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AP

New Coke Being Resurrected Because of TV Show

May 21, 2019  •  Post A Comment

New Coke, which was a PR disaster for Coca-Cola when it first came out in 1985, is making a comeback thanks to the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” The companies broke the news today that they’re partnering to bring back the product.

“Season 3 of the show will take place in the summer of 1985, when Coca-Cola changed its formula for Coke,” the AP reports. “New Coke was considered one of the biggest marketing blunders of all time and the new version was dropped after 79 days, though sales of the original Coca-Cola rebounded.”

The report quotes Oana Vlad, director of Coca-Cola Trademark for Coca-Cola North America, saying: “The summer of 1985 did in fact change everything for us with the introduction of New Coke, which was also arguably one of the biggest pop culture moments of that year.”

The report notes that workers had to retrieve the recipe for New Coke from the safe to resurrect the product.

“Beginning Thursday, Coca-Cola will release a limited number of cans of New Coke as part of a ‘Stranger Things’ package,” the AP reports. “An ‘upside-down’ ‘Stranger Things’-inspired vending machine will also pop up in select cities this summer to dispense free cans of New Coke for a limited time.”

3 Comments

  1. It is a good thing that it is limited. I am old enough to remember when it came out the first time. It was sludge and I doubt that the fans of Stranger Things will change that.

  2. It’s a lot like when people stop to look at a car wreck. They know it’s bad, but they can’t take their eyes off it. Oana Vlad is taking the P.T. Barnum, approach..”as long as you spell my name right”. New COKE will get the Company lots of publicity..if they use the same recipe, the product will still suck..and then this will fade into the ozone..as Vlad may, if this PR attempt doesn’t work.

  3. I actually liked New Coke, but a year after its debut I relocated to Japan and missed it. I came back in 1995 and lo and behold it wasn’t sold anymore.

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