Patio Diet Cola was a brand of diet soda

Diet soda

Diet sodas are typically sugar-free, artificially sweetened, non-alcoholic carbonated beverages generally marketed towards health-conscious people, diabetics, athletes, and other people who want to lose weight, improve physical fitness, or reduce their...

 introduced by Pepsi

Pepsi

Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...

 in 1963. It was created in response to Diet Rite

Diet Rite

Diet Rite is a brand of no-calorie soft drinks originally distributed by the RC Cola company. It was introduced in 1958 and initially released as a dietetic product, but was marketed to the general public as a healthful beverage in 1962...

 Cola, which was the first diet cola on the market. Debbie Drake was Patio Diet Cola's spokesperson. In 1964, Patio released orange, grape, and root beer flavors. This flavor line was not meant to compete with brands like Orange Crush

Orange Crush

Crush is a carbonated soft drink brand, originally marketed as an orange soda, which was invented by California beverage and extract chemist Neil C. Ward. Most flavors of Crush are caffeine-free.-History:...

, but rather fill out the line for bottlers in need. Patio sodas were available in the cold-bottle market: grocery and mom-and-pop stores. Advertising for Patio was comparatively scarce; at the time, bottlers were regionally franchised, and related advertising was necessarily local.

In 1964, the line became Diet Pepsi

Diet Pepsi

Diet Pepsi is a no-calorie carbonated cola soft drink produced by PepsiCo, introduced in 1964 as a variant of Pepsi-Cola with no sugar. First test marketed in 1963 under the name Patio Diet Cola, it was re-branded as Diet Pepsi the following year, becoming the first diet cola to be distributed on a...

. The newly branded diet soda was advertised alongside Pepsi with the tagline "Pepsi either way", which replaced the slogan "Dances with flavor."

The creation of an advertising campaign for Patio was a key part of the third season of Mad Men

Mad Men

Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...

. They notably used a take-off of Ann-Margaret's opening number from the film of Bye Bye Birdie for their television ad.

Flavors

• Diet Cola (became Diet Pepsi
  Diet Pepsi
  Diet Pepsi is a no-calorie carbonated cola soft drink produced by PepsiCo, introduced in 1964 as a variant of Pepsi-Cola with no sugar. First test marketed in 1963 under the name Patio Diet Cola, it was re-branded as Diet Pepsi the following year, becoming the first diet cola to be distributed on a...
  
  in 1964)
• Root Beer
• Orange
• Imitation Grape soda (later changed to artificially flavored)
• Imitation Strawberry soda
• Dry Ginger Ale
• Dry Club Soda
• Dry Tonic Water

Pepsi phased out the non-cola Patio flavors by the 1970s.

External links

• Patio Soda Cans from usasoda.com
• http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2009/08/patio-diet-cola.php Mad Men's 1960s Handbook - Patio Diet Cola
• http://gawker.com/5344238/mad-mens-drink-that-reminds-you-of-a-floor-was-real Mad Men’s Drink That Reminds You of a Floor Was Real (Gawker)