This article is about the beverage available outside North America. For the North American beverage, see Pepsi Zero Sugar. For the roller coaster, see Pepsi Max Big One.
Pepsi Max, also marketed as Pepsi Black or Pepsi Zero, is a low-calorie, sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo. A diet soda soft drink, it was first released in 1993 as an alternative to the company's Diet Pepsi and has been widely available since[1] primarily in European, Australia/New Zealand and some Asian markets. Pepsi Max aims to mimic the taste of Pepsi using a blend of acesulfame potassium and aspartame artificial sweeteners instead of sugar, with small variations depending on region.[2] It is also sold under the name Pepsi Zero Sugar in North America (formerly using the same Pepsi Max name) with a different formulation that has had elements of an energy drink.[3][4]
History
Pepsi-Cola International spent three years developing the product with the aim to create a sugar-free drink but tasting indistinguishable from regular Pepsi.[5] The product aimed to target those who chose not to consume Diet Pepsi because of, what they would consider to be, an inferior taste and image.[6]
Pepsi Max's early logos
1993–96
1996–98
Pepsi Max was released in April 1993 to test markets in Italy and the United Kingdom.[5] The rollout was expanded to other countries in Europe and Australia and it was successful, becaming a permanent offering and availability growing to close to twenty countries by 1994.[7] However the product remained unavailable in the United States (PepsiCo's home market, and the largest consumer of carbonated soft drinks), where one of its principal ingredients had not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.[8] The ingredient—acesulfame potassium ("Ace-K")—is combined with aspartame to provide the beverage's sweetness,[9] whereas some other diet colas are sweetened by aspartame alone.
Beginning in early 1994, an entirely different Pepsi Max was marketed in Canada[10] because of strict local laws regarding artificial sweeteners. This was the only Pepsi Max product to contain sugar.[11] It was sweetened with a combination of aspartame and high fructose corn syrup. As a result, it contained two-thirds fewer calories than full-sugar colas (including regular Pepsi), but more calories than conventional diet/light colas (or the version of Pepsi Max sold elsewhere). The Canadian product was discontinued in 2002.[citation needed] Pepsi-Cola North America later introduced another "mid-calorie" drink called Pepsi Edge to compete against Coca-Cola C2 (both became failures), but has no direct relationship to the earlier Canadian Max formulation.[12]
A 330 ml Pepsi Max can (Europe)
In 1998, after the American FDA approved acesulfame potassium, the company introduced Pepsi One for the North American market. This new variety contained the same sweeteners as Pepsi Max, but not an identical formula or flavor.[13] In 2005, Pepsi One was revised, with Splenda brand sucralose replacing the aspartame ingredient.[14] Diet Pepsi Max was introduced in the United States and Canada in 2007 and 2008 respectively. This drink had the same sweeteners as Pepsi Max in other countries but had additional ginseng and caffeine.[15] It was later renamed to simply Pepsi Max and is now marketed as Pepsi Zero Sugar.
Small 0.33 liter Pepsi Max bottles
Pepsi began making new flavored variants of the drink beginning in 2004, such as Pepsi Max Lemon and Pepsi Max Twist (with added lemon-lime flavour) in some countries' product lines.
Availability of Pepsi Max was expanded to further countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe in mid-late 2000s.[15] It launched in India in 2010 but faced low sales there.[16] In 2017, the drink was reintroduced in Belarus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, India, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine under the name Pepsi Black.[citation needed] Pepsi Max launched in Tanzania in 2019[17] and as Pepsi Black in the Arab Gulf states, Jordan, Morocco and Libya in October 2019.[18]
Packaging and design
Pepsi Max has been produced in a variety of plastic cans, bottles, and glass bottles.
