New Coke: the cola that won Coca-Cola's biggest taste test and lost America
New Coke launch day: why Coca-Cola stopped making the old Coke in 1985
On 23 April 1985, Coca-Cola told the world it had a new taste, and that the old recipe would no longer be made. Its big taste tests had said yes. Then the phones in Atlanta started to ring.
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On 23 April 1985, Goizueta walks onto a stage in New York in front of the reporters. He has big news: Coca-Cola has a new taste. "The best has been made even better," he says.
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And this is not a second drink next to the old one. That same week, the old recipe stops being made. When the last old cans are gone from the shops, only the new taste will be left. People soon call it New Coke, and the drink before it old Coke.
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The news is on every TV channel and in every newspaper. Within one day, 81 of every 100 Americans have heard about it, Coca-Cola says.
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At Pepsi, they are delighted. On the day of the launch, Pepsi prints a full-page ad in the newspapers. In it, its boss Roger Enrico writes: "The other guy just blinked." He means that Coca-Cola gave in first, like the one who blinks first when two people stare at each other. To him, Coca-Cola has changed its taste to be more like Pepsi.
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At home, people taste the new can. Some like it. Some say it is too sweet and tastes like Pepsi. And some just want to know where their old Coke went.
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Within weeks, the phone line for customers in Atlanta rings and rings. Angry letters pile up on the desks.
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In the tests, more people liked the new taste than the old one. Coca-Cola did what its research said. So why are so many people this angry?
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Go further
Two more things about the launch.