| Type | Diet cola |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | PepsiCo |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Introduced | 1963 |
| Variants | Root Beer Orange Imitation Grape Imitation Strawberry Dry Ginger Ale Dry Club Soda Dry Tonic Water Diet Cola |
Patio Diet Cola was a brand of diet soda introduced by Pepsi in 1963. It was created in response to Diet Rite Cola, which was the first diet cola on the market. Debbie Drake was Patio Diet Cola's spokesperson. In 1964, Patio released orange, grape, and root beer flavors. This flavor line was not meant to compete with brands like Orange Crush, but rather fill out the line for bottlers in need. Patio sodas were available in the cold-bottle market: grocery and mom-and-pop stores. Advertising for Patio was comparatively scarce; at the time, bottlers were regionally franchised, and related advertising was necessarily local.
In 1964, the line became Diet Pepsi. The newly branded diet soda was advertised alongside Pepsi with the tagline "Pepsi either way", which replaced the slogan "Dances with flavor".
The creation of an advertising campaign for Patio was a featured plot of the third season of the AMC television series Mad Men. In "My Old Kentucky Home", they hired an Ann-Margaret look-alike. In "The Arrangements", they notably used a take-off of Ann-Margret's opening number from the film of Bye Bye Birdie for their television commercial, directed by Art Director Salvador Romano. When the Patio executives watch Sterling Cooper's commercial, they hate it, and admitted their own idea was not a good one.
Pepsi phased out the non-cola Patio flavors by the 1970s.