That's not quite getting trapped in a flooded cave for two weeks sad, but it's up there.
50 Worst Product Flops of All Time
- Thread starter ericram
- Start date
It's urban myth with a tiny bit of truth in it. Most bottlers had already switched to corn syrup, so only a few places still got sugar before New Coke. The few that were using sugar before switched to corn syrup. So for some people the switch did coincide with new Coke.
The way I heard it was they changed to New Coke, which was more like Pepsi, which didn't gain Pepsi fans it just pissed off Coke fans, so then they brought out 'Coke Classic', but it wasn't Coke, it had HFC instead. The bait and switch was to increase hype and mask the changeover.
Apparently this change was already underway (according to the above poster) which shoots a big hole in the 'hide the changing taste' theory.
New Coke was definitely more like Pepsi. You may be right about the corn syrup and real sugar thing, but Coke classic what we drink now is what we were drinking before other than the corn syrup.
I don’t know if it was a plot, but it worked. New Coke was gross and people did not want a gross product. Pepsi has always been inferior but had a very good advertising campaign.
I think the list is a bit off as far as rankings. Google glasses may not have sold very well, but the technology is very important and similar type things are used in the military today based on that technology. I didn't look at the whole list but what about Pepsi clear?
Another factor was the taste test. Pepsi had been beating Coke in taste tests while gaining market share. New Coke was extensively tested and beat both Pepsi and Coke in tastes tests across the board.
It turns out people tend to like a sweeter soda when taken in shot glass amounts like during a taste test, but don't like that much sweetness when drinking an entire soda. In a few markets however, such as the Midwest, people do like sweeter soft drinks. New Coke sold side by side with Coke classic until the early 2000's in those markets.
I recall being okay with Crystal Pepsi but have no recollection of what it tasted like... was it basically Sprite?
It was basically Pepsi without the caramel coloring and caffeine. It tasted like caffeine-free Pepsi.
Are you sure New Coke was still be sold up until the 2,000’s? I remember they were selling both for a while, but that was back in the when the whole thing happened. I don’t remember new Coke being around that long
The name was switched to Coke II and was sold in some markets up until 2002.
Funny enough New Coke most closely resembled Diet Coke but with sugar instead of saccharin.
https://m.huffingtonpost.ca/ward-anderson/new-coke-facts_b_14436656.html
The Wow chips were something else too. I never had any GI discomfort fro Olestra, but a lot of people did. And then people thought that they could eat a whole bag of chips because they were “ low fat”
