Maybe you’ll think this is crazy (and I think it may be a phenonmenon restricted to the South), but has anyone else noticed a correlation between soft drink choice and social status? (esp. Coke and Pepsi)
Maybe I’m just shallow. The drinks cost about the same price. I would elaborate with more details, but I’d like confirmation that others have noticed this or that I’m an imbecile.
I have noticed this and I cannot help in determining whether or not it is just a Southern thing because, well, I am Southern. I think that no matter what we say, someone on here will disagree with us because he drinks Pepsi/Coke and yet, considers himself to be rather influential and high up in social standing.
Anyway, in my sphere of experience (YMMV), the people with higher social standing drink Coke. Now this only applies to Coke or Diet Coke–none of the other flavors like Sprite or whatever.
Well, I cannot say that I noticed any specific social status revolving around which soft drink was chosen. However, snob that I am, I make a judgment about anyone who uses the dreaded term “pop” instead of “soft drink” or “soda”. But that’s just me. 
I am strictly middle-class. I am from Los Angeles. I drink TAB. Or Pepsi, because I grew up with Pepsi. I choose TAB because it is the equivalent to Popeye’s spinach. It just revs me up!
I drink Diet Coke.
Am I high class or low class?
Hmmm…that puts a kink in my theory… 
Aaawww, nuts!
Coke and Pepsi? Hmmph. If you don’t drink microbrewed root beer made with pure spring water and wild honey, y’all are just low class.
I only drink Coke, and assume people who say it’s the same as Pepsi are stupid.
As to Southern, though, I thought they drank RC Cola.
I can’t remember where I read this, but there was a period of time when two things were going on:
America was in an “anti-drinking” phase, so that it was popular for adults to entertain other adults with non-alcoholic beverages. (This leads me to think that it was earlier than the 50’s, but I couldn’t find the reference.)
Pepsi was selling for considerably less than Coke.
This led, of course, to a situation where it was chic to serve the more expensive Coke. The article claimed that social climbers of limited means would pour Pepsi in the kitchen and claim to their guests that it was Coke.
Pepsi eventually wised up and came up with a different marketing strategy. I think this was the “Pepsi Generation” era–which touted Pepsi as the drink for young, fun types.
Maybe the social status thing is a holdover from those days.
Is this perhaps why some people always inquire as to whether you want “a Coke” no matter what type/flavor of soft drink is actually being offered, like “Coke” is synonymous with soda?
I think this may be a regional thing, but I’m not sure where it comes from.
Before the “Pepsi Generation” ad blitz, Pepsi used to promote itself as a more economical cola alternative.
“Twelve ounces for a nickel!” the ads ran (Coke sold for a dime). The nickel would bounce back and forth and Jefferson would sing “NICKEL, nickel, nickel, nickel…”
I think this was back in the 40s or the 50s, when we were a more Puritanical nation, and a mere twelve ounces of caramel-colored sugar water was deemed sufficient to quench the average American’s thirst.
Well, back in the day (late 1930s), Pepsi was cheaper than Coke. (“Twice as much for a nickel, too.”) Pepsi could do this because ingredients were not that expensive and they spent a lot less on advertising and fancy bottles. Needless to say, a lot of people started to buy Pepsi–but it was seen as the bargain version of Coke. With the coming of WWII, sugar prices shot up, and Pepsi couldn’t maintain such a big price advantage over Coke, but they did manage to keep the price lower for a long time.
Maybe Pepsi is assigned lower social status because it became popular as a cheaper alternative to Coke.
Well, great minds think alike, I suppose. Cher and Uke, you beat me to it!
(hijack alert!)
Back in my McD’s days ::rolls eyes:: I used to say “soda” instead of “pop” because it was more understandable over the speaker. One lady jumped all over me for this when she pulled up to the window and told me that “out here we say POP” and that by using the word Soda instead I was “watering down our culture.” I have never come closer to laughing at a customer, right to her face, than that day. I don’t know what’s worse, that I got a five-minute lecture on why I should say “pop” instead of “soda,” or that I still think about this.
(end of hijack)
We drink diet Coke products, but occasionally buy regular Pepsi. Where do technogeeks fall into the social hierarchy, and do we fit the theory?
All of us true Texas bluebloods drink Dr Pepper. The rest of you are just Coke-drinking social-elite wannabes.
Well, that may be the type of coke preferred in other parts of Texas, but not when I was growing up in Houston…
Seriously, I don’t know about now, but when I was growing up in Spring Branch (NW Houston), coke was the generic term for a soft drink. People also drank Sprite and Tab, but they were still called cokes. Kids also drank root beer, cream soda and orange, and Big Red was in the cooler, but I don’t know who drank that…
My heirarchy goes like this:
Dad’s or A&W root beer
glass bottle of Coke
plastic bottle of Coke
can of Coke
bottle of urine
Barq’s
diet Coke
Pepsi
diet Pepsi
And, of course, I’m high class. I only ride the best buses.
When I was living in Alaska, where I grew up, I would drink Pepsi because I preferred the taste. (Yes, there is a difference.) Of course, if there was something else in the fridge I wasn’t too choosy. The generic term for soft drinks was “pop”. The first I knew of this “caring what word people use for soft drinks”, was when I went to Space Camp in Alabama and some kid was surprised I said the word “pop”.
Now I live in Arizona, and oddly enough I drink Dr. Pepper more than anything, a drink I hardly ever drank in Alaska. Maybe it’s the heat, I don’t know. I also usually buy Coke as the generic drink because of the traditional “rum and coke”.
Of course, if you wanted to be really classy you’d drink this.
I prefer Diet Coke, but I’ll drink a store brand or Pepsi One if it isn’t available. I’m not too picky.
About five or six years ago I took a nutrition course as part of my science requirement. In the middle of the semester the professor had us take the Pepsi challenge. He was curious if we could really taste a difference, and he also had us rate the sodas according to taste.
IIRC, very few if any students identified all four correctly. As far as taste, the top three were (from best to worst):
The fourth one had to be altered to be in the taste test because it was Crystal Pepsi. The prof added caramel color to it so it looked the same as the others and he said it didn’t alter the taste at all. It was the one that no one could identify. All I remember is that almost everyone – the Pepsi and the Coke drinkers – agreed that this one was the absolute worst.
Sadly, I don’t believe any major soft drink in America is made with real cane sugar anymore. The use of high fructose corn sweetener has ruined my enjoyment of domestic soft drinks entirely. I believe that even Jolt Cola has switched over from sugar (no more “All the sugar and twice the caffeine” motto). You used to be able to purchase the Mexican equivalents and get your favorite sodas in glass bottles with sugar. Sadly, even they have recently dropped sugar lately.
Fortunately, there are more boutique soft drinks being brewed lately. Most of the soft drinks that I drink come from other continents. If you want to taste what Seven-Up dreams about being on a good night, find yourself a bottle of Bundaberg’s Lemon Lime Bitters from Australia. Many of the European sodas are still made with sugar. The “mouth feel” of a soft drink made with sugar is entirely different from one using corn sweetener.
If you have a British food store near you, buy some Coca Cola there and travel back in time. According to legend, state side Coca Cola is available with sugar during Lent or some such. Anyone know about that?