I tried Coke II when I found it in Skokie Illinois in 1998. The taste was nothing to write home about. It was basically Diet Coke with high fructose corn syrup. This is why I only drink club soda, water, kefir, and milk.
Ironic isn't it? They didn't want to make a companion derivative so they reformulated it. Public outcry forces them to bring it back the original as Classic but New stays on. In 1992, New was renamed Coke II and remained until 2002. It obviously sold enough to warrant making it for 17 years! This may have just been a stunt to not only swap HFCS into the mix but boost sales knowing everyone would bitch and demand it back.
Whether it was a planned PR stunt, or a marketing decision that went bad, I really don't know. But I can tell you this: it sure worked. Just when Pepsi thought they were going to win one over Coke, Coke announces that they're changing the original formula and the public went crazy. They get their beloved Coke back, and that was it.
The funny thing is that it was healthier as "New Coke" because it used real cane sugar. By the 80s, people hadn't noticed that they slipped HFCS into Coca Cola since about the mid-to-late 60s and they wanted Classic Coke which was actually the REAL "New Coke"!
I was just thinking the same thing.. in a way the whole incident was perhaps the best thing they could have done to get people's attention.. People didn't know they loved the traditional Coke until it was no longer available... :-)
Best cola out there is Mexican Coca-Cola. Whenever I get down to Texas, I stop by a farmers' market that sells Mexican Coke in the glass bottles. The difference? Apart from the fact it's in glass instead of plastic, it contains actual sugar rather than HFCS. Yes, you can taste the difference in a big way.
It was just a way for them to switch over to high fructose corn syrup from more expensive sugar cane. If they had made the switch without the interruption of New Coke, the change in flavor would have been obvious. They took the hit on New Coke for longer term revenue gains with less expensive ingredients. They had no intention of keeping New Coke. If you want Original Formula, get a Coke in Mexico.
This is insane. I don't know if coke's branding has burned itself into our brains because of consumerism or whether it is an a American Icon that represents tradition of our country to have a statement saying " I stuck with them for three years and a couple dust storms, but this is too much."
This might be the most epic blunder in the history of big business. What an asinine move. It's still shocking to me to this day that they could have been so stupid.
27 years ago...I remember the "New Coke" debacle as if it happened yesterday. Coca-Cola should've left well enough alone! If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Coca-Cola's legacy was forever tarnished after the formula change. Even after "Coca-Cola Classic" came "back" a few months later, the formula was forever tampered with, as "Classic Coke" tasted too sweet to suit my taste. The CEOs who were in charge of the company should not have worried about Pepsi, as being the #2 cola wasn't so bad.
I remember the week new coke came out. I took a sip and anger came over me like a dark cloud. I was one of those crazies who protested the new coke and thank God we won!
I love that people are still talking about this. This is exactly what coke wanted. Look back there sales were slipping so they tried something new but it wasn't a big risk they never threw away the old formula so if the new one failed they bring back the old one. Once coke classic came out sale were huge. All coke did was make a calculated risk. Either way they were going to make huge profits.
@gopats2338 at the same time, this led to many people switching to Pepsi, making Pepsi's sales higher and making them more of a competition to coca-cola than they should have been
This was all a marketing ploy. They said there was no room to have the new formula and the old formula on store shelves so the old version had to go. Well 88 days later they ended up selling BOTH formulas because of complaints. Honestly the new taste was better when you compared it. You could tell the difference of newness and vintage in taste. But the whole thing was just a marketing ploy and they knew what they were doing all along.
The whole thing was engineered to allow the switch from cane sugar to cheap subsidized corn syrup. Had they made just that change then people would have protested strongly against it. Instead you do a fake-out by changing the whole formula for U.S. consumers and then once sufficient time has passed bring back the original forumula...only now with corn syrup instead. People are pleased, you get tons of free marketing, and no one is the wiser....
Why is Diet Coke called 'Diet Coke' and not 'Diet Coca Cola'? I'm from the UK and was born 1990 and I saw red cans of 'Coke' as a kid so thought the 'New Coke' thing was in the 90s.
I think it is because Diet Coke is not Coca Cola with artificial sweeteners replacing sugar (which would be Coca Cola Zero). It's a different flavor profile that's sweetened artificially. From what I understand, what they had available for artificial sweeteners during Diet Coke's development did not taste very good with the original Coca Cola formula. Coca Cola Zero is a recent development using a blend of modern sweeteners. Marketing played a big part in the naming and scheming of Coca Cola products too.
@goodvibesallround Probably; Americans fell into familiarity. After being disappointed with lousy cola, their expectations dropped. A real movement was made calling to restore the original formula, preventing the average citizen from ignoring it. When classic came, it was front page news. This in turn boosted sales with growing media attention.
