Originally Posted by
BenA
Due to a long standing, delicate and complicated set of not-very-good reasons including boycotts and public relations missteps, most of the Middle East has been divided up in soda brands across religious boundaries, with Coca-Cola being popular in the Jewish community and Pepsi cornering the market in majority Islamic markets.
This has faded quite a bit over the years and both companies operate in both markets since 1992, but the perception still exists, and it’s entirely unsurprising it would affect ME3 carriers’ drink choices onboard.
There is an interesting story behind this. For years, Pepsi boycotted Israel out of fear of losing its sales in the Arab countries. Eventually, Pizza Hut opened in Israel and, at the time, it was owned by Pepsico. Pepsico did not allow Pizza Hut to sell Coke, and Pepsi was not being bottled in Israel. Hence, Israeli Pizza Huts sold only Pepsi which was bottled in Cyprus. Eventually, Pepsi dropped its boycott and started bottling in Israel. This allowed Pizza Hut to provide locally-bottled Pepsi. Since then, Pepsico sold Pizza Hut and today Israeli Pizza Hut franchises provide only Coke -- no Pepsi.