This is carbonated brown, sugar, water, and this is coca-cola to an impartial observer. These two products may seem identical, but in the world of business, this little red can makes all the difference. It's a name so gargantuan that even mentioning it feels redundant. Their logo is about.

As recognizable as the sun, the moon and the stars across the history of human commerce, no other company even comes close to their longevity and scope chap you want us to chat. Let me tell you something: okay, now people say: oh dude. Do the coke challenge dude? If you cannot do the coke challenge, you're a rookie, cucklord, okay, i can distinguish a coke from any beverage whatsoever out there back to back thousands of times in a row with not failing a single time, and it's not even harder. I think it isn't.

Their product is available in so many markets that it's far easier to list the places that don't sell it. The coke empire has penetrated all corners of the earth and even a little bit beyond that. They are the envy of the business world. Architects of the single most valuable brand.

It's easy to believe that branding is everything take away this red and white label? And what exactly do you have left? It's tempting to consider whether you could sell someone anything as long as it's behind those same familiar colors. They know and love 40 years ago, coca-cola was thinking the very same thing and nearly paid the ultimate price. In my last video i talked about mac tonight. The most successful ad campaign that mcdonald's ever ran the character was the spiritual successor to max headroom, a memorable mascot for coca-cola, which showed up on television, who is that max headroom was truly a bizarre character, but even more bizarre with a series of events which led To his adoption, it's the 1980s and coca-cola is quickly approaching its 100th year as a business.

The company brass aren't celebrating, however, as for the first time that nearly anyone can remember, coke is in danger of losing its title as america's favorite soft drink bitter rival, pepsi cola has spent the past several decades, slowly chipping away at coke's dominant market share of the Beverage industry by 1985 pepsi was on the verge of the unthinkable, overtaking coke as the leading cola brand. That can't happen. The consumer market on which coke had built their empire was rapidly changing. The health risks of soda were starting to be scrutinized.

Customers have begun switching to low calorie options, like diet colas. This demographic shift meant that future sales of coke's flagship product would have to rely on the younger generation. A generation who tended to prefer pepsi by the eighties already started out selling coke in supermarkets, with coke hanging on to the overall lead through restaurants and vending machines. If the market trends continued that lead wouldn't last much longer.

However, as the old masters of the industry, coke wasn't going down without a fight that fight would come from their new chairman, roberto goezuetta, although he took over the company reigns at a very troublesome time. The cuban-born magnate was no stranger to trouble in the 1950s. Shortly after getting promoted to head of coke's havana bottling plan, goyzueta defected to the united states in the wake of fidel castro's communist revolution over the next 30 years. He methodically worked his way up the company ladder until 1980 when he was finally promoted to the most influential seed in the beverage industry.

Mr guzueta had quite the origin story, but a necessary one for understanding his mentality towards change. For decades, coca-cola had marketed their product on tradition and permanence. They had built a mythical aura around their elusive secret form, the very backbone of the company's monumental success. The formula's lineage could be traced all the way back to its inventor john pemberton, who then sold it to company founder asak handler within a decade.

The koch formula was selling in every american state becoming the eminent national beverage by the turn of the 20th century. Not long afterward company, president robert, i know that would be so good a taste of coke to the rest of the world. Oh that's ushering in the most dominant period in company history by 1948, coke controlled an estimated 60 market share of the beverage industry distributing their iconic product on a global scale. That's busted customers across hundreds of countries all enjoying the same formula that had remained virtually unchanged for nearly a century.

It was coca-cola's golden goose, the real thing altering it would be like rewriting the bible and that's how the company thought until roberto coizueta became chairman by 1984. The company's mighty 60 market share had shrunk to just over 20 percent. Decades of complacency had allowed coke's competition to get back in the race, and gosuetta was poised to put a stop to it. After becoming chairman, he boldly announced that there would be no more sacred cows in the company philosophy in the next few years.

He followed through on that claim by introducing two landmark products: diet, coke and cherry coke. Oh that's the first time the company had debuted any new product under the coke name, while both options proved to be quite popular, they only sought to further compete with the company's flagship product which was still losing ground to pepsi. Oh, that's, okay! Yeah! That's better right! If one of america's that's dangerous institutions, coke, i think this is dangerous, because people people get uh get over novelty and the fact that something is new and cool really fast, and that can mean that they're gon na switch from a coke entirely right to something else. Right they go coke to coke uh, a chair or whatever, and then oh yeah.

