Latest / Ridiculous History / The Bizarre Parable of New Coke, Chapter Two: A Rise. A Fall. A Conspiracy?

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The Bizarre Parable of New Coke, Chapter Two: A Rise. A Fall. A Conspiracy? · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: much for tuning in.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: This is the second leader of a two leader episode
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  Speaker 1: on New Coke. We've got to give We've got to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: give a great shout out to our super producer, of course,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: mister Max Williams, Max.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Full Calorie Soda Williams.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Max, full letter.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Uh done. It's your no brown at Bim Bullen.
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  Speaker 4: You ever done that thing where you drop a mentos
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  Speaker 4: into a two liter of coke, or at.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Very least it on the internet.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I've definitely done that.
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  Speaker 4: You've done it, you maniac. You just want to watch
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: the world burn, don't you.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I don't want to watch it fizzle.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: There.
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  Speaker 4: There's this dude in particular that does Instagram videos where
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: he like sings a fun little jaunty song and then
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: drops a bunch of mentos into a cocam and sticks
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: his whole face.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: On it, and it just it's wild and nihilistic and
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I love him so.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: One thing we should all know, fellow Ridiculous Historians, is
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that my brother Noel here just did an amazing cool dance.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: It was. It was the fizzy math dance. I did
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: be accompanying sounded back.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Use your imagination, hands on either side of the face, uh,
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  Speaker 4: facing in word with a little wiggle.
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  Speaker 1: Noel is a really good dancer, folks, and we like
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you taught me one time we were at some disreputable
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Atlanta establishment.
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  Speaker 2: And you're the guy.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: You're the guy who told me, No, Ben, you've got
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: to throw shapes.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Throw them shapes. I'm a big fan of very small,
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: self contained dance moves. You know, it just really shows
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: that you got the confidence.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate your brother, and we are we we're
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: sipping the second leader of a two leaders series on
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the bizarre saga of New Coke. I want to be
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: completely transparent with everybody.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we were talking to Pepsi transparent crystal Pepsi
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: crystal gravy as well, because that was its own debacle.
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  Speaker 4: That is very similar to New Coke, but it has
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: its own, honestly, dude, similar origins. I think Pepsi almost
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: like you know with like, oh wait, we need to
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: do a clear soda because the clear sodas we're more
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: associated with health, which is absurd obviously, because sprite has
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: just as much sugar as coke, if I'm not mistaken.
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  Speaker 4: But we will recall in a little quick previously that
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Coca Cola was reacting to PEPSI kind of eating their
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: lunch in terms of market share for full calorie sodas.
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  Speaker 4: And there was a bit of a sea change in
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: the country where we talking, Ben, this is in the
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: ladies late in the mid eighties, towards a more health
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: conscious approach to consuming fizzybevs.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And one thing I did not mention when I was
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: visibly drinking, audibly drinking a Coca Cola zero right, Just
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  Speaker 1: so in our previous episode in this series. Guys, Noel,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you already know this because we hang out a lot.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: But I quit drinking soda on a regular basis a
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  Speaker 1: number of years ago. I went cold turkey, non carbonated
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: cold turkey, and I'm right, carbonated turkey, right. And I
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: was so as you'll recall, man, I was so freaked
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: out because sodo was so normalized to me that I
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: started to dream worse. I started to dream about Coca Cola.
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  Speaker 1: The advertising got into my mind. I remember very real phenomenon, dude.
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  Speaker 1: I remember specifically, I was in a fight with a
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  Speaker 1: vampire lord right me with a long crucifix, them with
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: vampire powers, and part way through the fight, this is
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a nightmare. This never happened, This is just a dream.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Part way through the fight in my own head, guys,
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  Speaker 1: the vampire lord paused and said, let's take a time out,
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  Speaker 1: and then drank a Coca Cola in front of me.
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  Speaker 4: Like, you know what I'm thinking about when you describe
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: your dream there, Ben, I feel like it was on
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  Speaker 4: a cartoon or some commercial maybe, but is do you
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: know how they do spooky versions of commercials around the
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Halloween season where there's a vampire who I know there's
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: one for sure, involving Reese's peanut butter cups, where it's like,
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  Speaker 4: how do you eat a Reesa's and it's just to yeah,
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  Speaker 4: the vampire teeth marks. But I also picture a vampire
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  Speaker 4: rather than popping the top on a Coca Cola, just
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  Speaker 4: sinking his fangs into it like a built in you know, opener,
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  Speaker 4: which was weird.
