Also, Coke could have kept both formulas on the market, but allegedly didn’t want Pepsi to be able to rightly claim Pepsi outsold New Coke, and Old Coke (that would have been true separately, not together)- ‘Pepsi is the single number one selling soda in the US!’- hence the one over the other and not both being sold. In reality Coke would have probably had 3 of the top 4 sodas in the US market that way- that was the real screw-up.
Isn’t Diet Coke (not Coca Cola Zero Sugar), basically New Coke in diet form? They never did label it as Coca-Cola; it’s always been just Diet Coke, and it debuted before New Coke. I’ve even read that it was the other way around- New Coke was merely HFCS-sweetened Diet Coke.
So either way, you can get an idea by getting a Diet Coke and imagining it sweetened with HFCS. And that would explain why doing a promotional run of New Coke wouldn’t be a big deal- they just need to change the sweetener.
IMO, no Diet Coke tastes different than New Coke did. New Coke tasted almost exactly like Pepsi. Diet Coke tastes like someone took all the sweetener out of Classic Coke and replaced it with a terrible tasting artificial sweetener, one strong enough to change the flavor of the cola. IMO both Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi taste terrible.
This is what I always understood. When they introduced Diet Coke they purposely made it a different formula from regular Coke, specifically they made it more like Pepsi to try to get Pepsi drinkers who wanted a diet cola to switch to Diet Coke (IIRC Pepsi didn’t have a diet version yet). Then New Coke was based on Diet Coke, but with HFCS and some other minor tweaks.
And this explains why they now have both Coke Zero and Diet Coke. Coke Zero is basically a diet version of Classic Coke, while Diet Coke is essentially Diet New Coke.
Robert Dyer did a review New Coke Stranger Things Unboxing/Review 1985 Limited-Edition Collector's Pack - YouTube
Wow, so for $20 you get 2 cans of New Coke and 4 sodas you could buy at any mart?
Pretty much, although that does include shipping. As I said in the OP, to me it was worth it just one time just for the novelty of it.
According to the CNN story there will apparently also be Stranger Things themed vending machines popping up in some cities over the summer that will also dispense New Coke, presumably for the price of a regular soda.
They gotta put one in Seattle, right?
Will Stranger Things fans act like Rick and Morty fans if supplies of the New Coke are not sufficient for fannish needs?
Og, I hope so. 
Does anyone know if this promotion is going on anywhere outside of the US? I wouldn’t mind trying some New Coke myself—like some others in this thread, I was around when it was originally released, and must have tried it at the time, but I have no memory of the taste. I see a lot of non-US news outlets are carrying the story, but they all seem to be reporting the same New York–based AP wire story.
Just buy the Walmart Branded cola and it’s the same taste.
I hated New Coke when it came out, and resented Coke for changing the formula*
For a while you couldn’t get Old Coke – McDonald’s and other fast food places only sold "New Coke. People started buying up and stockpiling Old Coke. People complained, and, as a result, Coke eventually relented, although for a time they pushed both types of Coke equally., But it was clear that there was a market for Classic Coke, but not the New Stuff.
It’s ironic, because for decades Coke’s internal philosophy had been that the Formulas was sacrosanct, and that you didn’t change the bedrock of the company. I think it was a combination of new, younger managers who weren’t committed to the Old Formula, the switch to high-fructose corn syrup (which some claimed changed the flavor enough that Pepsi could actually beat it in taste tests), and a strategy that held that you absolutely had to claim the top market all the time that lead Coke to scrap their old formula, in defiance of their history, and pin all their hopes on a completely reformulated product. Put that way, it’s kind of nuts – what other business would completely discard its flagship line altogether and replace it with an insufficiently-tried replacement? Especially one with so much consumer identification and brand nostalgia behind it?
*( “New Coke” was NOT simply with more sugar – it was reformulated. Similarly, Pepsi isn’t just “sweeter Coke” – there’s a difference in the mix. Flavor mixers feel that , in the blend of citrus oils, “Classic” Coke was heavier on orange, while Pepsi used more Lemon.)
“New Coke” might have had a chance if they offered it alongside Coke. I hope heads rolled over the decision to replace Coke with that fake crap.
That scene in Stranger Things when the action stopped dead for Lucas to savor/expound on the virtues of New Coke was absolutely cringeworthy.
Max Headroom, please.
T-t-t-t-tab.
f-f-f-feel the burn.