Now it's gon na old. Now they go, they solve entirely that's risky. In a time of cold war, tensions, roberto guizueta had to resort to the nuclear option is a major factor behind coke's declining market share was an ad campaign known as the pepsi challenge, a blind taste test between the two colas that appeared to show an overall preference For the sweeter flavor of pepsi, god exactly scientific fake, and he was i'm the one with the video anymore. This is just like many consistency switched to the blue brand.

This led coke to conclude that the only way to stop pepsi was to beat them at their own game. It was then, when koch's senior executives commissioned a secret assignment known as project kansas, where company scientists were tasked with concocting a superior formula soon enough, they had synthesized the ultimate flavor one that could consistently beat both pepsi and the original coke in a taste test. With a potential new juggernaut on their hands, the company was now faced with a tough decision sprite. They could release the new drink as a standalone product and risk further diluting the already crowded coke lineup, or they could do the unthinkable and replace the cornerstone of their entire brand.

Ultimately, the choice was up to roberto goyzueta, who would look to his past for guidance years earlier when he was in charge of caribbean distribution. Goyzuetta had successfully boosted sales by slightly tweaking the coke formula. He had already once committed the cardinal sin, but perhaps he saw it as a virtue for goizwetta. The choice was clear: coca-cola the product that he had sold for his entire adult life was on the way out, and so the coca-cola company was set to make the single ballsiest move in the entire history of their business, replacing the very thing from which they were Named as the story goes shortly before, the launch roberto goyzueta sought out the blessing of his predecessor, robert woodruff, the man who had built coke into the behemoth that it was no one knows for sure.

What woodruff really thought about the decision because he wouldn't live to see it happen? In march 1985, coca-cola's most legendary executive passed away at the age of 95.. Later the company launched wait a minute, oh what 95? In what year, at the march 1985 coca-cola's most legendary executive passed away at the age of 95., oh wow, one month later, the company launched new coke. The events that followed were 95 and 95. That's insane coca-cola is a pretty big company, starting one of their products.

Really isn't going to matter one way or the other where your purchase can matter is through a business like bespoke, post they're, a subscription box service that helps out small brands from all across you can either swap yeah. Yes, i bought i bought. I bought eight of them. I bought 20..

Now i i live worried about amp energy. I'm sure that this fan favorite flavor, isn't going away anytime soon simply stated, my friends, we have a new formula for coke. Well, the real thing is in for a real change. These days cha and there wasn't boom five bed.

The big reveals that they say it's a new formula, but it was a new formula and it plenty of people said: on april 23, 1985 new coke was rolled out nationwide over the next two weeks. The remaining supply of the original formula would be phased out of supermarkets and restaurants. The change was paired with an immediate new marketing campaign from company spokesman bill. Cosby initial sales of the product appeared promising early data from select markets were in line with projections, roberto goyzueta confidently stood by his new product already touting his decision as a success.

The celebration was a tad premature, however, as trouble was brewing beneath coke's triumphant hubris soon. Afterward, the company would find themselves struggling to stay afloat in a tidal wave of backlash, one that spawned right in their own backyard across its entire operational history. Coca-Cola has been headquartered in or near atlanta, georgia, the heart of the american south. It's a part of the country which prides itself on a distinct one.

Regional often runs contrary to the rest of the us for generations. Many southerners considered coca-cola as hallowed as barbecue in college football. It is their bona fide beverage of choice so much time. This very day many southerners still use the word coke to refer to all soft drinks.

For as long as they've been in all softs coca-cola has relied on the south as a sales stronghold. The fierce brand loyalty of the region may have led what, if you go to mcdonald's drive through i mean, can i get? Can i get a drink yeah? What do you want coke, which one you bum, a coke which one which coke are you? Okay, leadership? Who developed an expectation that southern customers would welcome any change with open arms following the release of new coke? This assumption would be proven dead wrong shortly after the switch. The prevailing sentiment in the south was one of abject betrayal for many, it represented yet another pillar of southern tradition that had been surrendered to the yankees announcing the product smack dab in the middle of new york city certainly didn't help this perception, while with the change Coke had effectively alienated their most die-hard supporters. Emotions among the former faithful ranged from indignant to irate more than 40 000 letters of protest quickly piled up in coca-cola's office, mailbox letters.

