Pepsi-Cola Company

1969 advertisement

1893-1898 logo

Invented by pharmacist Caleb D. Bradham, Pepsi was originally sold by Bradham under the name, "Brad's Drink," at his drugstore in 1893 (evidently, during the late 1800s and early 1900s, carbonated sodas were considered to be medicines to treat anything from stomach problems to fatigue).

1898-1905 logo

By 1898, the name was changed to the more familiar "Pepsi-Cola", after the pepsin and cola nuts that were in the syrup's ingredients.

1905-1915 advertisement/coupon

1905-1915 advertisement/coupon

By 1906, there were 15 franchises bottling and selling Pepsi-Cola.  By 1910, there were franchises in 24 states and the company was selling over 100,000 gallons of syrup a year--it seemed that Pepsi could not fail.  However, fail it did:  the company went bankrupt twice in less than a decade between 1923 and 1930, and exchanged hands just as many times before being bought by Charles G. Guth in 1931.

1906-1940 logo

1905-1906 logo

Guth managed to turn Pepsi-Cola around by selling a larger 12-ounce bottle of the product, with the neck of the bottle wrapped in tin foil, normally sold at a 6-ounce size, at the same five-cent price.

"Wave" design patent

"Wave" Pepsi bottle

By 1940, the 12-ounce glass bottle became standard for all of the existing franchised bottlers of Pepsi:  the new bottle--known as the "wave" bottle due to how the embossments looked on the shoulders of the bottles--had "Pepsi:Cola" embossed in angled columns around the neck, and a paper label was applied to the neck and middle portion of the bottle.  

1940 advertisement

In 1947, the paper label was switched over to the applied color label.  During this time, World War II was occurring, and so Pepsi began including the patriotic red, white, & blue colors into its logo.

In 1950, the logo was changed to incorporate the "bottle cap," and  the two dots (aka the double dot) between the words 'Pepsi' and 'Cola' was altered to just one dash, or a single dot.  In 1958, Pepsi switched over to a swirl-design for its bottles.  It was during this switch that the marking of individual bottle manufacturer locations on the bottles was eliminated. 

Finally, in the early 1960s, Pepsi-Cola launched the "Pepsi Generation" theme, which marks the company's movement away from 'Pepsi-Cola' to 'Pepsi'.  The new logo (image to the right) is the last one that may be found on glass bottles; following 1973, Pepsi began using plastic bottles for the soda.

1961-1973 logo

For specific Pepsi-Cola bottle dating:

According to the Bureau of Land Management:  "Prior to Pepsi’s adaptation of applied color label [ACL] bottles (often called painted-label bottles or pyroglazing, in the case of milk bottles), the company did not require any special coding, so all early bottles are marked just like any other bottle from the respective glass companies. However, beginning with the first ACL fountain syrup bottle in 1943 [until 1958], all Pepsi bottles followed a specific format."

Side note:  Applied color labels are a type of permanent labeling that has replaced embossing on glass bottles.  This process of using a mixture of borosilicate glass and mineral/ organic pigments with low melting points to a bottle through a metal screen, and then baking it in a furnace to form the "painted" label image, took off in 1933.

"On Pepsi bases, a line of numerals and a single letter appears above the [glass maker's] logo. The first one or two digits is the company code (that normally appears to the left of the logo on other Owens-Illinois bottles) followed by a single letter followed by a two-digit date code. Generally, another single-digit number will appear to the left of the logo, and a single- or double-digit number will be placed at the right. The right-hand number is often (but not always) identical to the date code or to the last digit of the date code. Also, either above or below the logo and the line of code above it is a single letter followed by a four-digit number. This is probably a mold code, although the meaning is currently unknown."

The very early Pepsi bottles with specific cities and states (where the bottles were manufactured) marked on the label fall into three broad categories:

• The first group is defined as the "Double Dot", Red/White/Blue label bottles. Included are the first painted label bottles produced in the early forties by Pepsi.  These are rare and in high demand.
• Group two is described as the "Double Dot", Red/White label bottles. They were distributed from the mid 1940's to about 1950.  These are uncommon and in average demand.
• The third group is the "Single Dot", Red/White label bottles which were filled between 1951 and the late 1950's.  Because these bottles are quite common, they are not in any demand.

1910 advertisement

Early 1900s advertisement

1932 advertisement

1938 advertisement

1940 advertisement

1940 advertisement

1942 advertisement

1943 advertisement

1943 advertisement

1946 Comic: " 'Pepsi' the Pepsi-Cola Cop"

1946 Comic: " 'Pepsi' the Pepsi-Cola Cop"

1946 Comic: " 'Pepsi' the Pepsi-Cola Cop