Pepsi Max logo after 1998, the first with the stylized red MAX
At launch, the first Pepsi Max livery was distinguished from regular Pepsi by having a blue colored can instead of white. The color inspired the company to rebrand the regular Pepsi drink into an all-blue color in 1996[19][20] in what it called Project Blue.[21] By the year 1998, at the centenary of the company, the entire Pepsi branding and marketing globally had adopted the blue that was introduced with the Pepsi Max.[22] The Pepsi Max logo also adopted a graffiti-like red branding for MAX in 1998 in a typical trendy style of the millenium era, and which would be a precursor for later brandings.[23]
Can of Pepsi Max (2010 branding) with black livery
From 2009–2010 all Pepsi brands were rebranded worldwide and the blue and red globe trademark became a series of "smiles", with the central white band arcing at different angles depending on the product. In the case of Pepsi Max, and at least in the North American market (where it was also renamed with its international name from "Diet Pepsi Max"), the logo had a large "smile" and also uses black in the bottom half of the globe as opposed to the more standard royal blue.[24] In July 2010, Pepsi began to change its North American branding of Pepsi Max to match the global branding, and rolled out a new slogan: "Zero Calories. Maximum Pepsi Taste".[25] Since the rebranding, Pepsi Max has had a black livery as opposed to blue on regular Pepsi.
In 2023, Pepsi Max packaging was redesigned as part of a greater Pepsi rebranding. The updated packaging has a color scheme of electric blue and black.[26] In addition, in many countries the product was renamed to Pepsi Zero (Zero Sugar or equivalent in other languages like Zéro Sucres in French). This was done for transparency because many people did not understand that "Max" represented a sugar-free product.[27][28][29] "Pepsi Max" continues to be the name of the product in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Finland, Iceland, Tanzania and Australia,[30][26] and "Pepsi Black" continues to be the name in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Malaysia, Singapore and others.[31][32]
Product positioning and marketing
A Pepsi Max advertisement (North America) in 2009 with a reference to gender and calories
The name is stylized as Pepsi MAX. Some of the taglines that PepsiCo have used in advertisements through various countries include: "Maximum taste, no sugar" (used since 1993),[33] "Live life to the Max", and "Don't worry, there's no sugar".[34][35][36] The company have attempted to appeal Pepsi Max to young men (in contrast to other diet cola drinks, which tend to target young women).[37] Early advertisement had also incorporated extreme sports like abseiling.[38] However in the 2000s PepsiCo launched new flavors some of which (like the lemon-lime Pepsi Max Twist) have also targeted women too.[39] Generally, the brand has been marketed with trends relevant to younger people.[40]
Coca-Cola Zero, a rival sugar-free cola from The Coca-Cola Company, is marketed in a similar manner. Some Coke Zero advertising alluded to Pepsi Max, leading to a counter-campaign by Pepsi extolling the virtues of the concept of "maximum" over that of "zero".[41][42][43]
Popularity
In 2002, Pepsi Max became the second highest-selling soft drink in Norway.[44] Since 2015 it has been the top selling soft drink in the country.[45] As of 2025, Pepsi Max makes up 98.4% of all total Pepsi cola sales in Norway.[46] The drink has also found success in neighboring Sweden where it had grown bigger than Pepsi's regular drink by 2007.[40] In 2025 it was reported that Pepsi Max was the best selling carbonated soft drink in Sweden.[47]
Sold as a limited edition during the 2005 Christmas Season.[48] It is similar to the North American Pepsi Holiday Spice which was sold the year before and the year after.
Australia United Kingdom France Lebanon Finland Sweden Norway Denmark Iceland Hungary Romania Poland Serbia Czech Republic China Poland, Portugal Serbia Spain Thailand Laos Philippines Vietnam Kuwait South Korea
Was first sold as Pepsi Max Cease Fire and Pepsi Max Citrus Freeze in Australia/New Zealand and the United Kingdom respectively in 2011 as part of a promotion with Doritos corn chips before being re-released in 2016 (as a limited edition) and 2021 respectively. Sold as Pepsi Black Lime in some countries
^AS, TV 2 (2025-02-22). "Raser etter endringer". TV 2 (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2025-09-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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