Posts Tagged ‘diet pepsi’
My Diet Pepsi Could Give Me a Heart Attack or Stroke: When Your Product Gets a Little Bad Press
Friday, February 11th, 2011
Part of my morning routine is having Morning Joe on in the morning. It’s a great mix of politics, policy, news and pop culture (this isn’t what this post is about, but if you can check out the show). I was expecting to hear another news update on Egypt, the deficit, or a freak snow storm in Georgia (it’s a great show, but pretty predictable).
As I’m brushing my teeth, I hear Misha (Joe’s sidekick) talk about a recent study on how people who drink at least one diet soda each day double their risk for heart attack or stroke. Not good. I hammer down about 5-8 cans of Diet Pepsi or Diet Mountain Dew each day. Math is not a strong suit, but by my calculations, I should be going through my 10th heart attack right about now.
With that news, I left my hotel room (I’m traveling, I’m not in a fight with my wife) and dedicated myself to making a change. Herbal teas. Spring water. Fruit juices. I’m going to be a new man. By 11:00am (4 hours since hearing the study), I was opening my first of 3 Diet Pepsis.
Why did I change my tune? Was the well articulated response from the beverage industry? Did they put out a list of counter-arguments to the findings (i.e. that people that drink diet soda or more likely to be overweight and thus more likely to have a health problem)? Nope. Partly it’s because I have a problem and I love my morning soda. But the other reason was the more I thought about the study, the more it kept raising the brand in my mind. Diet Pepsi is bad for me… Diet Pepsi is bad for me….mmmm Diet Pepsi.
So keep this in mind when your product gets written up or criticized in a blog or something…there definitely will be loss of revenue, but to your die-hard customers, it will just be a reminder that they need another Diet Pepsi.
