7,326 Cans on the Wall

Heather Denman may well be the living embodiment of the words “Pepsi generation.”

The walls and ceiling of her Wisconsin bedroom are hidden behind 7,326 empty Pepsi cans. She paints her fingernails in Pepsi red and blue. And until recently, she regularly guzzled 14 cans a day of the caffeine-fortified drink.

Although her devotion has since subsided (she’s down to a one-can-a-day habit because her job as a hospital records clerk requires her to “not be so antsy”), Pepsi’s president still considers her bedroom “the most imaginative and artistic expression of brand loyalty” he’s ever seen.

Denman, 19, says her first sip was at age 5, although she didn’t consume the stuff “excessively” until her teens--”to stay awake at slumber parties.” That’s also when the can collection started. At first, she attached the cans to the wall with duct tape but eventually got serious and switched to caulking.

As for Pepsi’s newest drink, Pepsi One, Denman says it’s “pretty good,” but she prefers “the full-strength stuff.” She says it’s caused no ill health effects: “I’ve got all my teeth.”