Pepsi is rolling out a new shape for its 20-ounce bottle next month --- first in New York and then Chicago, followed by areas in California and Florida.
The bottle's new design will have a contoured bottom half that looks to make hold the bottle easier, while the wraparound label will be shorter so more of the drink will be visible. It marks the first time the 20-ouncer has been changed in 17 years
Andrea Foote, a spokeswoman for PepsiCo, said the bottle make-over is part of the company's ongoing effort to update its marketing and packaging for the cola.
Foote said it will likely take upwards of two years before the new bottles entirely replace the current bottles, which were introduced in 1996.
There was no indication from the company if any of the new-look bottles with be made from 100 percent recycled materials --- which PepsiCo announced, back in 2011, as "a transformational development for PepsiCo and the beverage industry."
The company said in a statement released in March of that year it had "developed the world's first PET [Polyethylene terephthalate] plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources, enabling the company to manufacture a beverage container with a significantly reduced carbon footprint."
PepsiCo planned, according to media reports, to produce a few hundred thousand of the totally-recycled bottle in 2012 and place them in test markets to measure the public's reaction to the re-fabricated bottle. According to a quick survey of the company's archive of press releases, no follow-up announcements have since been issued about the so-called "green" bottle initiative.
The new bottle changes follow several high-profile moves by PepsiCo to jump-start sales for its namesake soda and other brands, which altogether have lost 4 percent of the North American beverage market, according to recent data from the Associated Press.
PepsiCo's products include Frito-Lay chips, Gatorade and Quaker Oats.
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