In the face of declining sales of both full-calorie and diet soft drinks—many of which are made with the low-calorie sweetener aspartame—Coca-Cola took the offensive with a line of ads defending sweeteners.
Sales of soft drinks in the US have fallen across the board in the past year, but declines have been particularly pronounced in the diet category. Volume sales for Coke fell 1 percent compared to 3 percent for Diet Coke; Pepsi sales fell 3.4 percent compared to 6.2 percent for Diet Pepsi.