The coke hotline was inundated with thousands of distraught callers per day. A company hired psychiatrists, who listened in to some of the messages, observed some customers, acting as if they had lost a family member. Needless to say, the reaction was much more severe than what was anticipated. Questions immediately loomed as to why the company didn't bother to run more tests in their home market.

What little testing coke did do in the south revealed a narrow preference for the new formula. Company leadership saw this slight majority as justification for the change. What they failed to consider, however, were the 10 percent of respondents who were vehemently against it in a controlled survey, people can't influence each other's opinions, but in the real world, it's not that simple. While most people were ambivalent about new coke, those who disliked it really disliked it, this vocal minority would end up tarnishing the new formula in the eyes of the entire general public.

Oh, my god is karen's zoomer didn't personally mind the switch. They likely knew someone who did this common circumstance led to frequent cases where drinking new coke could potentially place someone in an awkward social situation. For many, it was simply easier to avoid judgment and order something else. The influence of peer pressure would start to significantly impact sales, as consumers were now hesitant to embrace a product which so many found undesirable.

All of a sudden coke was facing a major problem, one that extended far beyond the south people from all across the country were starting to get the impression that for the first time, anyone could remember a coca-cola product had missed the mark. New coke and the swelling controversy behind it had become a national fascination. There's a saying in business. I was gon na say it, but for coke's new formula it was simply not the case yeah, because i'm nervous not at all, we've never had more fun in our life.

We, this wasn't a frivolous decision. I think this is true when you dominate the market, when everybody knows when everybody knows it's something that we have worked on john over the last four years in the weeks after the debut new coke had become easy fodder for late night comedians and board journalists. The media kept reporting on eccentric stories about just how far certain people had gone to express their displeasure towards the switch. There was the story of dan lok, an avid coke drinker from san antonio, who was apparently so mortified by the new coke announcement that he immediately went out and stockpiled 110 cases of the original formula.

Speaking of stockpiles, a few quick thinking opportunists would use the hysteria to their advantage. A beverly hills. Man named dennis overstreet bought 500 cases of the old formula for resale at his wine business. After one month, he had customers lining up around the block, trying to scoop up the last time over streets, guys when i was young okay, i remember trying we're going to school with my dad.

Okay - and it went next to the the gesture kit and the gas was - was a point - 62. Okay. I remember it was point 62 per liter. Okay, after and he said, oh wow, today's gaza prizes are insane and like what, if we buy a big ass tank as big as our whole backyard, and we just pump that ass right, full of gas over and over again and later on, we just resell it Right and i was like uh, you know it's a smart idea, you know, but you know you can't do that.

What, if you could do that today, we're not? I went next door and it was 216. that would have been a 3.4 x profit 3.4 x value through x. That's insane sold them the old cases for more than double what he paid. Oh, it goes bad.

The newfound scarcity of the old formula led many to scour some of the most rural areas for any remaining product when america's domestic supply was completely exhausted. A few loyalists resorted to smuggling in the old formula from foreign countries who had not yet made the switch. Unfortunately, other forms of protest weren't so hard today, so i don't want a video marietta. Georgia featured a woman accosting, a coke delivery man with an umbrella while shouting about how they had ruined the flavor.

But by far the king of new coke hostility was a seattle. Man by the name of gay mullins, who would use a hundred thousand dollars of his own money to found a new organization for enemies of the new formula under mullen's leadership. The old cola drinkers of america would declare war against new coke. His battle tactics, included, selling anti-new, coke merchandise, spamming the hotline with complaints and organizing mass protests, which dumped gallons of new coke into the local sewer at one point once even attempted to file a class-action lawsuit against the soda giant.

But it was quickly dismissed. The constant hijinks would attract a ton of media attention to the movement helping to grow mullins army to as much as a hundred thousand strong, that's just pure illness, while acts of descent were small in scope and petty in nature. Their influence was tremendous. Together.

These minor demonstrations effectively counteracted millions of dollars of coca-cola marketing for as much as coke tried to salvage the image of their new product. The american public was sticking to their own narrative. It was only a matter of time before everyone saw new coke as the most despised beverage in the nation to make matters even worse. New coke had crossed the threshold where it was simply fun to hate during a baseball game at houston's astrodome.

