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Drink Pepsi, Go to Space?
Kayaker writes "According to an article on AdAge.com, Pepsi is considering a new promotion contest that would include a ride on the Russian Soyuz space taxi. Maybe Pepsi is better than Coke?"
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...have the cash value, thanks.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
what happened to tha harrier jet they promised to the pepsi drinkers a little while back? it was supposed to be a bargain (if you bought 10 million dollars worth of pepsi, i think), but i don't remember if anyone actually got it.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
I use Skyway Soap because.....
whatever happened to that contest, anyway?
Sig:
Navy nuke sub lifestyle?
A ride on the Russian Soyuz space taxi?
This could easily turn into "Pepsi -- burning all the way down."
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
I hope N*Sync isn't the corporate sponsor.... otherwise you can give up now
I'd rather have a date with Britney Spears than a ride on some russian space jelopy. Could you reconsider Pepsi?
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
But, for a chance to go into space and return in one piece, why not drink a Pepsi.
Fight Spammers!
i guess now that Lance Bass is out of the way, Britney Spears wants a crack at true (not just near-) weightlessness? ;)
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
Coke adds life!
-- I have marked myself unwilling to moderate-- I don't have other accounts to artificially inflate the karma of
It would suck if you had to sit next to him in the capsule.... kinda take all the fun out of going to space.
No way, no how. I don't think I'm ready to trust my life to a space program that has to cowtow to B-List celebrities to pay the rent.
Plus, I've seen too much media coverage about Russian technology in action. Think submarines, chernobyls, satellites, space stations, political ideologies.
No thanks, Pepsi. I'll take my chances with the giant slingshot I'm building in my backyard.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
If they want to send Britney Spears into space, They should get NASA to use the X-4000 Launch Aparatus. While they are at it, they could send Lance Bass, and the rest of the plastic prefab teenyboppers.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
Hmmm...drink a Pepsi, go into space. I'm just not sure it's worth it.
Quoth Homer: Ewwwww! I'll take the clam juice.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Now Pepsi wants to up the anti with one of the biggest contests ever including a realty TV show. I know the odds of anything going wrong are low (I'd go if I won) but still this sounds like a bit of a gamble on Pepsi's part.
they're going to rig the contest so physically unfit people can't enter, or will lose anyway.
I would sell my ticket to Lance for a measly $5 million. That's 75% off the MSRP! I would sooner have the cash.
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
When Lance and his handlers first started getting cold feet over his ride with the Russians, NASA suddenly realized that without a tourist on board the RSA might not have enough cash on hand to launch the mission! So they quietly dropped their opposition.
Wonder what is going to happen now that Mr. Lance has checked out? Not being able to fund a resupply mission is a bit of bad news I would think. Maybe they could send 4 or 5 Progress instead and see if any hit.
sPh
Maybe Pepsi is better than Coke?
Nope, You don't order a Jack and Pepsi for a reason. And that's all I have to say.
I wonder just how much of an effect these sorts of promotions have on sales. I've never once thought, "No, I think I'll drink Pepsi this time - I might win a widget!" I probably wouldn't start drinking Pepsi all of the sudden were the promotion going on - IMO, the statistics don't support the sacrifice that switching soft drink brands would be...
Brandon
since they pay britney spears a LOT of cash, apparently. how about a "drink pepsi, get laid (by teen sensation)" promotion.
only THEN, will pepsi be better than coke. and only until you see the "morning after" spears.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
As usual there is an open source answer to these corporate theives!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
The irony is that after buying all that Pepsi, he'll be Too Fat For Space.
There's still hope. Everybody pray for Lance!
Considering PizzaHut (at the time a PepsiCo subsiderary) was the first to slap their logo to the side of a space-bound rocket (a Russian one btw), this doesn't suprise me in the least.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Pepsi's $35 mil promotion just ended up costing $55 Mil. It'd probably be cheaper for Pepsi to buy a congressman to exempt you for 1 year from income taxes.
