Today in History—April 23: The Not-So-Sweet Backlash to New Coke

Two men in suits smile and hold up cans of New Coke, highlighting the launch of the soda product. The image is mostly black and white except for the bright orange-red New Coke cans. — April 23, 1985: When Coke changed its recipe—and regretted it

After sticking to the same—secret—formula for 99 years, the Coca-Cola Company tweaked the recipe of its iconic soft drink on this day in 1985.

Fans of the fizzy drink found this hard to stomach, but Coca-Cola had strong reason to shake things up. The beverage maker had steadily lost market share to competitors since World War II, and its biggest rival, Pepsi, was threatening Coke’s crown as America’s favorite drink.

Starting in 1975, Pepsi had run ad campaigns claiming that more people picked its sweeter concoction over the classic flavor of Coke in blind taste tests. Coca-Cola was also falling behind in supermarket sales and worried its slipping dominance might endanger lucrative soda fountain contracts with fast-food chains, including McDonald’s and Burger King. It had to stop the bleeding.

So, in 1983 Coca-Cola greenlit a secret project (nicknamed Project Kansas, a nod to a flattering article in a Kansas newspaper that the president of the company liked) to tinker with the recipe. About a year later it had a sweeter-tasting, slightly flatter concoction. No fewer than 200,000 customer taste tests had assured the company that the new drink would be better liked than both Pepsi and old Coke.

Fun Fact

The original formula for Coke is a trade secret, kept in a vault in Atlanta.

That’s not how things played out. Backlash to New Coke was swift and palpable. The company was bombarded with thousands of phone calls and letters. Diehard fans hoarded old Coke as if it were doomsday. Protests popped up across the country demanding the company bring back old Coke. Even the company’s own bottlers—especially in the South—called for a return to the original. The media storm added fuel to the fire.

Just 79 days after the launch of New Coke, the company gave in and put old Coke back on shelves. The two Cokes were sold side by side—until the new one was discontinued in 2002.

In the end, the debacle did boost Coca-Cola’s image and stock price. Was that the intention all along? To that, Donald R. Keough, then president of Coca-Cola, had this to say: “Some cynics say we planned the whole thing. The truth is, we’re not that dumb, and we’re not that smart.”