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  Speaker 1: To be what I woke up, Like, why do my
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: nightmares of all things have commercial breaks. It's probably because
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  Speaker 1: Coca Cola is such a giant corporate entity throughout the world,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: and when we last left you with a dope sip
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: to tip to sure, we'll give it sure, all right.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Not everything's going to be a home.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Right, It can't all be Aliyah.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So so what we last left you? Our CEO at
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the time has this phenomenally Trump esque snippy conversation with
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: reporters at in April twenty third, nineteen eighty five press
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  Speaker 1: conference in New York City, where he says, I did
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  Speaker 1: not assume that New Coke is a success. This is
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  Speaker 1: a success for a time it was, you know, like,
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  Speaker 1: do you remember New Coke?
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  Speaker 2: I don't remember New Coke. I do remember Crystal Pepsi.
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  Speaker 4: And I think that tracks, you know, history wise, my
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  Speaker 4: time on this planet, because it seems to me that
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  Speaker 4: Crystal Pepsi would have been a couple of years later,
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  Speaker 4: maybe even as many as five. But I do distinctly
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  Speaker 4: remember the campaign around Crystal Pepsi and involving a song
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: by Van Hagar aka Van Halen, with Sammy Hagar as
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: a singer. Right now, Hey, no, Tom, come on, It's
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  Speaker 4: like when they in soda to.
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  Speaker 2: Inspire you.
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  Speaker 3: Reason, Yeah, that magic moment.
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  Speaker 2: So we get out of here.
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  Speaker 1: We know that most of the people who were already
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  Speaker 1: drinking Coca Cola. They kept drinking Coca Cola at the
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  Speaker 1: same level they did before the change in the formula
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  Speaker 1: and coke also, to their credit, conducted additional surveys, and
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  Speaker 1: the surveys everything they were finding or telling themselves. They found.
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  Speaker 1: Those surveys seemed to indicate most people did like this
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  Speaker 1: new sweeter taste. They would drink it in the future.
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  Speaker 1: Jolly good, tickety boo tally ho. Until you get to
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  Speaker 1: the South. This is where it becomes a straight up
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  Speaker 1: culture war. The Southeastern United States despises new Coke.
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  Speaker 2: They think it's Yankee stuff. South's got something to say,
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  Speaker 2: and they said it in the form of strongly worded
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: letters and calls to the Coca Cola company. You ever
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: thought you ever even considered the idea of writing a
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: letter to a corporation complaining about a product. I just
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: can't imagine being that person. But you know, to to
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  Speaker 2: the point we've been making, this is a cultural identity
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  Speaker 2: issue when it comes to southerns.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I am that entity, Noel as you as
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  Speaker 1: you know, we've talked about this on a couple of
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: other shows. I will take the time to write a letter,
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  Speaker 1: send it in the post. I like to type them
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  Speaker 1: handwritten seems a little too intimate.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I'm not anti letter, I just it's
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  Speaker 4: never really occurred to me to write a letter weird corporation.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a weird dude. It's weird to be that guy.
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  Speaker 1: But you're you're absolutely right. The Southeastern United States in
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  Speaker 1: particular was not having this. It became a straight up
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  Speaker 1: culture war.
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  Speaker 5: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: There's an oft cited observation from a professor out Mississippi
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  Speaker 1: who said, changing the formula of coke is a quote
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  Speaker 1: intrusion on tradition, and Southern customers were also saying, why
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  Speaker 1: did you all introduce this in New York? And then
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  Speaker 1: other people were accusing Robert Roberto Guiseetta, the CEO of
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: the time. He was accused of being a Communist due
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: to his Cuban heritage.
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  Speaker 2: Oh boy, well that's a bit of a sea. Uh huh,
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  Speaker 2: it sure is been.
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  Speaker 4: But there's a really great quote that sums it up there.
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  Speaker 4: And let's be frank real quick, guys, it ain't that deep.
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  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
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  Speaker 4: Like it, It is funny how people get so bit
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  Speaker 4: out of shape about stuff like this. But nostalgia as
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  Speaker 4: we often point out is a hell of a drug
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  Speaker 4: and one fella uh a guy named Andy Gribble, which
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  Speaker 4: sounds like a character from a Tennessee pal rudebag a sketch.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: Do check those out, by the way, on our sister
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  Speaker 4: show Stuff they don't want you to know, it's weekly
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: listener mail at p show.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: He sounds very Andy. What's his name, Andy Moultberry Sandford
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  Speaker 1: and suns.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, or like more like Andy Griffith.
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  Speaker 1: I think Andy Griffith, I was trying to think of Yeah, and.
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  Speaker 4: I believe it's Grimbly is the name of the fictional
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: character that our pal Tennessee has dreamt up over on
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: Stuff I don't want you to know. So in Wisconsin,
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: the Washout Daily Herald reported on the trials and tribulations
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  Speaker 4: of Andy Gribble. Andy, Andy Gribbley, he had this to say,
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  Speaker 4: and I just love it. It's just so extra and
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  Speaker 4: so melodramatic. Yeah, so much of my life is changing
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  Speaker 4: outside of my control now. Coke the one thing left
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  Speaker 4: from my childhood, the one thing I had left.
