After replacing its flagship formula and facing a consumer revolt, Coca-Cola formally apologizes and presents the original drink's return as Coca-Cola Classic.
The company's announcement was that Coca-Cola was coming back.
Coca-Cola had spent years researching how to improve Coca-Cola.
Its customers eventually supplied a simpler recommendation: Coca-Cola.
On 23 April 1985, the company introduced a reformulated flagship drink, soon widely called New Coke. It replaced the familiar formula in the United States after extensive taste testing had favoured the new version.
The tests measured a preference between drinks. They did not adequately measure how people would react to losing the one they regarded as their Coke.
Complaints reached company telephone lines and mailrooms. Protest groups formed. Some customers stockpiled the remaining old formula.
The company decided to reverse course. News of the original formula's return was already public on Wednesday, 10 July. The Thursday story is not a surprise announcement that nobody had heard the day before.
On Thursday, 11 July, Coca-Cola executives formally presented the plan at a press conference. Company president Donald Keough apologized for the discontent and called the experience a lesson in humility.
The original formula would come back under a new name: Coca-Cola Classic.
It was not yet back on every shelf that Thursday. Contemporary reporting said syrup shipments would begin the following week, with products reaching the market afterward.
New Coke did not immediately disappear, either. The company planned to sell both versions—temporarily making the solution to replacing Coca-Cola the sale of two Coca-Colas.
Coca-Cola's own retrospective uses 11 July to mark 79 days since the new formula's introduction.
The company had researched the taste of a drink. Its customers had tested what it meant to take away a familiar product.
A company replaced one of the world's most recognizable drinks after extensive taste testing, then formally apologized and announced the original formula's return 79 days later.
The research tested the drink. Customers tested the decision.
Evidence status
Sources
Company historical record
The Coca-Cola Company — New Coke: The Most Memorable Marketing Blunder Ever?
Original language: EnglishContemporary independent reporting
The Washington Post — Old Coke Is Back · 10 July 1985
The Washington Post — Coca-Cola Apologizes to Real Thing's Fans · 11 July 1985
Original language: English