FRIDAY FAIL: New Coke
Submitted by i Bartolo
From Wikipedia:
New Coke was the unofficial name of the sweeter formulation introduced in 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace its flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola or Coke. Properly speaking, it had no separate name of its own, but was simply known as “the new taste of Coca-Cola”, until 1992 when it was renamed Coca-Cola II.
Public reaction to the change was poor, and the new cola was a major marketing failure. The subsequent reintroduction of Coke’s original formula led to a significant gain in sales.
NAWT SEKKUND!!! my first first!!!
“Being first to comment a post validates my existence! Now I can put the sleeping pills and razorblades away!”
“Flaming a n00b validates my own pathetic existence, and gives me a feeling of self-worth. Now I can detach the hose from the car’s exhaust pipe!”
Irony. You’re soaking in it.
Perfect!
This website is dumb, and not funny. I don’t get the point, and I’m actually pretty old. Ok I’m only 30, but really- is there a point to this?
Bah. I’m 30 and I love these! And curses on you for saying that 30 is “actually pretty old”. >=(
uh Annie. . . I’m pushin 50 REAL HARD HERE! I lol with this site daily but 30 as OLD! Realy girl I don’t even think of 60 as old. Please excuse me I’m not tryin to flame you here, honest.
It’s not supposed to be funny. It’s “blasts from the past.” If those don’t float your boat, then just go to the other ICHC sites.
Honestly, dear, 30 is not old, ergo you cannot appreciate nostalgia just yet.
Pshaw! I’m only 25 and I roll in nostalgia whenever I can! I long for the days of awesome 80s toons and toys. My childhood rocked! There is no age limit to nostalgia!
Im bloody 14 and I know about a lot of this stuff =D 80’s seemed awesome.
AGE FAIL
You might be 30, but you’re not a bored office clerk with nothing better to do. I’ve about drained the internet of the work-friendly content it has to offer and this site makes shifts fly.
No Horrible stuff, this belongs on Failblog…
Ugh, you are so right.
If any one from the Coca-Cola Company happens to see this. . .I have not bought Coke for years, excepting the rare times that I am in a Mexican grocery store, carefully check the bottles for the lack of HFCS, then treat myself to a (very expensive) imported beverage.
C’est la guerre.
Amen! We can get Mexican coke at our local grocery in the Mexican food section. HFCS is creepy.
I think that Coke actually made it worse on purpose and had planned initially to re-release the old Coke and rebrand it as Coke Classic. When they released Coke Classic, sales shot through the roof, they were never horribly hurt by this, it only made them stonger. It was definitely a publicity stunt.
The stunt also gave time for Coke to do one huge thing: The New Coke “experiment” also allowed the remaining Coca-Cola bottling plants to switch from sugar to corn syrup. Once the “experiment” was complete, they brought back the Original Formula, but it actually isn’t the Original Formula, as that contained sugar.
What we’re drinking now is actually a New New Formula, but since it’s being marketed as if it were the Original Formula, no one is the wiser.
Wanna bet? If you can find the Coca Cola bottled in Mexico, that is the original Coke w/sugar mind you, but not with cocain of course.
-Tariffs make sugar more expensive in the US. Corn subsidies make HFCS cheaper.
-Do you really think the per capita consumption of Coca-Cola in Mexico is enough to hurt their profitability if they use the more expensive cane sugar in their product?
-Many European nations have banned HFCS under a larger ban of GMO’s.
-You misspelled “cocaine.”
You lose. Good day, sir.
Any Mexican Cokes I buy now have HFCS in them, too. There may be others that still use actual sugar, but it’s not all Mexican Coca-Cola anymore.
And Mexican Coke’s formulation doesn’t change the fact that the New Coke/Coke Classic bait and switch was a ploy to switch to HFCS without any major market resistance in the US.
During Passover you can get kosher Cokes that are made with sugar. I keep a lookout for them around town. There’s something to look for on the cap to make sure they’re kosher and I can’t remember what right now, but you can usually find them in with the other Passover foods.
Exactly. If you taste Coke from any country that still uses sugar, you will notice a difference in the taste. To me (and I’m only 34), the taste of Coke with sugar reminds of the taste of Coke from a glass bottle. I think that’s because Coke in a glass bottle probably stopped being available in the mainstream around the same time.
Coke made with sugar tastes a whole lot better than Coke with corn syrup. However, corn syrup is much cheaper in the US due to government intervention (thanks big government!). There was no way that Coke could simply change the formula of Coke cold-turkey. Coke drinkers would have forcibly overthrown the company! They had to do something to make the taste buds of Coke drinkers “forget” the original formula. So they came up with this “new Coke” thing. In the short term, it looked like the dumbest marketing move ever. And for those that don’t know any better, it still does look like the dumbest marketing move in history. However, it was perhaps one of the greatest strokes of marketing genius. In addition to accomplishing the goal of “tongue-washing” the US market, they actually came out smelling like roses for bringing back the “original” formula.
For those that don’t believe this could be true, considering the following:
1. It is fact that prior to this move, Coke in the US was made with sugar
2. It is fact that after this move, Coke in the US was and is still made with corn syrup.
3. It is fact that Coke is still made with sugar nearly everywhere else in the world (where sugar is cheap).
4. Coke had no reason to change their formula. Their marketshare was and still is huge. Surely they didn’t think their product was had to be changed.
5. If they did think they needed a new product, why didn’t they just come out with a new Coke variation in addition to the original formula – as they’ve done before and after new Coke(Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, etc.)