When we are exploring space (optimism!) you'll have Coke sending ships round making stars go nova so Earth's night sky permanently (depending on position of course) has the Coke logo on display...
Don't you just love comedy scifi books. Also remember, infinity welcomes careful drivers ;-)
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
If you drink a couple of Pepsi's real fast, you just may allow yourself to leave the ground on occasion.
Mix in a few quicky burritos into the meal, and start the countdown.....
Table-ized A.I.
They'll have to send somebody along on the commercial moon mission just to stay ahead.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Boy, I wonder which company might be a rival of Pepsi?!
the person that wins this thing is most likely to drink large amounts of pepsi? Chances are they will be fatter than me, and I am in no condition for space travel. Wonder if they will put the winner on a year long diet or something. Still gonna stick with the dew though...
Is Britney coming? Hmmm... floating in zero-G... must grab something for stability...
Anybody want a peanut?
Does it strike anyone else that the people least likely to be fit enough to travel to space are also the ones who guzzle tons of soft drinks?
And yes, I almost certainly fit into that group too.
Ordinary civilians have no place taking joyrides in space. Not yet.
Maybe it's not quite the same a contest to ride with a test pilot on an experimental aircraft, but it's not like boarding an airliner. Or like the contest in Heinlein's (fictional) "Have Space Suit, Will Travel," which was for a trip on an established commercial tourist route.
I can still remember the Challenger disaster. What a shame. And what hubris, taking a schoolteacher along for a ride, so millions of kids could watch the Shuttle explode on TV in real time...
I hope the Hayden Planetarium still has the list I signed when I was a kid, the list of people interested in being on the first passenger trip to the Moon. But I'm not entering this Pepsi contest.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
And here's a link (alas, no warranties, re: reliability).
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
Coke has had the lead for as long as I've been alive (19+). A ride on the Soyuz will cost them a real bundle, so they must be depending on making enough sales that they'll recoup their costs, while long term income is increased by new regulars.
What's this Submit thingy do?
Seriously, anyone who does go into space has to be in VERY good shape. Few Americans, myself included fit into that definition at all.
At the very least, most people, again myself included I am ashamed to admit, would have to lose weight and do some hard core working out to prepare themselves for the effects of blast off, weightlessness for several days, and the sudden return to Earth. Many astronauts far fitter than most of us need carried off the shuttles after spending only a week or two in space.
Now for the real irony. To get the contestant physically fit for their trip, they would likely have to STOP drinking pop for the duration of the training and trip, meaning you likely wouldn't see someone chugging a dew upside down on the space station or a Russian rocket.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Only gaming I can really see going on is something turn-based, because everything else is going to involve getting killed by people with infinitely smaller ping times.
However, I don't know about the claim about telling your kids about taking a piss in orbit. How do you know that:
A: By the time you have kids old enough to appreciate the story, there won't be occasional suborbital service?
B: You'll survive long enough to have kids?
C: You'll have the ability (e.g. a partner of the opposite sex or a lot of insanely expensive and currently (afaak) nonexistant cloning gear) to procreate?
Besides, you can send your urine to the moon, if you are so inclined with that company going to Luna... it was in a prior slashdot post.. it only costs $2.5k per gram....
I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
Real life is underrated.
when i was living in japan a few years ago, suntory (pepsi's japan distributor) tries to up pepsi's market share with a "trip to space" contest. i was all excited until i found out the "winner" would still have to shell out some dough, and it was a suborbital flight, during most of which one would be presumably stuck to the chair. info about the contest seems pretty hard to find on the web.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I recall early NASA attempts to bring soda into space. Evidently, straight up carbonated beverages will make the average human very sick in zero-G.
I wonder if you'll hear about that in the Pepsi commercials...
thats funny.
Based on the document, I would say he has a legetitmate claim.
Pepsi created a set of rules whereby somebody could aquire stuff.
Pepsi offered the Harrier.
LEONARD abide by the rules Pepsi created.
