Coke's Winter Whiteout



"We're lost on an island, running from boars
and monsters...freakin' polar bears!" - Hurley


Winter 2011. Man walks into his local convenience store and heads to the coolers. He thirsts for a Diet Coke. He's watching his figure. He grabs the light can from the cooler shelf and walks to the checkout to pay and then out the door. He cracks the can in the car and after his first sip he realizes he's been duped. He bought a regular Coke.

How did this happen? Why did this happen? Coke can confusion was a serious issue for us "afficionados" this past winter due to a change in the color of regular Coke cans to all white. Why the change? Well, it was for a very good reason. Coke introduced new white polar bear cans in order to raise awareness for the species, which is a seasonal mascot for the company. Coke also donated $2 million to the World Wildlife Fund and matched consumer donations up to $1 million. A big kudos to Coke as I am a fan of both soda and animals.



Despite this great deed, blowback from loyal customers who were confused by the switch, buying regular Coke when they wanted diet, resulted in Coke quickly redesigning the can and reverting back to the traditional red, this time with white polar bears (instead of white with silver bears). For me, the whole can fiasco struck twice. On one visit, my first encounter with the white can, I looked up at the top shelf of the cooler and saw only what I considered diet cans. I grabbed a different soda instead. The second time, even knowing the existence of white regular cans, I walked into a store and reached for the slot next to the diet, thinking it was a white can, only to realize in the parking lot that it was diet. I couldn't help but laugh.

Did this happen to you? Don't be ashamed, comment below! If you want more info about Coca-Cola's efforts to help the polar bears, click here.

Celebrating 100 Years of Fenway

                                                                                         

Coke celebrates events with new and unique bottle designs that can be both regional and national and in recent memory, the Bruins' Stanley Cup bottles were my favorite. The beverage company marks another important event in Boston history with a new design commemorating the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park.

I picked up a six pack for the event and while they were toasting grape juice at Fenway, I was sipping cola. The game ended in a loss to the Yankees, however the 100th anniversary celebration was a huge success with many emotional moments created by players from throughout the years coming together on the field.

I'm looking forward to more bottle designs but need to venture out of my home state and start looking for more of the regional bottles. I'm sure each city gets the championship treatment following a major victory so I'm going to troll the Internet or ask our readers to send me some...please?

King of Pop

Michael Jackson and Pepsi have a unique place in music history, with MJ suffering his scalp burns during a Pepsi commercial shoot in 1984. The Pepsi company is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of Bad with a nice silhouette of the dancer on 16 oz cans. The cans are part of Pepsi's "Live for Now" campaign which includes a partnership with the Estate of Michael Jackson in order to produce these new cans. I would like to say that the silhouette and the other graphics on the can are quite nice and a great way to remember a true singer and performer and one of the iconic albums of the 80's. The official release also states "cans" so I'm interested to see if this is one of more to come.