Shasta (soft drink) produced its first soft drink, a ginger ale. Until the 1950s, the company's products were mainly mixers for alcoholic drinks: mineral water, club soda, and ginger ale. Shasta introduced new marketing strategies in the 1950s, which became industry standards: the packaging of soft drinks in cans, the introduction of low calorie soft drinks, and the distribution of cans and bottles directly to grocers through wholesale channels. By 1960, Shasta was a well-known brand in the western United States. During the 1960s, under the ownership of Luke Wienecke, Shasta was sold to Consolidated Foods (later known as Sara Lee) and was
Diet drink Diet drink Diet (alternatively marketed as sugar-free, zero-calorie or low-calorie) drinks are sugar-free, artificially sweetened versions of fizzy beverages with virtually no calories. They are generally marketed toward health-conscious people, diabetics, athletes, and other people who want to lose weight, improve physical fitness, or reduce their sugar intake. However, studies show that the marketed effectiveness of diet soft drinks is questionable. The beginning of the diet drink or refreshment era was in 1952, when Kirsch Bottling in Brooklyn, New York launched a sugar-free ginger ale called No-Cal. It was designed for diabetics, not dieters, and distribution remained local. Royal Crown