The crowd in attendance would infamously erupt in booze anytime, a new cocad flashed on the jumbotron. Oh my god. By this point, the backlash had far exceeded just a few oddballs. It now resembled the full-fledged cultural event, part of the morbid curiosity that attracted people to the controversy was tied up in the novelty of seeing such a powerful company struggle.

Coca-Cola was supposed to be the shining example of american excellence. They almost never slipped up so when they did, people made sure to let them know about it. Lots of people who didn't even necessarily care about the product found entertainment value in rallying against a goliath corporation, who had fallen a bit too far. Out of touch for many new coke became an issue of patriotism with one alabama reporter, even insinuating that the whole idea was a communist plot to destroy a champion of american ingenuity.

This theory wouldn't quite hold up after fidel castro, a longtime coke drinker published his own comments, bashing, the new formula, ironically castro, had arguably set off this entire series of events in the first place by launching roberto, oh wait guys you guys, i feel, like this drinker Published his own, this, giving a free, instant like blow uh like a home, run against the idea of capitalism. If they did it right right comments, bashing the new formula, ironically, castro, had arguably set off this entire series of events in the future. It could have helped the cause of fixing it if he did say that he liked it and he acted like he said, yeah man. This is like this is this: is the true communist drink? Then people would this would have cut on fire backwards.

Yeah watching his bold decision catastrophically backfired goes. What is ultimate humiliation would come from the words of his. What who told him that the release of new coke was the only time he ever with castro in the first month after release. Coke's management remained committed to this decided to weather the storm, but by the end of may the situation was quickly becoming on seven minutes away.

First, they said they were the real thing. Then they said they were it and kablooey they changed. So now i'm gon na try my first pepsi. The strategy to poach business away from pepsi was backfiring spectacularly shortly.

After new coke hit store shelves, pepsi saw a 14 sales increase, the biggest in their entire history. In mid-june, when soft drink sales typically rise. New coke sales remain flat. Internally, coca-cola's officials were starting to panic amid complaints over the flavor of their new product.

The company would quietly alter the formula yet again, this time, adjusting its acidity. It was clear that koch's leadership were losing faith in their vision. A few executives had already begun, suggesting a return to the old formula. The last hope for new coke was the product catching on in foreign markets.

But after seeing the fiasco taking place in the u.s, coax international distributors wanted no part of it domestically. The company's own bottling partners were on the brink of revolt. New coke was now threatening to dismantle the very structure of their business, with no other options. The company swallowed their pride and submitted to the will of the people.

No one of us looked at the other and said: what are we doing? What are we doing here in the latest battle of the cola wars? Coke says it's bringing back its old formula within the next several weeks. The original taste, which many people in the country apparently are redemption stories again. Well, we read and we listened - and you know the rest they're, both yours, the new taste of coke and coca-cola classic. Your right of choice is back on july 11, 1985 coca-cola announced the return of the original formula, ending the new coke experiment.

After just 79 days, the new formula would continue to be sold as simply coke, taking a back seat to the rightful flagship product now called coca-cola classic. Following the controversy, long-time spokesman bill, cosby would part ways with the company claiming that promoting new coke had hurt his credibility. This is that's ironic. They can see in their marketing jesus christ be filled by the app search.

Sir, despite the very entertaining ad campaign, new coach's reputation could not be salvaged by the end of the 80s. Its sales had dwindled to just a few percent of the market before the company decided to shelve it. In 1992, they attempted to reintroduce the new formula as coke 2. The product would be mostly discontinued once more.

Only sticking around in a few is that, like overwatch, two country, roberto, goyzweta, the mastermind behind it all continued to swear by his creation. He personally drank the product until his death in 1997., although he oversaw one of the biggest blunders in company history. His tenure was still considered a success. New coke was expected to revive the coca-cola brand and in a totally unorthodox way.

It did just that by making people realize just how much they enjoyed the original formula. The return of coke classic led to nationwide euphoria sales figures, not only rebounded, but went on to surpass what the brand had been doing prior to the switch in just six months. Coca-Cola was selling more than twice as fast as pepsi solidifying their place as the top soda company in the world a position they continued to hold to this day. Somehow the biggest failure in industry history had directly contributed to its biggest success.

