New Coke was the unofficial name of the sweeter formulation introduced in 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace its flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola or Coke. Properly speaking, it had no separate name of its own, but was simply the new version of Coke, until 1992 when it was renamed Coca-Cola II.Public reaction to the change was devastating, and the new cola quickly entered the pantheon of major marketing flops. The subsequent reintroduction of Coke's original formula led to a significant gain in sales. Although the company insisted it was an unplanned reaction to the perceived rejection of New Coke, many rumors and conspiracy theories continue to circulate the claim that this reversal was a plan engineered before the production of New Coke began, perhaps to mask changes made to the "Original Formula."

Has anyone else noticed the recent marketing campaign Diet Pepsi has rolled out? Their entire campaign is based around the statistic that "56% of diet cola drinkers think Diet Pepsi has more cola taste than Diet Coke." Pepsi must really be losing to Coke in the soft drink market if this is what they are using. I have some problems with it:

n the beverage industry, the term "health and wellness" usually refers to drinks like water and green tea. But Coca-Cola is on a mission to tack it on to Diet Coke and other "no-calorie" drinks, CEO Neville Isdell said Thursday.Video games are a major part of the problem," Isdell told the analysts.

Drinking beverages containing NutraSweet or Equal eventually caused the author a litany of odd problems, from headaches to mildly scary facial twinges and tics. Wal-Mart to the rescue! Wal-Mart is singularly responsible for bringing to market one of the few sodas that the author can tolerate: Diet Coke with Splenda.