Fact Check: No, Pepsi did not change its can to show support for Palestine

Hyderabad: An image of a Pepsi can is being widely shared on social media purportedly claiming that Pepsi is an Israeli company and has changed the soft drink can’s design to avoid the boycott in light of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

The tweet was shared with the caption, “The Israeli company PEPSI has changed the design to avoid the boycott and wrote Palestine. Do not fall for this deception. Continue the boycott of both PEPSI and COKE brands. #boycottpepsi #Pepsi (sic)”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false.

We started our investigation by performing a keyword search and found that Pepsico is neither an Israeli company nor a Palestinian one. As per the company’s website, PepsiCo is American-built and has been flourishing for decades.

Moving forward, through a simple keyword search we found a tweet from a premium X user called V Palestine carrying the viral image with the caption, “Pepsi Gaza introduces a new design to its products showcasing Palestinian culture and heritage.”

The image was tweeted on August 17, 2023, much before the current flare-up in the region. The current conflict between Israel and Hamas started on October 7. With this, it’s safe to say that the viral image has nothing to do with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

For further confirmation, we also found a video on a Facebook page showing how the design for the Palestinian Pepsi was created. The account with the username Dragon Studios uploaded the video on August 16.

Finally, we saw that on October 27, Pepsi published an official statement on its website stating that ‘PepsiCo supports associates and communities in Israel and Gaza.’