The Great American Debate: Soda Versus Pop

Many people refer to their soft drinks as either soda or pop as a shortened form of the term soda pop. There are many factors as to why one person may call it one, soda and not pop.

Peer pressure
In my hometown, we call soda and I never even knew anyone would call it anything else until I moved out of state. There throngs of people telling me that I was wrong confronted me. "Soda? You mean pop!" they of course will always be wrong since I was raised calling it soda it will forever be lodged in my vocabulary as such. Every time some one says pop it instantly conjures up images of one of those old television shows where a young child is calling for his father by an endearing nickname. I started referring to soda as soft drinks or by the name brand that I wanted. Many times people can change sides in this debate just to get people to stop bothering them about it. This is very common and one of the main reasons that parts of the country still show a strong commitment to one name over the other.

Branding
Some people do refer to the soft drink they want by a brand name. Of course then you have to deliberate the slight taste differences between the brands of Sprite or 7 up, Coke or Pepsi whenever your waitress asks, "We don't carry that brand will this brand be okay?". Many have sworn their allegiance to one brand or another and call all of their soda or pop by that brand name. The blind brand following has brought out members from both soda and pop communities together, they both can agree that no one should call it by the brand name. Since the brand name disciples take on this debate from another point, they do not seam to care that they are mislabeling all soft drinks under their mother brand. These people defy the others in both parties by claiming that their way is the American way. Perhaps we are an over branded society but it should never trump the real name of the product.

Politics
Some people theorize that the pop states are mostly republican and the soda states are democratic. While they admit that this is not a sound theory, they do like to show how this debate may have to reach across party lines. This only applies to some of the red and blue states and there are many exceptions. Although we doubt this will be the subject of the presidential race, it may actually prove to swing some very small amount voters behind a different candidate after all this is the great American debate.