Remember When Coca-Cola Tried to Change?

The soft drink world experienced it's most memorable day on April 23, 1985. That was the day Coca-Cola announced that it was changing its formula and introduced New Coke.

It's considered one of the biggest branding blunders of all time. The reaction was so negative, they had to pull it off the market less than three months later.

Should we call it a day for bad ideas? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps it was a well thought out marketing scheme by the Coke people. We may never know the real story behind the decision to change the world famous soft drink brand.

Whatever it was, it brought the entire world's attention to the brand. You couldn't get away from it. No matter who you talked to, it was about Coke's mistake. Some restaurants were banning the product and losing customers. It was crazy.

I owned a gas station at the time, and customers were mad at me for carrying the new version. Eventually everyone settled down when Coke announced it would go back to the original formula, and the world agreed to just love Coke forever.

I guess you don't know how good somethings are until they're taken away from you.