Jones Hallow-One

Halloween is four weeks away.  To celebrate, your favorite blog, good old Cans in the Basement, will be displaying the 2013 Jones Halloween Soda Cans.  For a "treat" to go with this "trick", I will also provide a helpful soda factoid. These are useful facts; they are things everyone who wishes to be taken seriously in the soda world needs to know.

Halloween Soda Factoid Number One

Do you know the original name of Pepsi?  It certainly wasn't Pepsi.  It was originally called Brad's Drink and was created by Caleb Bradham in 1893.  What can you do with his tidy piece of data? Well, if you have a friend named Brad, you can ironically offer him a Pepsi.  "Dude, Brad my man, seriously, lemme buy you a Pepsi.  It's your drink after all."  Of course, this will be harder to do as the years wane on since the name Brad, at least in America, has been dropping steadily since 1975. It was at it's peak in 1975 as the 98th most popular baby name in America.  It has been dropping ever since. Thankfully, however, Pepsi sales haven't suffered the same fate.

Summer Can Countdown 6 (It's here, baby!)

Summer is right around the corner.  Time to get ready for some white-water rafting, right?

Coca-Cola Summer Can 6 of 6 2013

That's it.  There is no more to say.  I'm making the grilling menu for Memorial Day, breaking out the camping gear, buying friendly chemicals for the swimming pool, and busting outta here. Summer 2014 is on!  (Now I just need to find the Coke Cans for this year!)

Coca-Cola Painting $$$

I just learned one of four Andy Warhol Coca-Cola paintings just sold for $57.2 million dollars to Wal-Mart heiress Alice L. Walton.  What does this mean?

Cans for Trade February 2014

Well, first I suppose ole' Andy would be pleased with the irony.  The painting is a hand painted black and white Coca-Cola bottle the size of a human.  It's a towering symbol of pop art.  Coca-Cola is for the masses, Warhol once said more or less in a popular quote.  If there is anything for the masses beyond Coca-Cola, its definitely Wal-Mart.  Way to go Alice!

Summer Can Countdown 3

Introducing Coca-Cola summer can number 3 from 2013.  Ah, baseball!  What could be more American than baseball and Coca-Cola taken together?

Coca-Cola Summer Can 3 of 6 2013

If you want to dig even a bit deeper between the natural nostalgia of Coca-Cola and a ball game, did you know that Coca-Cola owned the Atlanta Crackers, a minor league baseball team?  They owned the team from 1929 until 1949.  A significant achievement of the team was being one of the first to stand up against segregation in baseball.  That's Coca-Cola for you, I suppose, bringing people together!  I love the baseball on this can.  It's like...BAM!...it's being thrown right at ya!

Mexican Tax on Soda

I had always suspected the War-On-Soda was a uniquely Americans thing.  Turns out this is not true.  I just learned that Mexico, our cheerful neighbor south of the border, has levied a 1 percent tax on soda drinks aimed at fighting obesity.

Mello-Yello 2013

The sad part is many Mexicans guzzle soda because they know it's germ-free.  Clean water is tough to come by in rural areas.  That Coca-Cola may have sugar, but its clean.  Meanwhile, the Mexican government gets a good chunk of change.  It's fairly clear there is an ulterior motive with the tax as many Mexicans have no choice but to buy soda. And fighting obesity is rather vague.  How about using the tax to fund clean water programs?  Ah, but the saddest part is the Mexican government would have never learned to market such a scam had it not been for America's own political elitists. Way to export, Bloomberg!

More Sugar for the Buds by Secret Chemicals

Soda is waging a difficult battle right now.  The rich disdain it, Michelle Obama wants to kick folks out of the country that drink it, and sales are down.  One solution has been to micro-machine size the cans.  But Pepsi is taking it one step further.

The Cans in the Basement, January 2014

Apparently Pepsi is going all sci-fi and experimenting with a chemical (craftily called S617) that tricks your brain into thinking you are tasting more sugar than you are.  It's not soccer-mom-diet-soda-sweetener, but it's an actual chemical that heightens the taste of real sugar, which means less is more.  Boo-ya!  It sounds like a good idea to me.  I don't like those tiny Polly Pocket cans anyway. I want the standard sizes to stick around.  They are the largest part of my collection.  This ongoing science project by Pepsi might help ensure that.

Petty Pepsi Revenge?