@jemmabond i never drank it myself being born in 1998 but from what ive heard it tasted very similar to pepsi. coke wanted to be sweeter so they just messed with the coke formula and got something very close to pepsi. coke g2 was a little diffrent, but was virtually the same
Yeah.. I do recall that when Classic Coke came about, it was as if they had forgotten how to make the original.. And as for the sugar element.. Yeah.. that's why Mexican-Made-Cokes are a treat.. for the real sugar!! :-)
Hi Chris. I'm putting together some clips of New Coke. We'd love a clean copy of the documentary you posted -- preferably in higher resolution and without subtitles if at all possible. Can you give me any information about where you got this clip? I would greatly appreciate it.
My mom tried New Coke and said it tasted flat and tainted, like licking something rusty. She said it tasted nothing like Pepsi. And at that time I was a major Pepsi drinker. I did drink Coke Classic, which I believe had the high fructose corn syrup, which I actually liked. But nothing beats the original Coke, as Coke and Diet Coke was my choice in my adulthood.
As a baby, i can't remember if i drank new coke...the most famous soda failure i remember drinking was crystal pepsi, c2, surge, and pepsi blue. The most succesful soda lunch so far is Coke Zero, which competes against Pepsi Max. Coke Zero is better. Much better than caffiene free coke zero.
This was an idiotic change and for the time that you could no longer actually get real coke it totally sucked. The return of actual Coca Cola did actually end up being such a huge positive marketing thing where people were thrilled to have the real thing back that it all ended up being a positive for the company. I can remember that era though, almost everyone stopped drinking Coke, including me. "New Coke" sucked.
A coarse Pepsi always going to win in a taste test . That's because Pepsi is way better than Coke. Take that back when you call Pepsi a pipsqueak. Know this Pepsi is way better than Coke.
I wish I had a fresh can of New Cola. If they would advertise this one now, like it was then, I would go out of my way to get some. "Old, New Coke." Relive the myth. something like that... damn I just want a can of it, to compare. im sure they could dig up THAT formula...
Granted, these were the days where these companies had 3 or 4 products, but still, why not have both? That's what they would do today when pepsi and coke have 30 flavors each but really? Of all the stupid things to do
To me it seems like New Coke was rather an actual failure, than a smart marketing technique. By fucking up the coke and supplying the fans a piece of shit, they made their customers realize how bad the loved coke.
After doing blind taste tests, Pepsi apparently tasted better than Coke, so the company reformulated it to be sweeter to be compete, but that really ground everyone's gears. Even if Coke loses in the taste test, people have strong feelings attached to the product ingrained since childhood.
Apatthetic Man The taste tests were all sip based than continuous consumption. It's no secret that sweeter blends do better in sips but suffer in the long run as it's too sweet
Because Coca-Cola doesn't want to. They have distanced themselves from Can Sugar since 1985, and still will. New Coke was ment to replace Coca-Cola, but when the backlash came out, they merely kept the New Coke recipe and stamped on the Coca-Cola Classic on the can and called it a day. Coca-Cola Classic was never supposed to be, it was kept as the same recipe as New Coke punishment to the consumers because they didn't buy New Coke.
I LOVE these young whipper snappers that advertise the new coke and ay the NEW cokes...taste like coke from 1886. Really, they were alive then? Really...I just have to laugh.
Fact: New Coke was delicious. I drank it all the time when it came out. Fact: I preferred it over original Coke. Fact: Walmart sells MexiCoke which is tasty & delicious because of the glass bottling.
I can't be the first person to suggest that the whole thing was a planned marketing campaign. Instead of introducing a secondary version of coke, discontinue the old coke so it's a big deal, everyone tries the new coke. Then, by taking the original away, the media and consumers do your advertising FOR you and convince themselves that the original is even a greater thing than they ever imagined. Everyone is talking about Coke. Then give it back to them, call it classic. New media frenzy. It's pretty brilliant.
+zerospacer In a way, they had nothing to lose. If New Coke was a hit, win. If it wasn't, the people clamor for the old one and it becomes even bigger than before. Or you now have two new successful products. You know how companies have commercials where the consumers act COMPLETELY CRAZY & WILD for some stupid food product? Coke managed to actually make their customers do that.
I bet you a million dollars this is exactly how it went down. Way to think outside of the box (society) dude! ;) Smart as hell tactic as well I must say.
It was also a way, as others have pointed out, to switch the Classic formula from real sugar to high fructose corn syrup, which is cheaper. At least for America.
Pepsi tastes better than Coke, pepsi Wild Cherry tastes better than cherry Coke, Pepsi max tastes better than Coke Zero, and Aquafina tastes better than Dasani. Not to mention Lipton over Nestea, Gatorade over Powerade.
1985 today new Coke destroyed the world. I’m lucky I didn’t born in that year. I can’t understand the history of American despise the new taste of Coke bring a disaster no only for the culture but for the taste for their own children safety. and for July 1985 to go back to original formula, it could be called Coca-Cola classic.
It flopped because they used artificial vanilla. regular Coke has real vanilla. that odd taste was the artificial vanilla. If they would have used real vanilla it would have been a success
