New Coke Is Back. Sort of.
May 21 2019 - 9:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Jennifer Maloney
Coca-Cola Co. is using one of its biggest failures as a
marketing tool, bringing back New Coke for a limited time in a
cross-promotion with the Netflix science-fiction horror series
"Stranger Things."
The third season of "Stranger Things" is set in 1985, when a new
formulation of Coca-Cola triggered a consumer backlash and led to
the return of the original version shortly thereafter. New Coke
will appear in several episodes, and a limited run of
retro-inspired cans of the 1985 recipe will be available starting
May 23 on Coca-Cola's merchandise website, cokestore.com. It won't
be sold in regular retail stores.
Set in the 1980s, "Stranger Things" is about a group of
middle-school students in small-town Indiana who confront monsters
arriving from an alternate dimension known as the Upside Down.
Coca-Cola products, ads and logos have appeared on the show more
than a dozen times since its first season.
Coca-Cola executives said the soda company hasn't paid Netflix
for product placement but has provided products for the show's use.
In preparation for the thriller's third season, executives invited
the crew to visit Coca-Cola's Atlanta archives to study New Coke
packaging, memorabilia and ads. Coke will pay a licensing fee to
sell bottles and cans of regular Coke and Coke Zero Sugar carrying
the "Stranger Things" logo.
"We are not taking any money for this," said Barry Smyth,
Netflix's head of global partner marketing, on the placement. Mr.
Smyth said there won't be any old TV ads featuring New Coke's
pitchman, Bill Cosby, in "Stranger Things." Mr. Cosby is currently
in a state prison outside Philadelphia after a jury found him
guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in 2004.
The catastrophic 1985 reformulation of Coca-Cola had an enduring
impact on the beverage company, deepening a culture of caution that
became known as New Coke syndrome. Chief Executive James Quincey,
who took the top job in 2017, has been pushing his staff to shake
off that fear of failure and take more risks. In February, the
company introduced its first new flavor of Coca-Cola in more than a
decade.
New Coke will be handed out free during the week of June 3 to
ticket buyers at the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta and will
be dispensed free from an upside-down vending machine set to appear
in several cities, starting May 23 in New York.
--Joe Flint contributed to this article.
Write to Jennifer Maloney at jennifer.maloney@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 21, 2019 09:14 ET (13:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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