4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 15 February 2024
⏱️ 42 minutes
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In 1940, Pepsi President Walter Mack makes headlines by hiring a team of Black salesmen to target African American customers in a new “special markets” division. The pioneering sales team ventures into the Jim Crow south, where they build Pepsi’s brand loyalty among the Black community, despite the challenges of rampant segregation.
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0:00.0 | Hey Prime members, you can listen to BusinessMovers ad free on Amazon Music. |
0:05.0 | Download the app today. It's August 1941 on a rural highway in Mississippi. A slender 28 year old black man in a suit |
0:30.7 | sits behind the wheel of the only car on the road. He smoked a cigarette |
0:34.9 | with one hand and steers with the other. Herman Smith is the head traveling salesman for |
0:40.1 | Pepsi Cola's Special Markets Division. |
0:43.0 | His job is to increase Pepsi's sales among African American customers. |
0:47.4 | And it's hard work with a rigorous schedule |
0:49.6 | that often includes evenings and weekends. |
0:52.2 | It's even harder in territories like Mississippi |
0:54.7 | where segregationist Jim Crow laws restrict the rights of black citizens. |
0:59.5 | Out the window Herman spots a group of workers in a cotton field. It's a blisteringly hot day and Herman |
1:06.0 | thinks that the workers, mostly women and children, could use a cold beverage and he has |
1:11.0 | a cooler full of them in the trunk. |
1:16.0 | So Herman gets out of the car and calls to the workers. |
1:19.0 | Hey there, how about a cold Pepsi? |
1:21.0 | The workers turn around as Herman opens his trunk and begins producing ice-cold glass |
1:26.4 | bottles of Pepsi-Cola. |
1:28.2 | And don't be shy, they're free. |
1:29.5 | Come on. |
1:30.6 | Cautiously, the workers make their way across the field towards Herman. |
1:34.8 | But just as they get close, Herman sees a truck barreling down the road toward them. |
1:39.6 | When the truck gets within 20 feet, the driver slams on the brakes. |
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