top of a prominently positioned article about Pepsi and the shrinking cola market: "PepsiCo Wakes Up and Smells the Cola: Criticized for Taking Eye off Ball and Focusing on Healthy Food, Company Plans Summer Ad Splash" Let me get this straight.
The resulting ad, in which MacGruber becomes addicted to cola, wound up running during the 2009 Super Bowl.
Add the can of cola and crank up the heat to bring to the boil, mixing well.
