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Posted on 08/11/2012 1:09:41 PM PDT by thecodont
Diet Coke turns 30 this year, and despite health concerns and an rocky advertising trajectory (remember Paula Abdul dancing with dead celebrities?), the Thank-God-It's-Not-Sugar-But-Hopefully-Aspartame-Won't-Kill-You beverage is doing better than ever. Diet Coke has held the title of second most popular soda in the world (after regular Coke) for two years running — 40% of colas currently sold are either Diet Coke or Coke Zero — and it seems like more people are now drinking it for the taste instead of as a diet aid. But it wasn't always this way.
When Diet Coke was introduced in 1982, "it was too new to be cool," Zoe Williams recalls. "So it was very uncool not to drink it, but it wasn't totally cool to drink it either." While most people in the 80s were busy making horrible decisions regarding leg warmers and cocaine, the brand made headway with two genius moves. The first was buying Columbia Pictures as champions of product placement, guaranteeing that actors would be chugging Diet Coke for decades to come. Second, it differentiated itself from TaB, a title so associated with "diet" drinks that even literally putting Diet in its new moniker made the beverage more successful.
The brand has tried to experiment over the past decade with little success; the public knows what it wants, and it wants its Diet Coke. There was 2005's Coke Zero, which was practically the same as Diet Coke but meant to appeal to men who were too embarrassed to drink a sissy weight loss beverage like all those weight-obsessed ladies out there. Apparently, though, those men don't actually exist, because no one bought Coke Zero, despite its sleek packaging and uber-manly, throw-caution-to-the-wind "Enjoy everything" tagline. Oops.
(Excerpt) Read more at jezebel.com ...
Cool. And always nice to see Coke kicking Pepsi’s ass.
How old is that bottle?
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Used to love that Hires.. We had it back in Cleveland. My other 2 favorites from back then were Dads Root Beer and Frosty Root Beer.
As for Diet Coke, I despise the stuff. DC tastes like chemicals to me.
I do however like Diet Dr Pepper, as someone said above. That is actually quite good to these taste buds.
Diet Coke, ick! Tasts like carbonated tree sap.
We drink zero cal flavored seltzer...much healthier, or Martinis.
I agree. Coke Zero always leaves an ugly aftertaste that I don’t get with Diet Coke. It also seems less fizzy, but that might just be my own taste buds.
We used to drink Hires all the time. Do you know if it is still sold?
1 bottle Nuka-Cola Quantum
Tin can
Turpentine
Abraxo cleaner
A potent cocktail of carbonation and detonation, the Nuka-grenade makes plasma look like a bubble bath.
Without a doubt the best game ever (well maybe a tie with Skyrim).
All I drink these days is soda water. No flavorings. Wilkinson usually. I don’t even put sugar in my coffee.
Oh, once a month or so, I might have a canned soda, or take a coke with a meal at a fast food place, but that’s pretty much it.
Pepsi lime has me hooked. When it’s not available, I mix cola with Minute Maid limeade.
In Canada there’s a product called Pepsi Throwback that’s made with cane sugar. Regular Coke and Pepsi here are a mix of can sugar and corn syrup.
One product available on both sides of the border that you might like is Jones Soda- their entire line is sweetened with cane sugar.
I stopped drinking Diet Coke when I finally read the ingredients. All it took was the first one, phosphoric acid. We used a process to keep heavy metals from being able to leach from an aggregate product we produced from the residue from municipal waste incinerators. What we sprayed onto the aggregate was phosphoric acid. It had the properties to “weld” heavy netals to the aggregate. How yummy does that sound?
Coke makes a diet version sweetened with Splenda. I haven’t seen a caffeine-free version. There are a few other sugar-free soft drinks without Nutrasweet.
Whats a Little Radiation between Friends?
I drink maybe five Cokes a year, and when I do, I drink regular Coke. Don’t think it is going to kill me or make me fat.
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