Soda, as much as Coca-Cola and Pepsi strive to teach us otherwise, is for the poor unwashed masses.  At least, that's what the rich and elite think anyway.  (Mayor Michael Bloomberg must protect us from it, after all!) Which is why it is interesting there was rumor about Pepsi being used as petty revenge by the wealthy.

2008 Diet Pepsi Vanilla

The River House co-op in Manhattan is for the finest upper crust of New York society.  Surely, nary a sugary soft drink in their exclusive enclave.  The rumor was Joan Crawford's application was rejected to live there.  As revenge, she supposedly orchestrated the placement of a large, neon Pepsi billboard to be placed across the river to spoil the view of the rich and famous.  The New York times corrected this as being untrue, but it still makes a great urban legend.

Summer Can Countdown 2

So here is our next summer Coca-Cola can for our countdown to summer. It's a surfer perched atop a wave ready to take the plunge into the deep, sugary, syrupy goodness of Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola Summer Can 2 of 6 2013

The surfer got me thinking.  I did some research and did you know that Coca-Cola sponsored a surfing competition in Australia from 1974 - 1991?  That's a pretty long run.  I mean Coca-Cola sponsors a little bit of everything theses days, so a surfing competition is really no surprise, but it's nice to just know a little history isn't it?

Big Bucks for Spilled Coke

So did you know a little Coca-Cola can get you fined $50,000?  Jason Kidd of the Net's found that out after using a friend's Coca-Cola as a diversionary tactic on November 26th of this year.

Coke Zero 2013 Basketball Can

Out of time outs and with 8.3 seconds left, the lad had the admirable strategy of bumping into a teammate enjoying some Coca-Cola.  The result was a slick and sugary basketball court that required clean-up, which involved, guess what..an informal time out!  Unfortunately, neither strategy worked.  The Net's still lost and replays showed the spill was intentional and hence the fine.  Still, you gotta admire Kidd for trying!

Godless Pledge Can Part 2

I had a second thought about the Godless pledge of allegiance Pepsi can controversy.  How could people believe it was true? For example, why would Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and other Lords of Sugar be kow-towing to political correctness by omitting the word God anyway?  Pepsi clears things up here, but do you really need a soda company to be doing your critical thinking?

Pepsi Max $5.00 Off Buffalo Bills Tickets 2012

Look, folks who are offended about God being in the pledge are not the people buying soda.  They are those hybrid car folks who dislike soda, guns, trans fats, greasy barbecues, successful businessmen, northwest logging companies, and anything else connected to the unwashed masses. And the people who do like soda, you know, that sugar stuff "da poor" drink, are rather fond of God in the pledge or are at least ambivalent about it.  In other words, the meme doesn't make sense from a marketing point.

Look at it this way.  It would be like Pepsi putting "Football Sucks" on a Pepsi can. Not gonna happen.  See, you gotta think critically about these things.  Even when it is just about crappy hypothetical soda cans.

Godless Pledge Can

Here's an interesting meme floating around the internet.  Pepsi supposedly is releasing patriotic cans that have images of New York City on them with the Pledge of Alligeance but omits the words "Under God".  Well guess what?  It's not true.

Wild Cherry Pepsi 2013

But it wouldn't bother me if it was true.  Mainly because Pepsi hasn't release a patriotic can in a while.  (Unless you count Beyonce as patriotic as part of the Super Bowl, which I don't.) Secondly, if they did release one, and it did omit the words, and a real bruhaha erupted, they would reprint the can, making the first one a valuable collectors item.  See, I don't care about religion or the country; I just want to collect cool cans in my basement.

Fanta Halloween

I know, I know, it's Christmas time and I should be posting about Christmas cans, but like a true cop-out, I don't even have that many in my collection yet.  See, I only buy soda when we run out as a family.  We still have Mt. Dew in the fridge from the Xbox One (I had to by one o 'dem big 24 pack cubes to get it) so I haven't had a chance to buy holiday ones yet.  But...I do have this Halloween can!

Fanta Halloween 2013

Coca-Cola is admittedly shady during the Halloween season.  Fanta is the only brand I see of theirs that sports Halloween.  Hopefully this tradition can end and we can see a little more scare in 2014.

Coca-Cola Summer Countdown Can 1

So yes, it is December, but even amid the snow and blow I am already fantasizing about summer. I thought of all the ways I could get a jump on the summer season, you know, like maybe working on those abdominal muscles to look good in a swimsuit, but that takes to much work.  So I'll toss up a soda can instead.  (Utterly diametric, I know.)

