There are people out there who love to drink soda. As in the random example above – there are those who really… really love their soda. For every ‘Coca-Cola Classic’, there has been a ‘New Coke’. Coca-Cola decided to officially re brand the formula for Coca-Cola in 1985 with a strong ad campaign telling people that they had made coke ‘Even Better’. Despite the backlash, New Coke actually sold well and helped the Coca-Cola company reach an 8% gain in sales compared to the previous year. Unfortunately, there was too much public outcry to return to the original formula despite scientific research in later years that proved that most people couldn’t tell the difference between the two drinks. The gigantic public relations failure by Coca-Cola actually turned into one of the best marketing campaigns of all time as the re-introduction of Coca-Cola under the brand name ‘Coca-Cola Classic’ helped to reinvigorate people with the brand and helped Coca-Cola outsell both ‘New Coke’ and Pepsi the following year. This isn’t the only example of bad soft drinks that entered the market only to be soon forgotten. Let’s take a look at some other drinks that hit the market only to eventually vanish and never be heard from again.

– In 2004, the Jones Soft Drink company got the weird idea of turning Thanksgiving classics such as mashed potatoes & butter or turkey & gravy into soft drinks in order to boost the company’s profile with the mainstream media. The holiday pack would also include cranberry soda and green bean casserole soda. The company’s spin on the concept was that people could enjoy the taste of a Thanksgiving dinner without ever having to chew a single bite. Needless to say, the drinks tasted awful and the concept was soon abandoned and never to be heard from again.

– Lifesavers candies were invented in 1912 and produce nearly 3 million products everyday for their consumers. This popularity helped the company to get the idea of coming out with a lifesavers flavored soda in the 1980s. Despite positive taste tests, the soda was a flop in the stores as people thought that they would be drinking a sort of ‘liquid candy’ but that wasn’t the case and the product was soon discontinued. The Lifesavers company still sells a powered soft drink mix that you can find in select stores but it’s not the same version as the original soda and is more similar in taste to other powdered drinks such as crystal light.

– Not even a superbowl ad featuring Van Halen could save this drink. It was supposed to be a clear caffeine-free version of pepsi with marketing slogans as ‘Pure’ showcasing to the public that it wasn’t like its darkened originator. The drink only lasted one year from 1992-1993 but can still be found for purchase as a novelty item on bidding web sites such as Ebay.

– We have come to realize that different cultures like different kinds of foods or drinks. We like Hamburgers while Indians treat cows as holy deities and would never think of eating a cow. We treat dogs as pets while in certain Asian countries people eat dogs. By keeping this in mind, Pepsi Co. has recently launched a version of pepsi that includes the sweet taste of cucumber in Japan for a limited time. Asian people seem to enjoy drinks with vegetables mixed in them but over here in America, where anything that isn’t sweet from a fruit or pumped full of sugar is regarded as bad – we highly doubt this drink would last very long here.

– The lifesavers story apparently wasn’t a good enough example that candies and gum don’t mix with soda. The people over at Hubba Bubba thought that they would get in to the lucrative soda market by coming out with their very own gum-flavored soft drink. Apparently the taste was supposed to be a mix between snow-cone flavoring and soda water. Unfortunately, the soda didn’t last long and I think the idea of a liquid gum gave people the idea of pepto-bismol and upset stomachs then a smooth and refreshing soda taste.

– This is another one of those Asian happy soft drinks but Coca-Cola is currently selling these in limited supply in New York city as we speak to test the demand for the product. The product mixes skimmed milk with different carbonated fruit beverages. You can buy different flavors such as peach mango, citrus burst, very berry or tropical colada. The perception in America is that milk is good for your body while soft drinks give you diabetes and help to increase the obesity rate amongst children. We don’t see how a child can go up to his mommy and ask for a Coca-Cola Vio and say “but mom, it’s got milk! It’s good for you!” We don’t see this lasting in North America beyond its trial run after this year.

– Coffee flavored soft drinks simply haven’t reached their potential yet. Coca-Cola attempted their own similar drink by releasing Coca-Cola Blak. This drink was only released in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a limited time and was bottled at a local Philadelphia bottling company. Pepsi had a whole advertising campaign ready to launch with slogans such as ‘Grab Life by the Konas’ but the product never ever left the trial stage and people described the product as tasting like barbecue sauce and said that it should have tasted creamier like real coffee already does.

– Orbitz was introduced in 1996 as a non-carbonated fruit beverage that was created by the Clearly Canadian corporation. The initial launch contained flavors such as Pineapple Banana Cherry Coconut, Vanilla Orange, Black Currant Berry and Raspberry Citrus just to name a few. The appeal of the drink was that it included these edible circular gelatin flavored balls that floated around in the drink and made the drink resemble a lava lamp. The drink may have been ahead of its time as it eventually disappeared from store shelves but you can still find certain novelty items for sale on Ebay. Apparently Orbitz can still be found purchased in Japan but the drink is no longer called Orbitz and has been re branded as Capsela.

– Tru Blood is a advertising gimmick based on the hit HBO television program ‘True Blood’. The show features vampires that have come out of the closet so to speak and are trying to live their lives by co-existing side by side with humans. In order to avoid drinking their blood, the vampires have come out with a drink called ‘Tru Blood’ that is a synthetic blood that will allow them to survive and go about their normal lives. July Omni Consumer Products struck a deal with HBO to release the product this September with the drink tasting slightly bitter with a bit of a sweet taste. We think that the drink will last only as long as the television program will and once the fad wears off the drink will slowly disappear into the sunrise.

– A drink that features 350% more caffeine than a bottle of Red Bull and has the name ‘Cocaine’ written on it is never a good sign. It was promoted as a ‘Legal Alternative’ to cocaine and even featured a numbing agent in the drink to resemble the effects of the real drug. The FDA forced the company to change the name of the drink and it would later be called ‘Censored’ and ‘Insert Name Here’ after the company figured that consumers could figure out their own name for the drink by themselves. The drink was no different than any other energy or caffeinated product on the market and once the marketing publicity from the name changes worn off the product was soon discontinued.

These are just a small sample of many of the bad soft drink ideas that companies have come out with over the years. If you have any that aren’t on the list then feel free to add your own bad idea to the list in the comments section.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 6th, 2011 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.