40 Years Ago, Coca-Cola Made The Biggest Mistake In Soda History

Just like the failed Fyre Fest, Kendall Jenner's Pepsi ad, and Burger King's stomach-turning moldy Whopper campaign, we kind of love a hot mess marketing swing-and-a-miss to shake things up in the cultural zeitgeist. And in April 2025, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of one of the biggest biffs of all time: The launch of Coca-Cola's New Coke. Please symbolically raise an overly sweet, bubbly glass of "what the heck is this," in its honor.

New Coke marked the first change-up to Coca-Cola's behemoth success-soda recipe in almost a century (Well, other than the time cocaine was booted from the mix in the early 1900s.) By 1985, fans had apparently grown tired of the world's No. 1 brown soda, and were leaning toward the competition — at least according to the "Pepsi Challenge," which pitted the leading colas against each other in blind taste tests (Spoiler alert: All the people in Pepsi commercials picked Pepsi.)

Seeing an opening for something ... new ... Coca-Cola debuted a completely reformulated, sweeter-tasting New Coke in an updated can with the banner "New." While taste tests had seemingly given the brand the green light, the backlash involving the crushed nostalgia of hopes and dreams was swift. Within three months, the regular stuff was back, rebranded as Coca-Cola Classic, in the familiar cans, with the normal flavor, where it nestled back into the industry's top spot. (ABC even interrupted "General Hospital" so broadcaster Peter Jennings could alert America to the breaking soda news.) While New Coke stuck around for a minute as "Coke II" (Ugh, Coke, that just makes it worse!), its last moment in the sun was a throwback-style cameo in "Stranger Things."

Coca-Cola's hit 1970s ad featured the iconic earworm "I'd like to buy the world a Coke," but not every idea's been a drink you'd like to buy for your worst enemy. Along with New Coke, the soda behemoth has tried pawning off other variations that went over like a lead balloon.

To compete with another soda that went clear and then straight into the trash (Crystal Pepsi, we see you — sort of), Coca-Cola unveiled its "New Age," zero-sugar, zero-calorie Tab Clear, in 1992. It quickly disappeared along with the rest of the clear '90s colas. Coca-Cola Clear later hit stores in Japan in 2018, but never broke into the U.S. market.

While there have been mixed reviews on Coca-Cola Starlight and Coca-Cola Spiced, along with varying opinions on Diet Coke versus Coke Zero, the universally maligned "Beverly" flavor won zero fans at Disney's Epcot Center. As part of an otherwise tasty sampler-style soda fountain of Coke-fronted brands from around the world (think Minute Maid apple juice with lychee, and cucumber Sprite), the spout listed "Beverly" was billed as an Italian aperitif. But after a line-up of sweet sodas, Beverly's bitter shock was more than most American soda fans had bargained for. As one Redditor noted, "It tastes like grapefruit rind and poison."

Have we seen the height of Coca-Cola's formulation missteps? Only time will tell. But judging by whoever called 2025's Coca-Cola Orange Cream "the stuff of nightmares," probably not. Happy 40th Anniversary, New Coke. RIP.