Thanks to ‘Stranger Things’ New Coke has Been Revived

According to Coca-Cola, there’s nothing better than opening a cold bottle (or can) of Coke; that might seem biased but seeing as Coca-Cola remains one of the most popular soda corporations, they might be onto something. In the previous two seasons of the rising star in the TV world, Stranger Things, Coca-Cola has made guest appearances. For Stranger Things’ third season (which is set in 1985), Coca-Cola is back, this time as its iconic “New Coke,” which last appeared in 1985 and was only available for less than 100 days. To promote its brand, Coca-Cola is once again selling New Coke for a limited time- beginning on Thursday.

New Coke

In 1985 Coca-Cola misjudged their fans tastes (literally) and decided to upgrade their famous soft drink, Coke. New Coke, as it was called, was the biggest flop, lasting only 79 days on the market with the production of it stopping less than a week after it had begun.

TV show Stranger Things likes to bring up nostalgic things from the 90s, and when their third season was set in the summer of 1985, what could be more nostalgic than New Coke. So when New Coke made a debut in the not yet released season, Coke decided to capitalize off of that, bringing back a limited time and amount of 12-ounce cans of New Coke.

After sitting in a vault for 35 years, the New Coke recipe will be brought to light once again. “This is uncharted territory for us,” says Geoff Cottrill, senior vice president of strategic marketing for Coca-Cola North America, in an interview. “We want to look for ways to work with Netflix, but only in ways that don’t interrupt consumers, and don’t get in the way of the entertainment. If we can find ways to integrate authentically and add value to the experience, then we want to be a part of it.” ^[1]

Back Again

This time Coca-Cola is only releasing 500,000 cans of the sweeter version of Coke. You can find it online at cokestore.com starting on May 23 at 5 p.m. eastern time.

“When Netflix told us Season 3 was going to be set in the summer of 1985 — with the tagline that ‘one summer could change everything’ — that rang so true for us,” said Oana Vlad, director of Coca-Cola North America. “The summer of 1985 did in fact change everything for us with the introduction of New Coke, which was also arguably one of the biggest pop culture moments of that year.” ^[2]

Officials will be watching for reactions to New Coke when it comes out; this small debut is a great test to see if New Coke is as bad as people remember or if the uproar in 1985 was what made everyone think that New Coke tasted bad.