1. Black Folks Like Sprite

In the 90s and early 2000s, The Coca-Cola Company inexplicably spent millions of dollars marketing their Sprite drink to an unlikely target: black people. It started in the 80's with commercials featuring hiphop acts like Kurtis Blow and Heavy D, but Coca-Cola really started to target young black people in the mid-90's with the "Obey Your Thirst" tagline and dozens of commercials featuring many popular rappers and basketball players; who, as the folks at Coca-Cola must have learned, happen to be the two most likely role-models for the average black child.

It's not clear why Coca-Cola chose Sprite to be the soft drink for black people, but one thing is for sure; their marketing campaign worked well. If you are out at a restaurant with a black person and you are left with the task of ordering his or her drink, you can almost never go wrong with Sprite. Even if you encounter a black person who, for example, is health-conscious and does not drink soft drinks, you should still be in the clear as that person will understand where you were coming from and probably end up drinking it anyway.

It is important to note that black people are not as inclined to drink other non-Sprite lemon-lime flavored soft drinks. Despite the fact that 7-Up and Sierra Mist taste virtually the same as Sprite, black people are less likely to choose them because they don't have the same history. You certainly didn't see Lebron James and Missy "Misdemeanor" Eliot touting Sierra Mist, did you? For the same reason, black people are also not as receptive to Diet Sprite. Black people gave Sprite Remix a chance, partly because the hiphop-influenced name of the product was appealing. In the end, however, black people realized that when faced with the choice between Sprite and Sprite Remix, they would much rather just go for what was most familiar.

This is not to say that other types of people dislike Sprite, but Sprite has a special place in the hearts of black people. Black people in America often feel as if they have very few things that help to define them as a group apart from the rest of America (i.e white people). Seeing their heroes--such as Grant Hill and Method Man--endorse Sprite fills their hearts with the assurance that this product is truly "theirs".