Wednesday, July 10, was C day in America. C for Coca-Cola. C for consumers. C for choice. It was the day that a powerful company in Atlanta felt compelled to return to Americans their national drink. When Coca-Cola announced last April that it was changing the taste of the world's most popular soda, it failed to foresee the sheer frustration and fury that the news would create. From Bangor to Burbank, from Detroit to Dallas, tens of thousands of Coke lovers rose up as one to revile the suddenly sweeter taste of their favorite beverage and demand old Coke back.
Stung and swallowing hard, Coca-Cola reclaimed its birthright last week. In the most spectacular about-face since Ford walked away from its ill-fated Edsel in 1959, the company bowed to public pressure. It declared that old Coke would be restored to groceries, fountains and vending machines within a few weeks. At the same time, the firm said it intended to have its soda and drink it too. Old Coke will return as Coca-Cola Classic. The new Coke that ignited the outrage will remain the flagship brand.
Coke's decision brought forth a joyous response from soft-drink fans across the U.S. Said Karen Wilson, 28, who last June led a rally to protest the new Coke in San Francisco's Union Square: "At first I was numb. Then I was shocked. Then I started to yell and scream and run up and down." Archrival Pepsi professed to be just as delighted. Crowed Roger Enrico, president of Pepsi-Cola USA, about new Coke: "Clearly this is the Edsel of the '80s. This was a terrible mistake. Coke's got a lemon on its hands, and now they're trying to make lemonade." On Wall Street, though, Coke jumped $2.37 a share on the announcement, while PepsiCo stock sagged 75ยข. In Washington, Democratic Senator David Pryor of Arkansas, an admitted Cokeaholic, expressed his jubilation on the Senate floor. In a speech between a debate over disinvestment in South Africa and action on the Safe Drinking Water Act, Pryor called Coke's capitulation "a very meaningful moment in the history of America. It shows that some national institutions cannot be changed."
Indeed they cannot. As Coke discovered to its sorrow, fiddling with the formula for the 99-year-old beverage was an affront to patriotic pride and perhaps more. "Some people felt that a sacred symbol had been tampered with," said Robert Antonio, a University of Kansas sociologist. Glenwood Davis, marketing manager for Coca-Cola Bottling in Roanoke, Va., said that he received a letter from a woman who said, "There are only two things in my life: God and Coca-Cola. Now you have taken one of those things away from me."
Even after the decision to bring back Classic Coke, company officials were still not quite sure what had hit them. "We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola," said President Donald R. Keough. "It is not only a function of culture or upbringing or inherited brand loyalty. It is a wonderful American mystery. A lovely American enigma. And you cannot measure it any more than you can measure love, pride or patriotism."
Everything looked different on April 23, when Coca-Cola Chairman Roberto Goizueta introduced the new Coke, which the firm called "the most significant soft-drink development in the company's history." Gushed Goizueta at the time: "The best has been made even better."