A History of Mountain Dew

In the world of Soda we all know what company reigns king, Coca Cola. They consistently outsell the Pepsi Cola Company, although those statistics are debatable. Coke has always been dominate, but there is one soda that they fear. It strikes terror into the very heart of every CEO in the Coca Cola Company, and every other soda company around the world. This soda has been copied over and over again, but none have come close to achieving the success of the almighty Mountain Dew.

Mountain Dew was born way back in the hills of Tennessee in the 1940s. The name Mountain Dew was first trademarked by two brothers, Barney and Ally Hartman, who ran a bottling plant in Knoxville. The Hartman's Mountain Dew, however, was a lemon-lime drink used as a mixer with whiskey. The first sketches of the original Mountain Dew bottle labels were devised in 1948 by John Brichetto, it depicted a character known as Willy the Hillbilly shooting at a revenuer fleeing an outhouse with a pig sitting in the corner. Under the label were the names of individual bottlers, this was supposed to give the feeling that the person drinking the product was drinking illegal moonshine. In fact, Mountain Dew is a slang term used for moonshine.

Pepsi Cola bought out the Mountain Dew franchise in 1964 and in 1973 the logo was changed to reflect the audience Pepsi was aiming for, a younger outdoorsy generation. This tradition is continued today with many commercials for the drink featuring BMX and skating superstars. 1988 bought a new Dew to the scene with a diet Mount Dew, offering a low sugar compliment to the original drink. In 1993 the slogan "Do the Dew" was created by the Dew Dudes in the award winning commercial "Been there Done That"

1995 rolled around and with it came the first ever X-games sponsored by none other then Mountain Dew. In 2001 after a few logo makeovers Dew lovers got an unexpected treat with Code Red Mountain Dew. Sales of the popular soda and its spin off flavors skyrocketed and in 2002 Diet Code Red was put onto the market. Following the success of Code Red, Pepsi Cola introduced other flavors bearing the Mountain Dew name, such as Livewire, an orange flavored spin-off, and Pitch Black and Pitch Black II, grape flavored variations with a sour bite to them.

Mountain Dew has become a world wide success. From the hills and backwoods of Tennessee to the far reaches of the Earth, Mountain Dew is everywhere. Many have tried to imitate its unique flavor, form Mellow Yellow and Surge, but none have even come close. Mountain Dew is here to stay now, and forever.