Overall, the whole new Coke strategy was just TOO stupid to not have been a diversion. There’s no way that a company like Coke would have thrown away their crown jewel product on a whim like this if it wasn’t for some other purpose.
Actually, they sell Coke in glass bottles at my local supermarket every now and then. Usually on special events, although it usually goes unnoticed. It’s not really that good for my tastes. Hey, I’m 21. I was born in the “New New Coke” era.
So the bottled Coke is still being made somewhere.
Ben, I think you caught them….. completely a publicity stunt.
Marcel, thanks so much for that info. Your explanation makes sense.
Did Diet Coke come out before or after NuCoke? I’d heard that before NuCoke there was no Diet Coke and After they brought out NuCoke they suddenly brought out Diet Coke. That the whole reason for NuCoke and changing the recipe was a sneaky ploy to be able to make a Diet version of Coke to battle Pepsi?
I always thought Coca Cola was a sneaky company. I’m actually pretty impressed by their sneaky ways. But I hate soda so they don’t get my money! LOL
Why not just change the formula and not advertise it as any different? It’s not like mentioning corn syrup has to be anywhere but in the fine print. Psh.
http://snopes.com/cokelore/newcoke.asp
None of your facts are correct.
In fact, by 6 months prior to the introduction of New Coke, regular Coke was already made with 100% HFCS.
Yeah. That’s the plan.
A common marketing strategy, actually. Because New and improved might not be new and improved, just the same.
And the Same might just be new and improved.
You can read the Snopes debunking of this conspiracy theory by clicking my name.
It’s sad how tenacious urban legends can be. Thanks for the link.
Remember Max Headroom in the commercials?
Coke in Aus is still sugared. I think only in the US is there corn syrup. That stuff’s naaaaasty.
Love the theory, Ben.
Not his theory:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke#Conspiracy_theories
I loved New Coke! I wish I could still get some. Maybe Ebay.
IIRC, people in blind taste tests preferred New Coke also, but when they actually saw the difference in the packaging, they liked Classic.
kinda like the Mojave Experiment with Windows Vista
Just drink Pepsi. It’s the same as “New Coke”.
FAIL!
I wouldn’t call it a fail more like the greatest marketing plan ever. Just think about it
I preferred PepsiFree.
Commie
hold on a sec, the guy who likes the drink in the red white and blue package is the commie, while those who drink from the red package aren’t…. the irony.
it will be around forever just like the jazz and jello pudding pops
Ok, under really strange, for some odd reason hubby still has a 16oz bottle of this stuff. Why? no clue. guess he is a pack rat. any takers? lol
Actually, the current coke is the new coke. The difference was old coke was made with sugar and new coke was made with high fructose corn syrup which was sweeter and cheaper and makes some people eat more. When new coke was a marketing failure, they just slowly changed from the “classic” formula to the new formula. If you want the old coke, you have to get some of the stuff they market to Mexico. Often the international aisle in the grocery will have it.
anyone else remember “crystal clear pepsi” ? i think it was late 80’s early 90’s. that’s one i wanna see ^_^
and to the poster who said this is neither funny nor sarcastic site and it’s pointless…it’s NOT MEAN TO BE. it’s meant to be a trip down memory lane. they show an old/older memory and write a brief explanation of it and it’s history. i personally love it, it’s fun and it’s a great way to bring up old memories i’ve forgotten about.
let’s see some Popple memories!
Yes, I remember that!! Along with Miller Clear a few years later. This brings back memories of the stupid “cola wars”, shudder.
Ah, my parents never let me drink soft drinks, but that looked cool. Plus is in a Bloodhound Gang song… lol.
That and “Pepsi A.M.” — a more caffeinated variant — that I remember being test marketed while I was in college.
I don’t even remember how New Coke tasted. I do remember the weird commercials, though.
New Coke = old Pepsi
My sister worked at a restaurant during the “New Coke” era. She and her coworkers discovered that a 9-1 ratio of NC mixed with Sprite gave you “Old” Coke.
“Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now”
-Bob Dylan
Mexican Coke w/sugar > any other ANYTHING with HFCS. My hubby and I agree: seems kinda weird that cane sugar (or real sugar) is now considered healthier food. There’s also Hansen Natural Soda made with sugar, and some imported Italian soda made from cane.
Actually, in a lot of marketing circles the New Coke fiasco is seen as a brilliant move by Coca Cola. Their sales jumped after the re-introduction of “old” Coke (which they named Coca Cola Classic)! This seemingly stupid move on the part of the Coke (a billion dollar company, no less) was all part of the plan to bring back what people always drank and have said fans thank Coke for the privilege, which they did en masse…
I remember this, and Crystal Pepsi, both were PHENOMINAL donkey–GAH! Was that sh*t GROSS!
what ever happened to glassbotteles i only find them hidden in the deepest darkest part of the wegmans only to find little itty bitty bottles of them so i bought them all.
Go to a restaurant. They still have ‘em.
they’re also sometimes found in supermarkets or vending machines
I remember that New coke tasted like puke, regular Coke is muuuuuuuuch better
It was during the Coke/Pepsi taste tests/war that I started drinking Dr Pepper, and I still do!
They didn’t sell those in Germany, but my grandfather brought me a few cans from america back in those days…I think they tasted similar to Coke light.
yup, this sure was a fail.
this was just mentioned today during a (painfully boring) lecture. i was unaware there ever was a “new” coke. i’d assume “new coke” is what we have now – the version without the cocaine. what a mistake on their parts!