Is Pepsi Cola a satanic drink whose name and emblem are associated with Apep, the ancient Egyptian god of chaos and darkness? No, that's not true: Pepsi was first produced in 1893 by Caleb Bradham, a U.S. pharmacist, who named it after the medical term for indigestion "dyspepsia," implying that it could help with digestion. The three-color Pepsi logo represents a globe to symbolize the brand's worldwide popularity and has no connection with Apep or satanic rituals.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) published on March 4, 2024, with the following caption (translated from Bulgarian to English by Lead Stories staff):
How many people even know that Pepsi Cola is a satanic drink... The word Pepsi comes from Apep, the Egyptian god of evil, darkness and destruction. Pepsi stands for Pep-See and Apep's eye is the logo. The Pepsi logo is the snake eye of Apep. The ancient Egyptians practiced Satanism, whose rituals included child sacrifice and cannibalism in the name of Apep.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Mar 19 09:29:38 2024 UTC)
There is no historical evidence to support the claim. Pepsi was invented in 1893 (archived here) by Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist in New Bern, North Carolina. It was originally known as "Brad's Drink" and was renamed "Pepsi-Cola" in 1898 (archived here). The name "Pepsi" (archived here) was chosen because Bradham thought the drink to be a remedy for dyspepsia (indigestion).
Apep, also known as Apophis, (archived here) was an ancient Egyptian deity of darkness and disorder. He was regarded as the greatest enemy of Ra, the sun deity, and was therefore given the title Enemy of Ra, and also "the Lord of Chaos" (archived here). He often appeared as a giant snake.
Ancient Egyptian religion (archived here), which was complex and multi-layered, had nothing to do with satanism, a concept derived from Christian theology. There is no historical evidence of child sacrifice or cannibalism in the name of Apep or any other Egyptian deity.
Over the years, the Pepsi logo has undergone several transformations (archived here), reflecting the brand's evolution and American consumer culture.
In the 125th year of its existence, Pepsi changed the logo again (archived here), resembling those of the nineties, in line with its strategy (archived here) to combine history with contemporaneity.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks about Pepsi can be found here.
