Shop owner in Saida emptying a Pepsi bottle, on June 20, 2024, amid a campaign against the company. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah)
BEIRUT — After more than eight months of Israel’s war on Gaza, Lebanese people are still passionate about their campaign to boycott Pepsi in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in daily fighting since Oct. 8, one day after the start of the Gaza war, with 468 people killed in Lebanon since then, according to L’Orient Today’s count. Calls to boycott American companies, some of which support Israel, have surged since the beginning of the conflict.
Despite Pepsi being at the forefront of this list since the beginning of the conflict, a new trigger has ignited social media anew: the company’s new logo.
The new logo was announced by the mother company Pepsico in March 2023 in the United States before being launched worldwide in early 2024. Despite this, the official page for Pepsi in Lebanon on Instagram didn’t announce it until just four months ago.
Among other changes, the brand added the name "Pepsi" in a white stripe in the middle of the logo, framed by red and blue stripes, as a reference to an older logo it sported from the 1950s to the 1980s.
This new logo was unveiled in Lebanon with a CGI video showing red blue and white lanterns flying over the Pigeon Rock landmark (Raouche) in Beirut, to advertise the brand’s new identity.
In Lebanon, the same redesigned logo is used on most Pepsi containers, except for the cap of some glass bottles, where the two stripes around the name are light blue against a white background.
Despite these facts, on Wednesday, Lebanese lawyer Ziad Jaafil filed a notification with the Beirut Public Prosecution, requesting that the Lebanese Modern Company for Trade, the bottler of PepsiCo in Lebanon, stop the use of this logo due to its similarity in colors and layout to the Israeli flag.
Soon a nationwide campaign broke out. Residents in South and North Lebanon and the Bekaa attempted to ban Pepsi distribution trucks from entering their areas.
According to residents who spoke to L’Orient Today’s correspondent in southern Lebanon, storeowners began emptying Pepsi bottles and throwing them into the sea. Residents in their villages also began sharing the following statement widely through WhatsApp, "We announce the banning of Pepsi's distribution vehicles from entering our areas in solidarity with our people in Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza and in response to Pepsi's ... advertisements and monetary support for the Israeli enemy."
The residents also threatened to destroy the trucks if they kept entering their areas.
Meanwhile, in small neighborhoods in the city of Saida, Pepsi cans were destroyed in the streets. An anonymous Whatsapp announcement was sent to many shop owners in Saida, stating, "Israeli flags are being sold in your stores, Pepsi is challenging your affiliation, are you submissive? Boycott!"
In Wadi al-Zayni, in Chouf, residents blocked the road ahead of a large Pepsi truck and banned it from entering the town on Friday. According to our correspondent in the area, the truck was forced to turn around and go back.
Moreover, even the mayor of the village of Majadel (Sour district) said that he ordered the municipal police to "prevent any truck carrying Pepsi from entering the village" in solidarity with the people in Gaza and Southern Lebanon.
'Baseless accusations'
Amid this campaign, the Lebanese Modern Company for Trade released a statement on Friday denying the “baseless accusations” of supporting Israel against it.
"Recently, some have insisted on accusing us of supporting the Israeli enemy morally and materially, sometimes in the colors of the logo and sometimes through fabricated videos," the company said. It also recalls that in 1982 and 2006, Israel targeted the company's factory and stores in Choueifat, southeast of Beirut.
It insisted that since its establishment in 1952, it has "contributed to the renaissance of the national industry," providing for "1,000 Lebanese families from all regions."
“We will continue to support the industry, economy, and youth [of Lebanon] ... no matter how malicious people try to spread strife."