They should put ‘Coke’ on the cans that have regular Coke, and ‘Diet Coke’ on the ones that have Diet Coke. Then it wouldn’t matter if the designs were similar.
As a bartender, I now spend an unmeasurable amount of time; a) double checking, each time I’ve reach for a can, to be sure it’s the right one, b) assuring customers it’s real Coke, not Diet.
The guy who thought this up deserves to be slapped. Repeatedly. Stupid idea.
Caterers, heading into a busy holiday party season, will be jumping to Pepsi at double time, their inexperienced staff will make a lot of ‘errors’ before getting it figured, and that costs.
The problem with having to repeat something over, and over, is it begins to either sound insincere, or, when you’re busy, it’s coming out like machine gun fire, and no one can really hear what you’re saying, and they are just going to ask again!
Or they could have used the white/silver polar bear design on the Diet Coke can and then this discussion wouldn’t have even been taking place.
I know your post was a joke, but how many people actually read their soda can before grabbing it?
It wasn’t meant to be snarky. But people do seem to be making much of this.
I rarely by sodas; so yeah, I read what’s in it first. Same with canned food, packets, boxes, the little twist-ties on bundles of kale or collard greens…
Yeah but then whoever stocks the fridge has to make sure to place each can with the name facing out, and it’s a bigger pain in the butt.
Usually, when you’ve got a bunch of cans in a cooler, all you can see of any one can is a bit of one of the ends. Sure, you can take out a bunch of cans one at a time and double-check the labels, but that’s a pain when you just want to grab something and get back to the party, and you end up with cold hands from reaching into the icewater so much.
I’m still not saying it was a good idea. It demonstrably wasn’t. But I don’t see a problem with people checking the nutrition facts to see if the soda they’re about to consume contains sugar or not.
Sorry if I sounded rude-I should have just stated it was on the news. :smack: I’ve grabbed a wrong can of soda before and it is annoying.
No problem
When I was a kid I saw a cooler with what was probably a Mr. Pibb on the far side. I grabbed a can of the exact same color that was closer to me. I took it to the front counter to pay for it, then went outside on that super hot, miserable day, and took a big swig of cold, refreshing…
…diet chocolate soda.
I bought a case of Coke and Diet-Coke for our Thanksgiving party and it was visually difficult to tell between the two without stopping and focusing on the can. I didn’t know they were different, so I initially thought the Cokes were Diet when I started unloading them.
Also, think about if you have a cooler full of drinks and ice. People will end up getting regular Cokes when they want Diet (which is a problem if you have a diabetic in the family). It was a huge design fail. Design is about making things easier to use and interact with, not creating a barrier that makes you stop and have to double check. And it certainly shouldn’t set up a situation where people are going to goof up when causally grabbing a drink.
Yes. Purely mental, I’m sure, but it tasted flatter.
Sure, they’re labeled, but the labels aren’t always fully visible. In my vending machine, for example, the cans have two slides it sits between with a couple of grips at the end. So the visible slice of the can is about 90 to 100 deg, or abou 1/4 of the can surface. With the sodas racked in any old way, there may be visible the barcode and nutrition label, or maybe part of Coke. Even on a Diet Coke can, where the label is
Diet
Coke
or worse
Diet
Coke
So when you walk up to a machine and are used to seeing a big red can and instead only see a silverish whitish can with some part of Coke visible, it screams “This is diet”, not “Here’s the Coke you want”.
Exactly. They’ve spent over 100 years on branding Coke with Red, and at least 30 with Diet Coke in white/silver. (Diet Coke used to come in white: Diet Coke - Wikipedia ) Now suddenly you have a bright idea to throw all that out the window for a special holiday can? How is that not stupid? At least they didn’t pick a blue can - people would confuse it for Pepsi. Then everyone would be confused and annoyed.
Guess I’m the only one who was kind of sad that it was regular Coke instead of Diet in the holiday cans…cuz when the Coke is cold, THE POLAR BEARS TURN WHITE.
I want silver-to-white polar bears on my cold Diet Coke! sniff
This is retarded, from a marketing perspective. Literally one of the worst things they could have done. Everyone who drinks pop does so out of habit, and Coca Cola especially should know that once you’ve got people in the habit of buying your product, you do everything possible to make them not have to think about it.
Normally, when someone wants a Coke, the only thinking they have to do is “Where is the cooler?” The rest is autopilot. And the part of the brain that does autopilot can’t read, it just takes the can that is red with white text, because it has done so dozens or hundreds of times. It’s easy, and most people never stop to consider that they might like something else for a change. Making the can white forces them to stop and actually read the label. And once that part of the brain is engaged, it gives it a chance to ask “Why am I buying this?” The person might then decide e.g. that water is good enough, or even to try a Pepsi for once.
Terrible, terrible idea, and they should have known better.
The regular Coke cans are half white, half silver. Just FYI.
Bad bad idea. I don’t know why they couldn’t just print a Coke-drinking polar bear on the cans like they do with Santa every other year, or leave silver bears on a red background like they did the summertime designs.
Worst idea of theirs since those cans they came out with that were supposed to pop out money. I actually got one of those, but the yuck-water they used to make the cans a normal weight leaked so I got a mouthful of grossness. The money didn’t pop out either. My brother cut the can open with tin snips and it was a lousy yuck-water soaked $1 bill. At least a $20 would have been worth it.
Suddenly I’m thinking that this is a good idea.
They’re stopping production of the white cans, and switching to red.
::eek:: I don’t recall this promotion. They put money and foul water in the cans instead of Coke? WTF???
Good call on their part. Stupid idea in the first place and their advertising department should have known better.
I remember this, but dang if I can’t google for it. Search for “magican” but google will suggest “magician” instead.