Virgin Cola

From Free net encyclopedia

Virgin Cola is a carbonated cola soft drink produced by Virgin Drinks, a subsidiary of the Virgin Group owned by Richard Branson. It was launched in 1994.

Image:Virgincola.jpg

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History

Virgin Cola was set up during the early 1990s in conjuction with Cott, a Canadian company that specialises in bottling own-label drinks. Cott were looking for a major international brand that could have global appeal.

Virgin Cola was first released in 1994, to compete with Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Shortly thereafter, Pepsi changed the color of its cans to blue. When Virgin learned about this they famously took out a full page advert in many newspapers on April Fools Day claiming that they developed a new can that turns blue when the cola inside is flat.

Virgin Cola's plastic 1-liter bottle's shape is reputedly modeled after the body of then-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson Template:Citeneeded.

Virgin conducted blind testing at many schools across the UK, and concluded that many people preferred the taste of Virgin Cola to Coca-Cola or Pepsi Template:Citeneeded.

Within a few months of its release, Virgin Cola had a 50% market share in the outlets that sold it. It went on to be launched in France, Belgium, and South Africa. In its first year more than 500 million units were sold worldwide. However, its popularity soon waned. Today, Virgin Cola is most commonly found in pound shops. It is also served on Virgin Atlantic flights and sold in the shops on Virgin trains.

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