KO Coca Cola Company

PepsiCo Inc. is trying to tap 1990s nostalgia to give its sagging soda sales a temporary jolt.

The snack-and-beverage giant said Wednesday that it is bringing back Crystal Pepsi, the colorless cola that was launched in 1992 with great fanfare before sales quickly fizzled.

This time, it will be sold for a limited time in Canadian stores starting July 11 before arriving on U.S. shelves Aug. 8.

It is the latest bid by the No. 2 soda player behind Coca-Cola Co. to win back consumers. PepsiCo's U.S. soda sales fell 2% in the 52 weeks ended June 18, worse than the 0.6% decline industrywide, according to Wells Fargo, citing Nielsen store-scanner data.

The move comes after the company said Monday that it would reintroduce aspartame-sweetened Diet Pepsi after replacing it last August with a sucralose-sweetened version. Diet Pepsi's sales plunge deepened in recent months, with loyalists balking at the new recipe and new drinkers failing to surface.

Per-capita soda consumption in the U.S. is at a three-decade low as more consumers switch to bottled water and other beverages, including energy drinks and teas.

PepsiCo's recent retro push doesn't stop in the 1990s. Earlier this year the company launched 1893 Original Cola, a nod to the year Pepsi-Cola inventor Caleb Bradham began selling cola. In 2014 PepsiCo launched Caleb's Kola, made with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.

Clear products became a fad in the early 1990s with brands such as Clearly Canadian soft drinks, Mennen Lady Speed Stick Crystal deodorant and Miller Clear, a transparent beer, having their moment in the sun. "Saturday Night Live" poked fun at the trend with a parody commercial for fictitious Crystal Gravy.

By 1994, the trend was largely over and many of the products disappeared from store shelves amid shrinking sales.

PepsiCo hoped Crystal Pepsi would quickly become a $1 billion brand. The new brand was featured in a 1993 Super Bowl commercial, carrying the tagline, "You've never seen a taste like this" to Van Halen's hit song "Right Now."

But Crystal Pepsi's share of the U.S. soda market peaked at 0.5% in 1993, far below the company's initial 2% goal, and sales had evaporated by 1995, according to data service Beverage Digest. Some drinkers complained that it didn't taste enough like regular Pepsi.

PepsiCo again made Crystal Pepsi available in an online sweepstakes for two days in December.

On Wednesday the company cited "overwhelming fan demand" for bringing back the clear cola but didn't provide details about how it measured that demand.

It added in a news release that it would market the clear cola with the online game "The Crystal Pepsi Trail," a take on "The Oregon Trail," a computer game popular in the 1990s.

Write to Mike Esterl at mike.esterl@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 29, 2016 15:25 ET (19:25 GMT)

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