My Last Drink: Coke or Pepsi?
If you were given a last meal, what would you wash it down with? Would you choose Coke, Pepsi, or something completely different?
Obviously, it’s difficult to do a study of this nature as killing people in the course of research would be slightly unethical, and you’d have a tough time disposing of bodies (trust me - it’s not easy to make bodies disappear).
However, the state of Texas, in all its wisdom, posted on their state site the last meals of all the people executed from 1982 to 2003. This information is no longer available from their site, but it has been copied and can be found here.
The results?
Of the 301 inmates listed, 52 declined the last meal. Of the 249, 37 chose Coke as their final drink (14.8%). Only 3 chose Pepsi (1.2%). I’m impressed Coke has so much market pull, and a smart marketer would take advantage of this - either side can spin it favorable.
Coke: More people choose Coke as their final drink than Pepsi!
Pepsi: Death row killers are 10x more likely to drink Coke than Pepsi!
Of course, the entire ad would have to have sort of a parodied feel to it - something like this:
Quick photoshop job, but something along these lines would catch people’s attention. Incidentally, Dr. Pepper was served 13 of the 249 last meals (5.2 %), beating out Pepsi, despite a much smaller market share. Dr. Pepper is made by DPSU, Inc (Dr. Pepper / Seven Up). They can easily grab a share of this marketing and can go in either direction - especially if either one of these companies picked it up.
What’s the lesson? Coke has fantastic branding, and branding is powerful enough that it will even be on people’s minds in their last moments. Brand on!
