According to a survey of over 1,000 people, commissioned by Diet Pepsi MAX, 84% of Americans experience a daily “afternoon slump,” and more than half of respondents admitted to yawning up to five times a day. 86% believe that those yawns are contagious, and Diet Pepsi MAX said it plans to do something about it.

“It’s evident that Americans are tired and could use an extra kick to help get them through the day,” said Russell Weiner, VP, Colas, Pepsi-Cola North America. “Diet Pepsi MAX was designed to offer a great-tasting solution with a unique formula that invigorates the mind and body, preventing those ill-timed yawns from taking over.”

So Pepsi Launched an ACTUAL Harris Interactive survey to see how people respond to yawning – which is very expensive and scientific – and here are the results:

While yawning at work is common, the survey also revealed a few surprising facts about yawning etiquette, yawning in the workplace and just yawning in general.

• Half of all respondents (58 percent) have yawned in a meeting.
• Nearly one-in-five Americans feel embarrassed having yawned at work.
• Nearly half (42 percent) find it offensive when someone yawns in the middle of a conversation.
• About 18 percent of respondents has faked a yawn to get out of a conversation.
• Nearly one-in-ten Americans has even yawned on a job interview.

Yawning etiquette

• One-in-ten respondents not only failed to cover their mouth, but their lack of etiquette led to a bug flying into their mouth.
• Nearly one-third (29 percent) attempt to stifle their yawn.
• Twenty-four percent are proud and loud yawners and make a sound.
• Nearly half (45 percent) of all New Yorkers surveyed say they apologize after yawning and cover their mouths (78 percent) compared to 31 percent who apologize in Los Angeles and cover their mouths (61 percent).
• Eighty-five percent of respondents believe excessive yawning shouldn’t have professional repercussions.

Political Drowiness

• Twenty-three percent of Washington, D.C. residents cite “socializing and staying out late” as the reason they feel tired during the day at work.
• Nationally, 56 percent of those who consider themselves Democrats claim to have caught someone sleeping at work. But, 43 percent of Republicans said the same.
• Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to be embarrassed about yawning at work (25 percent to 11 percent).
• Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to be offended by someone yawning in the middle of a conversation (46 percent to 39 percent).

I love this marketing campaign, trying to spruce up a cool old brand before releasing it here in the US. Pepsi Max has been around for a LONG time, introduced everywhere except the US over 15 years ago. Why so long the wait? That Ace K they use for sweetening the drink was not approved by the FDA until last year, so they could not release it here. But now they spruced it up, added in more caffeine and filled our grocery soda shelves with a hidden energy drink.

Buzz/Nutrition:8
Diet mountain dew, the soda closest to being an energy drink still found in vending machines, has some serious competition on its hands… Pepsi’s new ginseng infused diet cola boosts the caffeine content to 46 milligrams per 8 ounce serving compared to 24 mg in regular Diet Pepsi. That is really not sucha bad number for a soda, actually topping all the charts for that category. Sure other drinks have more caffeine, but not any others that consider themselves soda pop (even though drinks like Monster and Nos sure taste like one). A 12 ounce bottle has 69 milligrams of caffeine, which is more than Diet Mountain Dew and Mellow Yello with 55 and 51 mg per 12 ounce. The sweeteners used are acesulfame K and aspartame, so there are no calories to speak of in here. So yes folks, with the added ginseng content, this drink would fall in the Banned category at Hillsborogh Middle category and not allowed in school grounds. No nutrition here – its soda pop.

Taste:7
Unless you are a cola connessuer , this tastes like slightly more sweetened pepsi. Even then, it would take some real taste bud memory to compare to regular diet pepsi. If you fall by the pepsi side of the cola wars, this might be right up your alley. Still beware, for kids or people very sensitive to caffeine, this soda does have quite a punch in it.

Packaging:7
its soda packaging – and it is OK. Not amazing, but not bad. It lists all the good stuff and does not hide behind proprietary blend labels where there is no disclosure of caffeine or other mood enhancing drugs. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to be ashamed of either.

Website: 9 – http://www.wakeuppeople.com/
Very clean and full of information. Great use of flash and video, plus all the info you could want on the brand. Love the local flavor by inputting the state identifier so it says WAKE UP DENVER, (or whatever city you are in). The videos are hilarious, and there is definitely enough forethought into design as well and development. And going all the way to do marketing and research into yawning is a pretty awesome idea, really