30 Years Ago: “New” Coke and New Edition

In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company was in the middle of a soda war with Pepsi and its marketing and executive departments decided that it was time for a change. Their idea, let's create a "new" version of our 99-year old recipe and the people will love it! WRONG!

It became known as one of the biggest marketing and promotional failures of all time as people flat out HATED the "new" Coke. I remember that "new" coke didn't taste any more different than "old" Coke, but the adults of that time would tell me that it wasn't so much the taste of the new drink, but the "principle" of changing something so iconic, that's been around for over a century just didn't make sense. Today marks the 30th Anniversary of Coke's blunder and as I was reflecting on this, I found this vintage commercial for "New Coke" featuring New Edition (The original lineup with Bobby Brown). In the next video, you can get a complete history on the story of "New Coke".