Word: coke
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...experience has taught many bottlers a lesson. "What Coca-Cola didn't realize was that the old Coke was the property of the American public," says Bobby Wilkinson, president of Huntsville Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Alabama. "The bottlers thought they owned it. The company thought it owned it. But the consumers knew they owned it. And when someone tampered with it, they got upset...
Company officials should have known that they were playing a very tricky game in changing Coke. When the firm first came out with 10-oz., king-size bottles in the mid-1950s, many drinkers were beside themselves. If God had wanted Coke in 10-oz. bottles, he would not have created the traditional, green-hued 6l/2-oz. bottle. "People raised hell with me and said it didn't taste the same," said Crawford Johnson, president of Birmingham's Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United. "I told them, 'We put the same ingredients in it that we put in the little bottle...
Outrage against the new Coke quickly gathered momentum. In Seattle, Gay Mullins, 57, a retired real estate investor, became a national celebrity by issuing anti-new-Coke buttons and T shirts, setting up a hot line for disgruntled callers and threatening to bring a class-action suit to make the old recipe public. Mullins organized the Old Cola Drinkers of America, whose aim was to bring back the beloved soft drink. It did not matter that Mullins, in two blind tests, expressed a preference for new Coke over old Coke. He wanted his rum-and-Cokes to be just...
Others managed to convert distaste for new Coke into a profitable sideline. Dennis Overstreet, owner of a Beverly Hills wine shop, bought 500 cases of old Coke after the new product was announced, and sold them all for $30 each, nearly triple the normal price. When they were gone, Overstreet began contacting foreign bottlers to import the drink, which has not yet been replaced by new Coke abroad. His search took him from England ("It didn't taste right") to Mexico, Puerto Rico and finally Brazil. On the day Coca-Cola disclosed that it was reviving the old beverage...
Protesters became wild enthusiasts when Coke reversed itself. "I was ecstatic when I heard the news," said Libby Lavine, a Michigan dissident who had launched a national letter-writing campaign. "Thank God they realized what a mistake they made." In Mountain View, Calif., Coke Activist Wilson threw a party in the sawdust-covered back room of a hamburger restaurant. The drink of the night? Old Coke, from Wilson's 20-case stash...