[TomGuy]

New Coke itself was a disaster, but the whole thing brought a lot of people back to Coke proper.

Not really. Coke Classic never was the same as the original Coca Cola.

One problem I had before I quit buying soft drinks -- Coke and others would lose their fizz within minutes of being opened.

[maryz]

Not really. Coke Classic never was the same as the original Coca Cola.

I'll go to my grave convinced the whole "New Coke" scam was just to switch from sugar to the cheaper high fructose corn syrup, figuring (hoping?) no one would notice when they went back to the "original" -- I do recall reading that Coke was taken by surprise when much of the South turned out to actually prefer the New Coke.

[rlmorel]

I was a prolific consumer of Coca Cola products (6-12 a day) before I saw this: Coca Cola Pool Boy Ad

I stopped cold turkey right there. A teenage sister and her teenage homosexual brother fight for the attention of a muscular pool boy, only to have their mother beat both of them to the punch.

Nope. Not buying the product after that. Ever.