The story is so perfect that it led many to wonder whether it was planned all along. The incident sparked a variety of other conspiracies as to the company's true intentions with the new formula, some speculated that they all settled down to the reagan administration's war on drugs. With coke having to phase out, they are just cringe, insecure andes who see all other people who attempt something that they wouldn't right; actually, fabricated and fake and pre-planned. They see other people that dare to take the leap as something so foreign that it's got to be made up last remnants of the coca plant, from which they're named whether or not this was the case remains dubious.

But a far more likely explanation had to do with the company shifting from cane sugar to the far cheaper alternative of high fructose corn syrup. Strangely enough, coke classic wasn't exactly the same as classic coke. The returning formula had entirely switched to using corn syrup as a sweetener gay malt, who received the ironic first can of coke classic reported feeling sick after drinking it. Many other astute consumers had their suspicions about the apparent bait and switch, but for the vast majority it simply didn't matter they had complained and coke had listened, which at the end of the day, is all anyone really wanted see.

Remember i tell you guys that the consumer doesn't know what no, what the they want right. That's that's a good example of that coca-cola. Officially, they don't know what they want classic. They do not effectively erasing the last trace of new coke's existence.

The company was surely eager to move on from such an embarrassing chapter of their history. Since then, the people yes stupidestly, faded away into a distant memory. I was born far too late to experience the summer of new coke. The stories i heard felt that's something about the legend democracy by the people for the people, but the people, a forbidden elixir, which caused so much heartache that it was practically banished from public consumption, an artifact so unwanted that it became unobtainable.

I've spent the past month trying to study it and after examining just about every aspect of the stuff, i was still missing. One crucial detail first, because democracy basically means government by the people of the people for the people, but the people are as much research. I've done the literature, the footage and the data don't tell the full story. After dedicating so much effort trying to understand new coke, the only thing left to do was taste it.

How do you even drink that? Because it's delicious what in 2019 new coke experienced a brief revival, after being featured on the hit netflix series, stranger things as part of a promotional stunt, yes, coca-cola would release a limited run of the 1985 formula. Only 500 000 cans were distributed with a few winding up for resale on ebay. So i picked up a case and for the first time in my life, tried the flavor that whipped an entire nation into a frenzy and, to be perfectly honest, it was kind of hard to taste the difference. It's probably because i don't drink soda, often or that i hadn't tasted a coke another non-connoisseur to tell the two drinks apart.

Funnily enough, even a guy, like gay mullins, knew coke's most ardent critic couldn't tell either after finally experiencing the world's most infamous beverage. For myself, i couldn't help but speculate about a pretty absurd thought. My drinks. Does anyone actually know what coca-cola tastes like? It seems like such a preposterous thing to suggest, but research tells us that most people don't unlike marketing, may tell you independent taste tests have consistently shown that the average person can't tell the difference between coke and pepsi.

For most of us, taste is just not our strong suit food marketing. Professor joel dubo found that incremental adjustments to soft drink flavor tend to go unnoticed by consumers, meaning that new coke could have theoretically succeeded had it been gradually consolidated with the old formula. This is especially interesting since many people today believe that new coke failed because it was a bad product, but in my personal assessment, that's simply not the case. In fact, after going back and really comparing the two drinks, i actually preferred the flavor of the new food.

I ordered three bottles of coke. It's good enough for the mom cans of coconut. Upstairs the product itself was fine and had it been, i can literally difference between bottled coke and canned coke bottle, pepsi and cam. I can tell you, but then you're going to go all four.

You did a little i contained for all four successful as any other coke flavor. The problem with new coke had to do almost entirely with how it was presented to the public. Coke may have envisioned the product as the ultimate answer to the pepsi challenge, but they only ended up challenging themselves. The very idea of replacing the most legendary consumer product in history was just too brazen except new.

Coke was unknowingly pitted against 99 years of marketing genius and in hindsight, it's unsurprising to see which side prevailed. At the end of the day, all the research focus groups and taste tests were irrelevant. New coke never stood a chance for the simple reason that it wasn't. The real thing it wasn't coca-cola, but what is coca-cola really? Is it carbonated sugar water? Is it 19th century headache tonic? I've got a feeling that for most people, coke isn't even supposed to taste, not nervous at all.

All it has to do is taste how they remember, there's something to be said about a product that has lasted longer than virtu. End of the video is really good. Actually any other okay tonight give me you.