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Advertising in a competitive market has all participants locked in a prisoners dilemma. Cokes ROI is probably pretty bad, if they cut ad spend then Pepsi's ROI
by lumost 6y ago
Advertising in a competitive market has all participants locked in a prisoners dilemma. Cokes ROI is probably pretty bad, if they cut ad spend then Pepsi's ROI would go up.
- Ericson2314 6y agoExactly. The "rat race of bullshit" is not incidental but intrinsic to the relationship between the megacorps and the advertising industry.
- willcipriano 6y agoEveryone says that but does anyone actually try it? At 30 years old I already have my beverage preferences, if I never saw a Pepsi ad again Coke would still be too sweet for me. Who are these people who are swayed by this? Who hasn't tried both and determined a preference already?
- tgb 6y agoMy pet conspiracy theory is that the tobacco industry tried this in the US by getting the government to ban advertising of tobacco.
- daniel-cussen 6y agoThis is a form of collusion with which I have no problem.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoIts not true though, as if it was then they wouldn't spend loads of money where they can still advertise. But they do (and they sponsored F1 for a long time after most advertising was banned) so advertising must have some impact on their sales.
- tgb 6y agoI think my "theory" is false for other reasons, but that they advertise where allowed doesn't contradict any of the theory. They just haven't successfully colluded to get the prisoner's dilemma solved by the local government in those regions and so all still have to defect.
- taeric 6y agoFamously, Coke tried it.
- KingMachiavelli 6y agoLast I checked Pepsi is sweeter than Coke.
- ThalesX 6y agoI wanted to answer with an angry reply but I decided against it, I would however love a little more context to your comment so I can understand. What does it mean? Do you think this person is lying about the taste for some nefarious reason? Do you think they have some condition where they feel sweeter drinks as more bitter? Where and when did you last check? What are the differences between the last check and the previous one?
- lukeschlather 6y agoFrom the Coke and Pepsi websites a 12oz can of Pepsi has 41g of sugars while a 12oz can of Coke has 39g of sugars, so the Pepsi is, objectively, sweeter. Interestingly Pepsi includes both HFCS and sugar, so what the OP describes as "too sweet" might actually be a flavor palate that lacks that bit of sugar in addition to HFCS. (The exact mix is not clear, though Pepsi contains more "CARAMEL COLOR" than sugar so it seems suspiciously like the Pepsi is nutritionally the same as Coke with an extra 2g of sugar in addition to 39g of HFCS.)
- twic 6y ago> objectively, sweeter qualia BTFO
- ImprobableTruth 6y agoThe fact that this is downvoted tells me that people here still don't understand qualia.
- Mountain_Skies 6y agoI too was surprised to see the post that Coke is too sweet compared to Pepsi as I've never heard anyone say or write that before. I've always heard people say Pepsi is sweeter than Coke. Apparently that was one of the main drivers of "New" Coke back in the 80s, to make a sweeter version of Coke to compete with Pepsi, especially the Pepsi Challenge, which rewarded sweetness due to the small sipping size. The person you're responding to may have had a similar lifetime experience and that's why they commented on it. Likely not nefarious, simply an observation on something unexpected.
- bluGill 6y agoWhat about your kids? There is a long game.
- toast0 6y agoYeah, Pepsi tried it. They spent their superbowl ad budget one year on charitable causes instead, and maybe reduced their ad budget overall, and they had significantly reduced sales for the year. Restoring their superbowl ads restored their sales.
- usrusr 6y agoOn this level of brand awareness advertising, the core message is basically "yes, the lights are still on, we still exist". People get used to the ambient level of ads supporting a brand and if it suddenly drops it will negatively affect the product. "They used to be everywhere, have they become sick or what?". A decline in brand awareness advertising will be worse than having never started. The nominal content of the ads is almost irrelevant, to do this job it can be anything from simple "our product is good!" to something benettonesquely edgy.
- dustingetz 6y agoall competitive markets, not just advertising everything wrong with the world, capitalism, climate change, etc can be framed as a game theory coordination dilemma. How do you get people to cooperate at scale in an anti-fragile way (not exploitable)? Solve that and we are post-scarcity
- mjburgess 6y ago...government
- dustingetz 6y agocurrent forms of government are too exploitable
- sudosysgen 6y agoThere are two ways to do it, that I think must work hand in hand. Firstly,we must reduce the stakes of anyone in any given domain. This can be done by (partially) tying wealth to employment and reducing inequality. Indeed, in a hypothetical society where most companies are mostly worker owned, then the owners of the company do not have that much of an incentive in hiring climate change, because ultimately if the company folded and they changed domains they would not lose that much, and the cost of climate change is bigger relative to their stake since everyone's stake is lower. Another part of the answer will be government, unavoidably. Hopefully, a less unequal economy that has a lot more worker ownership will allow for much more democratic government, as it will be much harder for any individual to have the resources to exploit government directly or indirectly.
- dustingetz 6y agoyou would need a central world government, which means we need to talk about why/how that will emerge
- sudosysgen 6y agoNot necessarily. This economic system just has to be widespread around the world. Political power follows economic power, always.
- Spooky23 6y agoCoke doesn’t tell you that Coke is better. It seeks to link the sight, sound, smell and taste of Coke with things that make you happy. The only thing they say about flavor is that it’s classic - your granddad drank the same stuff. Many people associate 8oz glass bottles of Coke with Christmas. Fizz commercials are part of the movie theater experience. A happy meal is paired with a Coke. Pepsi usually has a different message; they used to peddle taste, but usually try to assert that cool people drink Pepsi.
- Agathos 6y ago> The only thing they say about flavor is that it’s classic - your granddad drank the same stuff. And they fell into that by accident, after the infamous retreat from New Coke.
- Spooky23 6y agoExactly — and New Coke was a response to the blind taste test stuff. Turned out people are motivated in non obvious ways. Diet Coke tastes gross, but hardly anyone has heard of Diet Dr Pepper.
- phaus 6y ago>Diet Dr Pepper. No one drinks it because most people think even regular Dr. Pepper is gross, but Diet Dr. Pepper is nationally recognized as a household name in the US because of the extensive advertising that they do for it. "Diet Dr. Pepper tastes like regular Dr. Pepper." Hardly anyone drinks it, but pretty much everyone has heard of it. Same as Mellow Yellow a couple decades ago. They advertised it extensively and when they used to give away free drinks under the cap it was always free Mellow Yellow. But relatively few people actually liked it. That didn't mean we hadn't heard of it.
- hedora 6y agoNew Coke let them switch classic coke from sugar to HFCS without anyone noticing the difference in flavor. It was a brilliant move.