Pepsi Twist

Pepsi Twist, also marketed as Pepsi Lemon Twist, is a lemon-flavored version of the regular Pepsi Cola soft drink, marketed by PepsiCo. The drink was test marketed in 2000 and launched in November 2001 in the United States, around the same time as its rival The Coca-Cola Company's Coca-Cola with Lemon, although has since been discontinued in America. Pepsi Twist has been marketed in other regions around the world, including no-calorie variants Diet Pepsi Twist/Pepsi Twist Light (Diet Pepsi) and Pepsi Twist Zero Sugar (Pepsi Zero Sugar), and continues to be sold in parts of South America and Europe.

Bottled lemon-flavored Pepsi cola dates back to 1975. The first incarnation of Pepsi Light was cola and lemon flavor with 50% fewer calories. It was soon replaced with lemon-flavored diet cola of the same name in the 1970s and 1980s in the United States called Pepsi Light, which was lemon-flavored by necessity to counteract the aftertaste of the artificial sweetener saccharin. When aspartame became more widely available, the lemon flavoring was removed from the newly rechristened Diet Pepsi in 1983.

The product was advertised during Super Bowl 2003, with Ozzy, Jack and Kelly Osbourne appearing in the commercial, along with Florence Henderson and Donny and Marie Osmond. It was also endorsed by pop singer Britney Spears in 2002 and 2003, as part of her contract with the company; it also appeared as a promotional tie-in with Austin Powers in Goldmember.

In 2005, Japanese toy company Takara released a special edition Transformers Optimus Prime (known as "Convoy" in Japan) figure in Pepsi colours, with a bottle/can holding trailer. Known as Pepsi Convoy, this figure comes pre-packaged with a cardboard Pepsi Twist bottle.^{[citation needed]} This figure was later released two years later in America as "Pepsi Optimus Prime", with some slight modifications.^{[citation needed]}

Professional wrestler CM Punk dubbed one of his signature moves the Pepsi Twist.^{[citation needed][relevant?]}

In 2002 a pair of lime mascots (although referred to as lemons) were created for a TV commercial in Brazil dubbed by actors and comedians Lúcio Mauro Filho and Bruno Mazzeo, involving a style of acid humor. The popularity of the commercials involving the characters led to them becoming brand mascots, often returning to appear together every time the brand was relaunched and sometimes also appearing printed on the cans.

In 2007, plush toys of the characters were distributed through a campaign called "Toma que o Limão é seu" ("Take the Lemon, it's yours"). The plushes were distributed again in 2014 in another promotion. In 2016 a female lime (referred to as "limoa") appeared in a commercial being voiced by singer Anitta. The characters also appeared in a collaboration with the Ruffles brand for the launch of Ruffles' lemon flavor.

In 2018 another mascot was created for the limited ginger flavor in Brazil also sold under the Pepsi Twist brand, called Gengibrão.