Coca Cola made a $34,000,000 mistake on 'New Coke' you can no longer buy in stores

Are you familiar with the phrase: 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it?'

It's a lesson The Coca Cola Company learned the hard way some 40 years ago.

Since its inception in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, Coca Cola is best known for two things: its iconic red design and its sharp, refreshing taste.

And in 1985, the soft drink pioneers decided to take the 'biggest risk in consumer goods history' - as Coca Cola puts it - which sparked national outrage 'the likes of which no business has ever seen.'

For the first time in 99 years, bosses decided to change Coca Cola's much-loved formula, rebranding it as New Coke.

Why did Coca Cola bosses want to change the formula?

The formula change didn't go down well (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

There was some pretty solid reasoning behind the major move.

For 15 consecutive years, Coca Cola had been steadily losing market share to diet soft drinks and non-cola beverages.

During research, some 200,000 consumers said they preferred the taste of New Coke over the original.

But to say the wider US consumer base thought otherwise would be an understatement.

"We set out to change the dynamics of sugar colas in the United States, and we did exactly that - albeit not in the way we had planned," then chairman and chief executive officer Roberto Goizueta admitted in 1995.

What happened when New Coke launched?

Consumers were extremely vocal about their hate of New Coke (Coca Cola Company)

New Coke's launch on April 23 1985 triggered absolute chaos, from street protests to angry consumers demanding boycotts.

Calls to the company's consumer hotline almost quadrupled to 1,500 a day, while 'people seemed to hold any Coca-Cola employee personally responsible for the change,' the company said.

One man, Gay Mullins, felt so strongly he reportedly spent $30,000 of his own money and three weeks of his time advocating for the return of the original recipe.

He said the issue was not just the new taste, but that the company had done something 'un-American' by taking away his 'freedom of choice.'

Taking to Reddit, those who remember tasting the New Coke recipe recall it being 'too sweet' and tasting like rival Pepsi.

The backlash was so bad, the original formula was brought back just 79 days after New Coke had been unveiled.

This time, the original was sold under the name Coca Cola Classic.

New Coke was still on the market and remained so for 17 years, although it was renamed Coke II in 1990 before finally being scrapped in 2002.

What impact did New Coke have on The Coca Cola Company?

New Coke remained on the market until 2002 (Virojt Changyencham/Getty Images)

Some $30 million was spent on unwanted concentrate for New Coke, while the company also spent $4 million on market and taste testing, reports the New York Times.

That adds up to a pretty expensive $34 million mistake... but was it really a blunder?

While the rebrand might seem like a total flop, it actually gave the company the market boost they were after all along.

Six months on from New Coke's introduction, sales of Coca Cola had increased at twice the rate of Pepsi - and by the end of 1985, Coca Cola Classic was massively outselling both New Coke and Pepsi.

How's that for a result!?

While it might have gone down as one of the most memorable marketing blunders of all time, New Coke proved just how popular the original soda brand really was.

Can you buy New Coke today?

While New Coke is no longer available to buy in stores, fans can still buy it online.

Two cans of the controversial beverage were included in a promotional Stranger Things collectors pack which sold on Amazon back in 2020 for $39.99.

The product is no longer available, but some cans are being flogged on eBay - so if you're really that curious, you know what to do.