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New Coke was a disaster. ‘Stranger Things’ is bringing it back, because old fails never say die.
NJ.com ^ | May 21, 2019

Posted on 05/21/2019 4:52:38 PM PDT by SMGFan

If you remember something called New Coke, you probably also recall that it was a bust.

Introduced by Coca-Cola in 1985, the soft drink was billed as sweeter than regular Coke, with many noticing a distinct Pepsi-like flavor to the reimagined product. Anyway, plenty of people weren’t having this impostor Coke.

Even Coca-Cola admits the enormous fail in its history of New Coke.

Here’s the intro to the product history on the company website: “To hear some tell it, April 23, 1985, was a day that will live in marketing infamy.” Much “angst” apparently followed. There were even protest groups! Letter-writing campaigns!

The soda was only on the market for 79 days before the company pulled the drink to please customers who favored Classic Coke.

Now, the company is reversing course and joining forces with the Netflix series “Stranger Things” to relaunch New Coke

(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food
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Nostalgia for something we did not like.

I liked Clear Pepsi

1 posted on 05/21/2019 4:52:38 PM PDT by SMGFan
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To: SMGFan

Cokesi


2 posted on 05/21/2019 4:55:17 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: SMGFan

Maybe they should introduce Mellow Yellow “Snow” soft drink.


3 posted on 05/21/2019 4:55:22 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: SMGFan

It wasn’t a disaster, it was the greatest marketing publicity stunt in history. It probably got a billion dollars worth of free air time from the MSM. There were people marching in the streets. There was a guy who bought something like $10K worth of old Coke and filled his basement and garage up with the stuff.


4 posted on 05/21/2019 4:55:34 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: SMGFan

I drink very little soda, but what I do drink is made with pure cane sugar - NOT corn syrup. Makes a big difference in taste.


5 posted on 05/21/2019 4:56:03 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: SMGFan

I heard that when Coke went out of production, they dropped cane sugar, and when they came back after the “new coke” fiasco that they used corn syrup.

Any truth to that legend?

Was it all a distraction so consumers wouldn’t immediatly hit upon the switch?


6 posted on 05/21/2019 4:57:09 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: ChildOfThe60s
I drink very little soda, but what I do drink is made with pure cane sugar...

Have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?

7 posted on 05/21/2019 4:57:56 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: SMGFan
I liked Clear Pepsi

I really liked the Cinnamon 7-up. (was it cinnamon? I know it was red, and had a bit of a kick to it).

That didn't last long either :(

8 posted on 05/21/2019 4:58:16 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ChildOfThe60s

New Coke was their transition from “Real Coke”, made with cane sugar, to “Classic Coke”, made with corn syrup.


9 posted on 05/21/2019 4:59:38 PM PDT by Do_Tar (To my NSA handler: Just kidding.)
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To: Do_Tar

At Costcos around here you can still buy Mexican Coke made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. It comes in glass bottles and costs more.


10 posted on 05/21/2019 5:03:26 PM PDT by fireman15
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To: a fool in paradise

Absolutely. Courtesy of your not friends at archer daniels midland and the corn sugar lobby

I probably drink one coke a month and it’s always an import from Mexico made with cane sugar...no comparison between it and the us made stuff


11 posted on 05/21/2019 5:07:25 PM PDT by Manuel OKelley
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To: SMGFan
The soda was only on the market for 79 days before the company pulled the drink

That's not how I remember it. They didn't "pull" New Coke. They said they were going to sell both... which they did for a while... maybe even another year or two. With "classic" heavily outselling NC, they quietly dropped the latter maybe around 1987.
12 posted on 05/21/2019 5:07:59 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: SMGFan

It was all the hype that killed it.
Had they just slowly introduced small changes in the flavor, without the hoopla, within a year people would be drinking the New Coke in the old bottles and no one would have noticed the difference.


13 posted on 05/21/2019 5:12:28 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: SMGFan
I remember that PR disaster very well.

Years ago, I read a book about this debacle. Wish I could remember the title of it. But basically the top executives at Coca Cola convened the next morning all ashen-faced. They knew that they royally screwed the pooch. And it was only going to get worse from there.

14 posted on 05/21/2019 5:13:06 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: Steely Tom
Have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?


15 posted on 05/21/2019 5:14:24 PM PDT by BlueLancer (Orchides Forum Trahite - Cordes Et Mentes Veniant)
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To: Manuel OKelley

Personally I liked the COKE sold on Okinawa and Thailand fifty years ago.

It had more “zing”.


16 posted on 05/21/2019 5:14:50 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: SMGFan
New Coke was a planned disaster, designed to cover for switching to corn sweetener from cane sugar.

Step one. Discontinue a product which has become the hallmark of the soft drink industry and give the customers foul tasting swill instead.

Step two. Apologize, and give the customer a degraded product several levels below what you used to sell them in quality, in taste, and in cost. Tell them its really the same as the old product.

Step three. Profit.

17 posted on 05/21/2019 5:15:19 PM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: a fool in paradise

I don’t know when they went to High Fructose Corn Syrup.

But now that I am older I don’t eat or drink anything with it in it. I add pounds almost instantly from it. Same is not true for Cane Sugar.


18 posted on 05/21/2019 5:16:27 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (Life is about ass, you're either covering, hauling, laughing, kicking, kissing, or behaving like one)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

It wasn’t the hype with me. It was the bad taste.


19 posted on 05/21/2019 5:16:50 PM PDT by murron
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To: Steely Tom

[ Have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol? ]

LOL


20 posted on 05/21/2019 5:17:23 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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