New Coke is coming back

The company is bringing back a limited number of New Coke cans in honor of the upcoming third season of "Stranger Things," in which the product is featured.
"Stranger Things" creators Ross and Matt Duffers came up with the idea to bring New Coke back as a way to promote the show, which will start streaming on Netflix (NFLX)on July 4. The third season of the show takes place during the summer of 1985 — when Coca-Cola (KO) debuted a new recipe for its iconic beverage.
So-called New Coke was a flop: Consumers reacted so poorly to the new drink that Coca-Cola pulled it from shelves after a few months. New Coke was rebranded as Coke II, and sold in some places after 1985. But this is the first time Coca-Cola is bringing back New Coke with that branding.



Bringing New Coke back is a way for Coca-Cola to "not take ourselves too seriously," Stuart Kronauge, president of Coke's sparkling business unit and senior vice president of marketing for Coca-Cola North America, told CNN Business. And it wasn't easy to recreate the product: Coca-Cola had to reach into its archives to get the design of right, and dig through its vault to recover the recipe.

"Maybe a while ago we wouldn't have done this," Kronauge said. "But we're changing and trying to innovate in ways that are beyond traditional new products. This is a cultural innovation." Coca-Cola recently partnered with Disney Parks & Resorts on custom designs for Coke products being sold at Disney's new "Star Wars" theme park, "Galaxy's Edge."

And for those of you who hated New Coke but drink Diet Coke: Diet Coke IS New Coke without the high fructose corn syrup. The recipe for Diet Coke is the same.

I'll stick to beer.

Hey, if Crystal Pepsi can make a come back, why not?

I mean, I have really enjoyed Stranger Things and am looking forward to the next season, but all this retro/vintage marketing is threatening to reduce it to a mere novelty.

Much like what happened to TV in the 80's, now that I think about it.

Almost any tampering of original recipes is a bad idea.

Lari wrote:

I'll stick to beer.

Sounds like a plan to me...

Bill Cosby was not available to endorse this product.

Required Fields wrote:

Bill Cosby was not available to endorse this product.

Although he does endorse the pudding pops in prison.

I'll probably get some. If I remember correctly, it tasted very similar to Pepsi.

Required Fields wrote:

Bill Cosby was not available to endorse this product.

I want Max Headroom to return myself.

Proof that nostalgia sells. Thus, Star Wars.

Every time I hear "New Coke" I think of the gag from "The Simpsons" with Homer's half-brother Herb, who in a previous episode was the wealthy head of an automobile company, but who is now homeless and living in a hobo camp. He's telling the other hobos the story of his fall from grace (he let Homer design a new car for his company, which of course was a massive failure that destroyed his business) and sez "The critics called it the worst idea since New Coke!" and one of the other bums pipes up "Hey, I invented that!"

The backlash to New Coke was pretty swift and savage, if memory serves. I remember seeing a protest in front of the Coke headquarters in Atlanta on the 6 o'clock news, where the crowd was pouring cans of New Coke out into the gutter. My parents were like, "Remember when people used to protest about important stuff?" Haha. We usually drank store brand cola anyway so it didn't make much diff to me at the time.

Maybe someone cool and popular could get them to start making OK Soda again. man was that awesome!

It tasted like those graveyards you made as kids where you put pepsi and rootbeer and sprite and Orange Crush and whatever together. Yum.

Ha, cool when I was 10, now, not so much. I don't even drink soda anyways so I don't care.

martinsane wrote:

Maybe someone cool and popular could get them to start making OK Soda again. man was that awesome!

It tasted like those graveyards you made as kids where you put pepsi and rootbeer and sprite and Orange Crush and whatever together. Yum.

I've never heard of that one.

007 wrote:

martinsane wrote:

Maybe someone cool and popular could get them to start making OK Soda again. man was that awesome!

It tasted like those graveyards you made as kids where you put pepsi and rootbeer and sprite and Orange Crush and whatever together. Yum.

I've never heard of that one.

Yeah, man, we called it a suicide back in my day. I've never even cared for soda but they were some mad fun as a treat once in a while.

Yea, I don't drink soda much anymore either. Once in a blue moon when we go to the diner, but that's about it.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Yea, I don't drink soda much anymore either. Once in a blue moon when we go to the diner, but that's about it.

It sure is a beverage type that confuses me to hell and back. Soda fans will nearly kill for a cold can. I have a buddy that has to get a big gulp every time we hang out, and he consumes it like a wild animal before going back for a refill. I just don't get it. What the fuck makes these drinks so magnetic for others??

I used to have a soda with my lunch every day at work but when the wife and I got on a weight loss kick a couple of years ago it was the first thing I cut. Now I have a can of seltzer instead. Still has the fizz, but no caffeine/sugar/calories.

I stick to Diet Mountain Dew myself. Little to no calories but still all the caffeine. I wish the caffeine free version was more readily available.

OK Soda apparently had mostly a West coast run from 93 to 95. Give it a Google as there is as with many things alot of nostalgia chatter surrounding it. The can art was drawn by that cartoonist that penned Ghost World and apparently the push for the soda was a fairly big one, but like most things I dig/dug (the candy bar Bar None for another example) this went away with nary a blip on anyones radar.

And I have described what we called graveyards and have heard people say the same as you Corp.

martinsane wrote:

the candy bar Bar None for another example

Now that I've heard of.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Yea, I don't drink soda much anymore either. Once in a blue moon when we go to the diner, but that's about it.

I used to drink colas and sodas much more frequently. Nowadays, it's only a few times a month, if that. I did actually get a couple of bottles of Crystal Pepsi so far. I also had to try the new Pepsi Mango, which is really good. It's not something I could see myself getting more than twice a month, though.

I do want to try that new Orange Vanilla Coke, but it's not available in Canada (at least not yet).

Orange Vanilla Coke is pretty good. Kind of taste like one of those orange creamsicles.

I can't stand orange creamsicles so I have avoided that Coke. Blech!