Pepsi did not do what they said they would.
If pepsi did not want to offer the harrier, they never should of said it was worth 7million points, then allow people to buy points for 10 cents each.
They should have said 7billion points if they wanted to make it unreasonable to aquire for the sake of humor.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
They already ripped someone off this way in the past!
fifth sigma, inc.
A) I already have Kids.
B) See A
C) See A.
But thanks for thinking I'm so young. (Must be my skin tone.)
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
It could be kind of humorous, actually, the kind of people who will think they're cut out for space flight just because they drink soda.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
The chances of you winning that trip to space, even you tubby software engineers that drink a gallon of soda a day, is so slim as to be meaningless. So just drink whatever you want. At least coke has a little acidic bite to it, wheras pepsi is just disgustingly sweet and syrupy. Kind of like Brittney Spears, again.
Coke tastes better than Pepsi (way better). Dr. Pepper is better than both.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
So much of celebrity endorsements, commercial contracts, and sweepstakes, because the fact remains that most people prefer the taste of coke over Pepsi. Just look at any of the big chains, the major ones: McDonald's. Burger King, and Wendy's all serve coke. The chains that serve Pepsi are either owned by Pepsi or are given significant incentives to purchase it. No restaurant would ever choose Pepsi if Pepsi and Coke were offered at the same price.
I don't mean to get OT here, but i've seen a few post here and there about the profit margins pepsi and coke enjoy, so the question bears to mind, what is their profit margin?
Considering soda is nothing more than water with carbonation, sugar, caffiene, and caramel coloring, and the fact that these companies buy the ingredients in commodity sized lots, the profit margin must be tremendous.
Funny how coke can sell Aquafina (water) for the same price as coke. Must be a cash cow for them.
Here in San Jose CA the price for a 20oz bottle of coke is around $1.20 at most 7-11's, gas stations ect.
I am going to drink a helluva lot of pepsi (and probably Mountain Dew) I already drink over 2 liters a day average. So a little more won't hurt. But I am hoping to win AND be able to sue, because there is no warning label on the bottles that my teeth may all rot and fall out.
I smell cash and a ride to the space station, which is will work out great because the mushy astronaut food will be all I can eat with out teeth.
OK, so if I switch from Red Bull, Bawls, Whoopass and Skyrocket Syrup to Pepsi, I would have to drink...
(Quick Math)
245 cans a day to keep up my caffeine intake.
I think that will give me an edge.
Space, Here I Come!
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
...to get me to actually drink Pepsi.
They can call me once they start offering rights to human-inhabitable planets. Then... maybe. But I'm still not going to like it.
Give me my Coca-Cola any day.
A guy that looks like the "Comic-store guy" from the Simpsons wins and sues Pepsi for not going to space.
BTW, I'd also rather take the 38 million $....
As a side note, the judge in the Pepsi Harrier case, Kimba Wood, was Clinton's second AG nominee. She also had to withdraw because of a "Nannygate" problem. Clinton then nominated Reno.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Will have to drink a lot of Pepsi now to make up for the money he couldn't pay for his training.
I'll go if I get to push one of them out of the airlock and watch their (silicone / children's skin, respectively) augmented body twirl, freeze and explode.
That would almost be as sweet as Pepsi.
What's next, Coke lets you dock the shuttle with something?
:o)
Actually, Coke is going to launch a series of 1000 deep-space probes, each with the destination of a different star. They are then going to detonate nuclear warheads inside the star, to force them to go supernova, so that when the light from the supernovas reaches earth (in a few hundred years), it will spell out "Coca-Cola" in the night sky above the northern hemisphere.
THAT ought to end the "cola-wars" once and for all.
(I have a nice shiny nickel for anyone who can tell me the source of this
I heard about this when I was in Australia, that was 1999, Pepsi had the ad about it on TV as well, but I don't know whatever happened to it. Perhaps they have "In year 2050" in really small print.
Any Australian want to back up this story?
