Was "BLAK" Coke a Flop?

I just tried a bottle of it-weird tasting! i guess it was coca-Cola’s attempt to make a coffe-flavored coke. anyway-the name-was it "ebonics’-inspired? Should i keep a bottle 9to add to my “Billy Beer” collection?

If so, that would settle the “Is there a God?” question once and for all.

I thought it was literally coke mixed with coffee, not just coffee flavored.

:dubious: Noo… (I don’t even know why one would think so.)

It strikes me as being more inspired by a sort of european-cool feel. (Doesn’t it even have two dots over the ‘a’?) But my idea here may be just as :dubious: as I thought your idea was…

I think probably so. (Though it has been in my grocery store for, I think, almost a year now.)

-FrL-

Taking a look at the site for BlaK (the ‘K’ is apparently capitalized… :rolleyes: ) it looks to me like their going for a few different feels sort of all combined together.

There’s the European-cool thing I mentioned. (Witness the tilde over the ‘a’,) a whole sort of jazz/beat-poetry-philosophy thing (witness the slogan, using a words like “essence” and “effervecence,” along with the background music and the generally “smokey” feel of the ad). And tying in with the jazz-club angle from this, yes, I’d say there’s even reference here to a particular “style” of “blackness” (I’m talking about rhetorical devices, not real people here, people…) and this makes me think the “BlaK” misspelling, while not exactly “Ebonics” inspired, still has something to do with the kinds of purposeful “subversive” misspellings I have seen in some African American output in poetry, marketing, baby name choices and so on.

-FrL-

Taking a look at the site for BlaK (the ‘K’ is apparently capitalized… :rolleyes: ) it looks to me like they’re going for a few different feels sort of all combined together.

There’s the European-cool thing I mentioned. (Witness the tilde over the ‘a’,) a whole sort of jazz/beat-poetry-philosophy thing (witness the slogan, using a words like “essence” and “effervecence,” along with the background music and the generally “smokey” feel of the ad). And tying in with the jazz-club angle from this, yes, I’d say there’s even reference here to a particular “style” of “blackness” (I’m talking about rhetorical devices, not real people here, people…) and this makes me think the “BlaK” misspelling, while not exactly “Ebonics” inspired, still has something to do with the kinds of purposeful “subversive” misspellings I have seen in some African American output in poetry, marketing, baby name choices and so on.

-FrL-

Except that’s not a tilde. That’s the “Dynamic Ribbon Device”, the wavy line underneath the words Coca-Cola that make up Coke’s logo.

Which has also been used in the oval logo on the bottle. Notice how the “coke ribbon” does a pos/neg thing… where if you look at the negative space, they look like two drops of liquid coming together (coke/coffee) in a yin-yang sorta way.

I gotta stop staring at these bottles so long.

My dad developed those bottles!

We have stacks and stacks of it at my parents’ house. CC was pretty exuberant in giving him samples.

I’ve never tried it myself, though it sounds rather…odd. Those aren’t exactly two great tastes I thought would taste great together.

On the other hand, the website for Coke BlaK is fabulously, unselfconsciously pretentious. Is one supposed to sip it while beating your bongos and writing poetry?

[Drew Carey]
Get your Buzz Beer!
[/Drew Carey]

Yeah, of course, but clearly also being used in a way meant to recall the tilde. (Or anyway, “European style” diacritical marks.)

-FrL-

As in, he designed the graphics?

-FrL-

They’ve re-called the tilde? Damn! Is it safe to use mine? Can I get a loaner?

Cool site. I like the way it looks and I love that type of music. Reminds me somewhat (although a darker version) of the Bombay Sapphire site. (Music begins after the splash page [bubbles/beads] loads.)

No, he developed the alloy and the coatings necessary for the design on the aluminum bottles (he’s a scientist/invented, not a graphic artist). I’m not sure he used one of his already patented alloys and just made a new coating or what.

I know he got to meet the CEO of Coke, though.

Inventor…my father is an industrial scientist (metallurgist and chemical engineer).

You would not believe how much thought gets put into sheet metal.

I have no idea why they labeled it as a fusion drink rather than a coffee drink.

According to Wikipedia, it’s going to be discontinued in the US in early 2007 along with Black Cherry Vanilla Coke.

And anu, those bottles are apparently just for France. Bottles here are glass covered in a plastic jacket label.

It tasted gross.

Bring back diet vanilla Coke, and maybe we’ll talk.

I tried ‘BLAK’ Coke once.

Once.