Coca-Cola Summer Can 2013 1 of 6 

BAM!  So Coca-cola released 6 summer coke cans last summer in 2013.  Above is can 1 of 6 cheerfully spouting the 2013 tagline "Open for Summer."  Yours truly hunted hard and collected all six.  I will be tossing up a summer can a month from December through May.  Once they are all up Memorial Day will be here and we will be open for summer once again.  Bring it on.

Apples and Coke

So this is some big news in the soda world...Apple just passed Coca-Cola as the world's most recognized brand.  I don't know exactly how they compute that stuff, but I am more interested in what that says about the world, and I guess it means that people are more interested in technology than good old fashioned sugar drinks.

But I think it will fade.  While technology may be ubiquitous, the companies that bring it tend to cycle around.  I predict Coca-Cola will rise again, even if it is far enough in the future where I will never bother to check to see if I'm right.

Pepsi Flavored Cheetos

For those of you who don't think soda merits enough attention to bleed into the mundane areas of your life, consider what is happening in Japan.  Last month Cheetos and Pepsi teamed up to make, you guessed it, Pepsi flavored Cheetos! Apparently, the Cheetos are covered in a Pepsi powder, that, reminding us of Crystal Clear Pepsi days, is not brown. No word yet if these are coming to the U.S. yet.

Pepsi Flavored Cheetos!

Caffeine Free Coke Zero

I found a new can shortly after it was released.  Apparently, Coke Zero is doing great.  So great that they decided to release a Caffeine Free Version.  It came out this very month and I picked up a 12 pack at my local store.  I think the black and gold can is rather stylish.

2013 Caffeine Free Coke Zero

The target audience is apparently also people like me: young adult males (just look at the official site.) Diet Coke is too womanly, so the Coke Zero line is targeted towards men.  Interestingly, it was already available in France and Japan, but not here.  To correct this oversight of leaving North America out, a petition was made to bring it here.  It only had 5 signatures, but I guess that was enough!

It's Still Going On...

It's been some time since I've last posted.  But less you think I have given up on my soda can collecting habit and written it off as some childish fad, here is an updated picture of the "basement" where the cans in my collection are located.

Not bad, huh?  Back in February I only had a photo of 15 cans. I will try to be more diligent in posting...perhaps not once a day but a goal of once a week.  As a side note, I set a goal of having at least 100 cans by summer.  Well, it certainly is summer now and I have exceeded my goal and have a total of 123 different soda cans in my collection.  As always, what the mind can conceive and believe, it CAN achieve.(See what I did there?  I am awesome.)

The Racist Mountain Dew Commercial

Big time citrus soda Mountain Dew just pulled an internet ad that was deemed too racist.  It consisted of a woman victim needing to identify her attacker in a line up of guess what?...all black men.  Of course, there is one non-black suspect, which happens to be a goat, which taunts the women throughout the commercial.  The ad was attacked for continuing the stereotype that black males are violent thugs.

The 2013 Mountain Dew Commercial that is no more....

I suppose the free market drives people to complain about these kind of things.  However, for a soft drink that brands itself as the one and only drink with adolescent/young adult yarbels, the company seems to have shrunken away from the school yard bullies awfully quickly. Personally, I find myself offended that I can't find a clip of that ad anywhere on there internet without a shut down message claiming Pepsi Co. removed the video due to copyright violations.  This offend me because I think I should get to watch the ad myself and then decide if it is offensive enough to me to not forward.  Regardless, I think they should release a Mountain Dew can with a goat on it just to celebrate the fail.

Bubba Cola

I already posted about Save-A-Lot's Mountain Holler soda that is one of the many Mountain Dew clones.  I didn't particularly like it.  In fact, I still have cans of it in my fridge.  Nonetheless, I still would like to add Save-A-Lot cans to my collection.  So imagine my surprise when out running a week ago and came across this can below!  Now, Bubba Cola may taste great, but now I don't need to find out to get the can.

Save-A-Lot Bubba Cola 2013

Aldis Root Beer

I am a couple of days behind in posting.  Fortunately, I have some more cans to add to the collection.  We had some friends over for pizza and root beer and the root beer I decided to break out was the Aldi's brand called SUDS.  It appears below.  I have always believed root beer was once of the best sodas to drink with pizza.  Coca-Cola would also work well.  (You can also see in this pic that I am trying to use a black jacket as a consistent background for the photo ops!)

Aldi's Root Beer 2013