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
Are we sure they're thinking of REALLY offering a ride on the taxi, or is this going to end like that Pepsi thing?
--- http://foo.ca
"Maybe Pepsi is better than Coke?"
Maybe Pepsi is ON coke ???
Pepsi ran commercials several years ago for a contest in which the grand prize was a trip in space ("uchuu no tabi")
The ad ended with the squeeky female voiceover saying "honto desu!" ("It's true!")
Never found out what happened to the contest as I moved to boring Canada where the first prize in a contest would be weekend with a moose.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
This reminds me of my favorite Franklin Delano Roosevelt quotation, given on being informed that Romania had declared war on the US a few days after Pearl Harbor -
This reminds me of an old sci-fi book, which I think was called "The Whole Ball of Wax" (I have forgotten the author's name and an Amazon and Google search got me nowhere). The book was set sometime in the late 20th century (written in the 1960s), when the "constellation Pepsi-Cola wheeled in the sky" -- supposedly Pepsi had made an artificial constellation out of satellites equipped with huge mirrors. The story also had a forerunner of virtual reality (and very much like Tekwar from William Shatner), where people donned a headset to experience recorded sensations. It also oddly echoed (foresaw?) a lot of things about society in America today, even if a lot of the details were wrong (vidphones and that sort of thing).
I last read the book years ago -- borrowed it from my aunt and uncle about 20 years ago -- but have no idea if the book is still available anywhere. Even when I borrowed it, it was old...
I also had to think of one old Pepsi commercial from the 1980s. Even as a diehard Coke and RC drinker, I was still amused by it: in the commercial, you see a bunch of students from the distant future being led around an archaeological dig by a professor; the "excavation" is of a 20th century family home. The prof rattles on about how rare it is to find a house from this era totally intact, and he enthusiastically shows an "ancient" TV set, stereo, etc. (all the while explaining to the students what they were for, while you see the students sipping from Pepsi cans).
At the end, a student spots a glass thing in the dirt, picks it up and shows it to the prof, asking, "Hey, Professor, what's this?"
Turns out to be a 16 oz. Coke bottle. The prof looks totally dumbfounded and murmurs, "I have no idea..."
Cheers,
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
Just found the name: "The Big Ball of Wax: A Story of Tomorrow's Happy World", by Shepherd Mead, written before 1954. Apparently it's been out of print for ages. *sigh*
FWIW some people apparently claim that this book is the origin of the saying "the whole ball of wax" (cf. http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-who5.htm). Go figure.
Anyway...
Cheers,
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
Yeah, life is real safe. No use taking risks just for fun and adventure - better to die in a nursing home at age 99!
sPh
So-many pepsi points, and you could have a harrier. THat was what they said on the commercial (or rather, showed a picture of it, and then showed a # of pepsi points)
A gentlemen got some investors together, gathered enough cash to get the required number of pepsi points (It was around $300,000 I think.... it was low, way, way less than what a harrier would cost, if you could even buy one)
Then he went to pepsi and asked for his jumpjet.
They said no.
He sued them.
He lost.
The judge said it was an OBVIOUS joke and that is was absurd for him to think he would actually get a 10 million dollar military fighter jet for buying pepsi stuff.
The judge said that any reasonable person would realize it was a joke, therefore, it was not false advertising.
Besides, he never bought the pepsi stuff in the first place.
Or something rather like that.
I agree with the other guy, coke tastes better than pepsi. But that's not the point. I said I'm sure coke makes as much profit, but they don't throw it in our faces by saying "Hey we just paid Britney Spears $20 million of your dollars" or "Hey we're going to spend $20 million in a marketing campaign to send someone to space." $20 million is ALOT of freaking money and they throw it around in front of our faces as if it's chump change. Maybe if Britney Spears was even remotely qualified to give an educated opinion on the quality of soda, like Tiger Woods endorsing golf clubs or something I could see it. But she's not. And space ships don't have anything to do with Pepsi either.
Al Qaeda has ninjas!