‘Diet’ Soft Drinks Are Disappearing From Grocery Store Shelves

“Diet” soda is becoming harder and harder to find on grocery store shelves. It’s not that it’s disappearing, but that diet soda is being rebranded to “zero sugar” to appease health-conscious consumers who don’t care for the word diet.

Brands like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, 7Up, A&W, and Sunkist are all being marketed as Zero Sugar instead of diet. CNN reports that the reason for the change is that younger soda drinkers, namely Millennials and Gen Z, just don’t like the word diet. 

Rebranding to “zero” addresses the change in attitude surrounding the word diet, which is no longer in fashion and changing ideas about health. A drink marketed as zero calories or zero sugar lets consumers see it positively.  

“Younger people just don’t like the word ‘diet,'” Greg Lyons, the chief marketing officer at PepsiCo Beverages North America, said during a conference in December. He added that no one belonging to Gen Z wants to be on a diet these days.

Zero sugar soda products were initially marketed to young people and men who might oppose the word diet. But the market has steadily grown since diet products first hit the shelves in the 1960s. In 2020, the US retail diet carbonated soft drink market hit $11.2 billion.