By the mid-1980s, Coca-Cola was losing ground in what the press was calling the “cola wars.” In the years after World War II, Coke had held roughly 60% of the soft drink market. But by 1985, that share had slid to under 25%, driven largely by Pepsi’s aggressive push to attract younger consumers with its sweeter taste. CEO Roberto Goizueta took the threat seriously. After extensive taste tests and focus groups, his team developed a new formula — smoother, sweeter, and aimed squarely at winning back that younger demographic.
New Coke launched on April 23, 1985, with the company simultaneously halting production of the original formula. The rollout was confident. Coca-Cola’s 1985 annual shareholder report described the new taste as earning “superior preference ratings in consumer taste tests” and positioned it as having “special appeal to the youth segment.” But whatever those taste tests measured, they didn’t account for the emotional attachment Americans had to the original. Protest groups formed. Phone lines at Coca-Cola’s headquarters lit up. People reportedly hoarded cases of the old formula and sold them at a markup.
Just 77 days after the launch, Coca-Cola reversed course. On July 10, 1985, company president Donald Keough stood before cameras and said plainly, “We’re not that dumb, and we’re not that smart” — acknowledging that they had, in his words, “clearly misread” the public’s connection to the original drink. The old formula returned under the name Coca-Cola Classic, initially sold alongside New Coke. By the end of that year, Coca-Cola Classic’s sales outpaced Pepsi and every other Coke product on the market. New Coke lingered, was eventually renamed Coke II, and eventually disappeared in 2002.
The whole episode sparked debate that’s never fully gone away. Was New Coke a genuine miscalculation, or was it a calculated move to reintroduce the original formula with a fresh round of publicity? Coca-Cola has always denied the latter, but the timing and outcome left plenty of room for skeptics. Either way, New Coke landed in pop culture history as a cautionary tale about brand loyalty — and proof that a product formula can carry a lot more meaning than its ingredients.
Below, we’ve pulled together vintage photos and original reporting from 1985 — including coverage from the Wisconsin State Journal and excerpts from Coca-Cola’s own annual report — so you can see exactly how the story unfolded in real time.
America’s taste just got better (1985)
PR disaster: Officials at Coke ‘misread’ public attachment to drink (1985)
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin) July 12, 1985
The top three officials of Coca-Cola Co. said Thursday that they are bringing back the recipe that made Coke the world’s most popular soft drink because they “clearly misread” the public’s attachment to it.
They denied that the return of the old formula was prompted by a failure of the 11-week-old new formula or that the return of Coca-Cola Classic was planned all along.
“We’re not that dumb, and we’re not that smart,” Donald Keough, president of Coca-Cola Co., said at the company headquarters with Chairman Roberto C. Goizueta and Coca-Cola USA President Brian Dyson. Around the country, people who bottle and distribute Coke greeted the old formula with a relief, disagreement and cynicism.
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“We’ve had quite a lot of concern, a lot of calls at the plant,” said John Kayajan, president of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Cape Cod, Mass. But Kayajan and other Massachusetts bottlers said the new Coke surpassed the old Coke’s popularity in the state, and Kayajan predicted: Goizueta sips an old Coke.
“The new will prevail here.”
“I think it’s all a publicity stunt on the part of the company,” said Mike Bruzzio, who checks shipments at the bottling plant in Newark, NJ. “They got all that publicity and made the people go cuckoo for Coke.”
“If you want to know the truth, I think they were going to do this from the beginning,” said Bill Roth, Coke’s district sales manager in Newark. The old formula for Coke, which remained fundamentally unchanged for 99 years, was replaced in April with a taste the company said was “smoother, bolder and rounder.”
But cola drinkers rebelled. Groups formed to lobby for the return of the old formula, and Coke received thousands of telephone calls and letters.
On Monday, Coke’s leaders decided to market the old formula again, and the decision was announced Wednesday.
“Our company attained the position it enjoys by watching consumers, listening to consumers and giving consumers what they want,” Goizueta said.
Dyson said the best product the company can make will continue to be sold under the Coca-Cola label. Coke Classic — like diet Coke, Cherry Coke, caffeine-free Diet Coke and caffeine-free Coke — will be a product extension.
Product overview: From Coca Cola’s 1985 annual shareholder report
New Taste of Coke
As part of its strategic efforts to enhance the trademark Coca-Cola and to continue as the leading force in the industry, the Company took historic steps to satisfy the changing tastes of American consumers.
The Company developed a new taste for Coca-Cola, which earned superior preference ratings in consumer taste tests. In April, the new taste of Coke was launched nationwide.
With its smoother taste and contemporary positioning, Coke began developing a new consumer franchise with special appeal to the youth segment.
As national rollout of the new formula reached full throttle, many consumers demonstrated unexpectedly strong loyalty to the original taste of Coca-Cola by requesting the option of once again enjoying its familiar, unique taste.
Responding promptly, the Company introduced Coca-Cola classic in July — a new name for the product with the original formula for Coca-Cola.
This gave America an unparalleled choice: the traditional taste in Coca-Cola classic, appealing to its committed consumers, and the exciting new taste of Coke, attracting new consumers to Company products.
One Response
You can’t talk about the 80s without talking about New Coke. I was in college during the New Coke debacle, and I remember the massive amount of hype around it. The marketing made it sound as if drinking New Coke would be some kind of transcendental experience. My friends and I finally got a chance to try it at a street fair right around the time it debuted. We all agreed it tasted like… Pepsi (not that there’s anything wrong with Pepsi, but…). A lot of other people agreed, and they were pretty upset. There were stories of people hoarding the “old” Coke and selling it for huge markups (long before eBay, of course). There were also rumors that Coca-Cola had destroyed the recipe for the old Coke so that it could never be made again, but clearly that was false. Soon enough Coke was backpedaling, rolling out Coke “Classic” as fast as they could. New Coke was still sold for awhile, but I guess that people who liked it simply switched to Pepsi…