GALLERY LXXXVII
New Coke
Coca-Cola ran 200,000 taste tests, won them, changed the formula, and faced a consumer revolt inside three months. The research was excellent. The question was wrong.
ON THE FLOOR
Charles Horton Cooley
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“You learned who you are by watching what other people reflected back at you. The mirror, it turns out, was people all along.”
ON THE FLOOR
Edward Soja
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“Space is not the stage the story happens on - it is one of the actors. Ask WHERE, and half the mystery answers itself.”
ON THE FLOOR
George Herbert Mead
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“The self is a conversation: the I speaking, the Me listening with everyone else's ears. You rehearse society every time you think.”
LAB1-061 · New Coke — Open the drawer
A 12-ounce aluminum beverage can introduced by The Coca-Cola Company in April 1985, featuring reformulated cola with a sweeter taste profile. The can's design marked the company's first major formula change in 99 years, following extensive consumer testing but preceding widespread public rejection.
LAB1-062 · New Coke — What is this thing?
A 12-ounce aluminum can introduced April 1985 bearing reformulated Coca-Cola, marked by silver-and-red design and sans-serif typography distinct from Classic Coke's script. Produced by The Coca-Cola Company and distributed nationally within weeks.
LAB1-063 · New Coke — Read the source
A handwritten letter from a regular Coca-Cola drinker to the company's headquarters, written within weeks of New Coke's April 1985 launch, expressing confusion and betrayal at the formula change and demanding the original return.
LAB1-064 · New Coke — Map it / time it
A 12-ounce aluminum beverage can introduced April 23, 1985, bearing the redesigned Coca-Cola logo and "New" branding. Its distribution across North America and rapid market saturation made it the physical evidence of a formula change that consumer research had validated but public geography and timing had not.
LAB1-065 · New Coke — Two sources disagree
A representative blind taste test evaluation form from Coca-Cola's 1984–85 consumer research program, documenting the sensory preference methodology that predicted New Coke's success but failed to measure brand loyalty and identity.
LAB1-066 · New Coke — State the claim
A 12-ounce aluminum beverage can introducing Coca-Cola's reformulated cola in April 1985, the product at the center of one of consumer capitalism's most visible reversals within 79 days.
LAB1-067 · New Coke — Take the other side
A 12-ounce New Coke can from April 1985, the reformulated product that triggered consumer backlash within weeks. Its brief market life and subsequent reversal became a case study in how research success and market failure can coexist.
LAB1-068 · New Coke — Weigh it
The 1985 reformulated Coca-Cola can that triggered the largest consumer backlash in soft-drink history, despite winning 200,000 blind taste tests. Its existence asks whether laboratory preference equals market reality.
LAB1-069 · New Coke — Build the answer
A representative ballpoint-marked evaluation form from Coca-Cola's 1984–85 taste-testing protocol, where consumers rated cola samples on sweetness, smoothness, and preference. Thousands of identical cards documented the statistical victory that preceded the product's 87-day market failure.
LAB1-070 · New Coke — For the file
A representative photograph documenting Coca-Cola's in-store taste-test methodology during the New Coke campaign, showing the controlled sensory environment that generated 200,000 favorable responses but failed to predict consumer behavior in real-world purchase and loyalty contexts.
LAB1-071 · New Coke — Go and look
A documentary photograph of a Coca-Cola blind taste test booth from 1985, showing the controlled laboratory setting where 200,000 consumers chose New Coke over Coca-Cola Classic in head-to-head comparison, isolating taste preference from brand identity and purchase context.
LAB1-072 · New Coke — Now, today
A 12-ounce aluminum beverage can introduced April 23, 1985, bearing the reformulated Coca-Cola formula. Its brief market life and rapid withdrawal exemplify how sensory preference data can diverge from actual consumer behavior and brand loyalty.
LAB1-073 · New Coke — Teach it back
A laminated questionnaire from Coca-Cola's blind taste-test booths, circa 1984, asking consumers to rate sweetness, smoothness, and preference between unmarked cola samples—the instrument that won 55% preference for the reformulated formula but never asked whether people wanted change.
LAB1-074 · New Coke — The other place
A laminated card used by Coca-Cola's field researchers to standardize blind taste-test questions during the 200,000-person study that preceded the 1985 formula change. It reveals what testers asked—and what they did not.
LAB1-075 · New Coke — One object, close
A 12-ounce aluminum beverage can introduced by The Coca-Cola Company in April 1985, featuring reformulated cola with a sweeter taste profile developed through extensive consumer testing. Withdrawn after 79 days.
From the gallery’s own wall — “LAB1-061 · New Coke — Open the drawer”.
🎧 A moment to consider
What will you carry out of this room?