New Coke's 20th Anniversary

Coming up in a few weeks is the 20th Anniversary of the introduction of New Coke. My God, has it really been that long already? 1985 was a very different time than nowadays. There was no internet, styles and tastes were different, and people knew what they liked. And didn't like.

I just finished the feature story for the upcoming edition of Soda Pop Dreams Magazine (print edition), dedicated to the New Coke 20th Anniversary, and I was amazed at how different the recollections of New Coke were by our readers. Many different perspectives (from bottlers, advertisers, grocery store clerks, consumers, etc.). If YOU remember New Coke, do me a favor and post a comment at the bottom of this blog...

I had a chance to talk to a couple of great sources. First, there was Mark Pendergrast, author of "For God, Country, and Coca-Cola". What a great source! Mark's book about the history of Coca-Cola has an entire chapter devoted to the New Coke disaster, and it was certainly interesting to hear his thoughts 20 years later. The other source I spoke with was Bill Baver, a former Coca-Cola employee who retired a year before New Coke was launched. Bill is certainly an outspoken and colorful character and his recollections and thoughts are pure gold.

Probably my personal favorite 'story' of New Coke was the one where the Coca-Cola deliveryman was stocking New Coke on a grocery store shelf in May 1985. An elderly woman approached and assaulted him with her umbrella. "You bastard," she yelled, "you ruined it - it tastes like shit!" When a nearby Pepsi driver snickered at the scene, she blasted him as well. "You stay out of it! This is family business," she scolded. "Yours is worse than shit!"

While most of the world was seemingly have a nervous breakdown about New Coke being launched and the old Coke disappearing, it didn't personally affect me much at the time. I was 12-years-old when New Coke came out and we weren’t allowed to drink pop much back then. But when I delivered on my paper route, I always stopped at the corner store and drank a pop and remember seeing the “NEW” silver banner across Coke cans – I think it was totally lost on me at the time. How ironic it is that now soda pop and its history is the majority of what I write about.

If you're not a subscriber of Soda Pop Dreams Magazine, now's a great time to join us (or, if you'd rather just buy Issue #36 for the New Coke stuff, there's a link on our website to do just that).

Thanks for reading this week's blog.... for those of you subscribers out there, I hope you enjoy the New Coke feature story in the upcoming edition (due to go into the mail April 13th). See ya, and Happy Collecting!