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When PepsiCo sought in 1984 to unseat the saccharine hegemony of Coke and counter the bubbly jests of 7Up, it birthed Slice upon an American soda fountain landscape on the cusp of great dyspepsia.
Formulations fruited with 10% juice appealed to ascendent health mores mid the fitness boom’s breakdance beats, aiming to capture the same air as the L.A. Olympics’ sheen.
Though Reagan reigned, the excesses of Wall Street, and keyboards spraying synthesized excess heralded more neon decades ahead—Slice’s debut aimed beyond temporary trend towards an epoch evolving ever expansive in flavor, form and function.
But as the 90s dawned to dash DayGlo dreams, the brand’s bright busheling turned muted to match the changing ways winds blew across an uncertain, increasingly unlabeled land.
As the exceedingly decadent 1980s dawned, parent company PepsiCo sought refreshment revelation to fuel market growth ever upwards in keeping with the tenor of those times—thus did 1984 witness the launch of citrus-kissed newcomer Slice.
Formulated by lab-coated alchemists to eclipse the company’s existing and underperforming Teem soda offering.
Though once billed as a healthful libation wrought “with lemon and lime” upon its 1961 debut, Teem’s tart fizzles had since grown flat as consumer taste bent sweeter, outpaced by 7-Up’s animated ascension.
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When first introduced to the discerning soda-drinking public in the societal milieu of the 1980s, the fruit-infused newcomer Slice proved a remarkably successful concoction, capturing a noteworthy 3.2% share amongst all effervescent potables within three years.
However, the fickle tastes of the era would prove fallow ground for standing out—despite colorful marketing contraptions, by 1988 Slice’s portion had precipitously eroded, declined below the 2% mark amidst ever- shifting preferences.
Though the innovative libation once showed formidable promise, the sustained dominance expected from major market-movers long eluded this fleeting fad’s grasp.
When birthed upon the soda fountain scene in the eighth decade of the twentieth century, Slice emerged with sole citrus tones of lemon and lime, the archetypical sparkling flavors of decades prior.
But bending to the temperaments of an evolving epoch, come 1986 the pipers of PepsiCo had infused the Slice name with additional fruit essences du jour—mandate orange, queenly apple, and merry cherry cola—triples of taste tying trends new whilst upholding classic carbonated creed.
From a singular recipe sprang fanciful flavor multiplicity as the decade diverged towards ever more vibrant variety.
Though birthed in eras enamored of natural ingredients, the capricious winds of change would not forever favor Slice’s fruit-infused formulations.
As the neon hued 1980s ceded to the more muted 1990s, the brewers at PepsiCo incrementally tempered the vibrant juice tones within Slice’s effervescent offerings, soothing the sodas almost to abstraction by 1990.
Simultaneous efforts reshaped branding and bottles alike in bids to align with drifting drinker dispositions—logos and labels perpetually refreshed, seeking renewed relevance, while the drinks themselves retreated from fermented flash towards familiar, placid refreshment.
Through it all Slice sought its niche—as flavors faded, packaging popped in its place, keeping the brand afloat amidst churning taste expectations.
As consumer constellations realigned in the 1990s, the guardians of the Slice brand took proactive measures to maintain market share against ascendant substituted sodas.
Seeing competitor 7 Up adopt whimsical mascot Fido Dido to humanize its product abroad, Slice moved to import this visual vocabulary as well—adopting the charm of Fido's relaxed animated aesthetic to build similar rapport with tastes.
Paired with intensifying formulations explicitly chasing sweeter categories like Sprite, Slice leveraged pop culture cues both visual and flavorful to craft crossover appeals, working to make the brand a viable contender across multiple demographics and desired drivers.
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By the dawn of the new millennium, the tides of time had eroded the once-bright citrus stellar of Slice’s legacy.
The very flavor that birthed the brand—lemon-lime—saw discontinuation in 2000, survived by only scattered descendants amidst a soda market vastly evolved from Slice’s 1980’s debut.
Parent company PepsiCo ultimately replaced even these vestiges entirely by 2005—the names Sierra Mist and Tropicana Twister supplanted what little remained of Slice’s varied flavor empire.
Through the bittersweet cadence that marks the rises and falls endemic to free enterprise, PepsiCo’s priorities gravitated away from the brand that first caught lightning for them years before.
The dormant Slice brand witnessed a short-lived resurrection in the year 2006, though curiously not through pure soda form.
Parent company PepsiCo experimented with an exclusive retail partnership with mega-merchant Walmart to launch “Slice ONE”—a diet-oriented line featuring artificial sweetener Splenda.
Perhaps seeking to capitalize on blossoming health trends by invoking nostalgic goodwill leftover from Slice’s heyday, this limited life cycle iteration leaned into specific consumer niches rather than mass appeal soda domains of eras past.
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Like a soda soaring from depths of time, 2018 bore long-absent witness to the revived bubbles of Slice sodas, resurrected by start-up New Slice Ventures upon newly acquired trademarks.
Seeking to rebottle fading memories within modern mold, this venture remixed Slice as a subtly-sweetened libation leveraging juice and nostalgia in equal measure.
Retro hue packaging called back explicitly to 1980’s brand heritage, offering familiar flavors like Orange and Cherry to palates once loyal.
Yet formulations fostered lower sugar and natural ingredients to attract modern sensibilities towards health as well.
This redux of recipe and recognition recast Slice specifically as a bridge across generational gulfs—though outfitted for contemporary preference, marketing squarely summoned the historic heyday halcyon.
Through the balance of past and present, a new life emerged for Slice.
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