Pepsi Falls Into Coke's Legal Trap in Gatorade v. Powerade War

Pepsico has sued Coca-Cola claiming that Coke’s ads for Powerade attack Pepsi’s Gatorade in a misleading way. The suit will have two major effects in the war between the two brands: It will distract Pepsi’s Gatorade management from their primary duties; and it will draw attention to Coke’s original claim, which is that Gatorade is somehow inferior because Powerade contains more chemicals.

(That’s right: the Coke campaign that so offends the Pepsi folks is playing up its artificial ingredients at a time when the zeitgeist favors brands with natural backgrounds.)

Coke’s Powerade ads showed a Pepsi Gatorade bottle and claimed:

Don’t settle for an incomplete sports drink … Introducing the complete sports drink with Ion-4.

Bloomberg describes the suit:

Coca-Cola claims its sports drink is superior because Powerade ION4 contains calcium and magnesium, according to PepsiCo. PepsiCo said in an e-mailed statement that the amount of the minerals in Powerade ION4 is less than 0.5 percent of their recommended daily allowances.

“More calcium and magnesium are found in most tap water,” PepsiCo said.

Pepsi appears to be falling right into Coke’s trap. Pepsi’s Gatorade is by far the market leader over Powerade. Coke’s ads were probably designed not to entice consumers but to provoke Pepsi management into an irrelevant legal war over whose colored water is better. Rather than ignoring Coke’s ads and sticking to their strategy, Pepsi has taken the bait. On that level, the suit is a genius move by underdog Coke.

However, there may be a potential for this suit to backfire on Coke.

Back in 1998, Pizza Hut sued Papa John’s in a similar lawsuit. The position of the two competitors in the suit is virtually identical to the Gatorade v. Powerade battle: The larger brand sued the smaller one after the smaller brand ran provoking ads.

Papa John’s won the litigation years later, but no one cared. In the meantime, discovery in the suit revealed how both chains made their pizzas. Here’s how their tomato sauce is handled:

Pizza Hut’s is cooked and then bagged before water is added at the restaurant, whereas Papa John’s is canned before being reheated.

Yum! Perhaps the court documents will reveal how Pepsi and Coke make Gatorade and Powerade. For those who find both drinks revolting, the information will doubtless be entertaining.

(But not as entertaining as the “Gatorade penis conspiracy,” which you can read about here. It’s just this side of safe for work.)