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  Speaker 2: It gave me joy, I added, that has been changed.
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  Speaker 1: How old is he?
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  Speaker 2: He's only nineteen. Then, he's had so much life to live.
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  Speaker 4: He's got no idea how how bad things in San Antonio.
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  Speaker 3: This is multiple It's so crazy. Oh god, it's like it's.
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  Speaker 1: Like when you have a nephew who realizes that atheism
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: is an ideological stance and becomes insufferable in right. In
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: sananksgivings get weird. Oh they do. In San Antonio, multiple
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  Speaker 1: mass media papers of the day found a guy named
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Dan Luok l a U c K. The AJC founded
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  Speaker 1: Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times,
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  Speaker 1: New York.
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  Speaker 2: City Faily, New York Times.
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  Speaker 1: So this guy Dan bought his own coolers full of
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  Speaker 1: so with him two restaurants pre new Coke.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is how coke. This how Yeah, this is
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  Speaker 2: how addicted the guy was.
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  Speaker 1: He drank five cases of what we're gonna call old
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  Speaker 1: coke per week.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: He was very particular, six point five ounce glass bottles.
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  Speaker 1: Only he was above cans. And he to multiple reporters
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  Speaker 1: hold new coke debut, quote the blackest day of my life,
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  Speaker 1: continuing and said, you.
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  Speaker 4: Got a lot of living left to do. My friends,
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  Speaker 4: come on that this is as bad as it gets.
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  Speaker 4: If this is your only speed bump in life. Tell
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: us where you're driving, because that's an awesome road. Dan continued,
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  Speaker 4: and he said, from now on, my life will be
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  Speaker 4: divided into BC and AC. Before the change of coke
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  Speaker 4: and after the change. I honestly don't know what I'm
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  Speaker 4: to do. Man. I really hope he figured it out
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  Speaker 4: and got his life and drawn track.
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  Speaker 2: Because this sounded like a real, a real stumbling block
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  Speaker 2: for our buddy, Dan Lauk.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: On Papers Decide Your.
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  Speaker 4: Life, absolutely not a New Jersey newspaper themselves kind of
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  Speaker 4: editorialized around some of this culture war Shenaniganry, citing that
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  Speaker 4: the that coke was catering.
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  Speaker 2: To panty wastes. I thought, you panty wastes by abandoning
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  Speaker 2: its macho bite. And this language is problematic at best,
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  Speaker 2: but I will say I do love the burn and
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: the bite.
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  Speaker 4: You know. I can't imagine, though, how how does that
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  Speaker 4: equal macho? And they weren't making it less fizzy, they
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  Speaker 4: just made it a little sweeter.
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  Speaker 2: I do kind of wish there was.
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  Speaker 4: An opportunity for us in the present day to taste
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: new Coke. I wonder if there's a vintage cans of
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: it available on the internet.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like Ecto Coolers. We'll have to look it up
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: maybe for tangents and trivia.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: That's true, we'll get that info to you before the
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  Speaker 2: end of the episode.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: And by the way, Ben, they do occasionally, much like
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: the seasonal McRib roll out, ecdo cooler from time to time.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: If anyone doesn't know what that is of a certain age.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: It was a Ghostbusters themed orange flavored non fizzy high
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: sea drink that had slimer on it. And I believe
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: it wasn't even green.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: It wasn't even green. I don't think packaging.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: The packaging was, but I don't think the juice was green.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: I think they really missed an opportunity. That makes sense.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: We also have a problematic character, a hero. Some would say,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: to introduce you to today, let's go to Seattle. There's
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a retired real estate speculator going by the name of
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and this is his actual name, Gay Mullins. Yeah, your
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: parents choose your names.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Uh, it's sort of a grandpa name.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: It's up there with you know.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: I I have a.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: I had two people in my Tennessee family who were
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: named Gaylord. They went by their middle names.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Gaylord's fancy name. That's for fancy.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Boys who you know wear cravats and ascots, sometimes at
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: the same.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Times, yes, sometimes both. They they're the type of rock
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: two monocles at once.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Drinking a man julib on the porch on the random.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Get offended if you just ask him to buy glasses anyway.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Shout out to the gaylords, Shout out to gay mullins.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: He formed a protest group called get This Old Cola
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Drinkers of America or.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Or O C D.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: O CD perfect, Yeah there are.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: I don't mean to yuck anybody's young, but this is
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: some serious overreaction.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: If you just like, choose your battles, all right. Popeye's v.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Chick fil A another weirdly off based culture war.
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  Speaker 4: I walk it back though It's easy for me to
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: say that in hindsight. But if I really like coke
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: and all of a sudden they said no more coke
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: for you, the one that you know and love, I
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: might get a little bit out of shape too. And
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: it also reminds me of like how George Lucas went
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: out of his way to make sure that no one
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: could get the.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Pre original st D Star Wars movies.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: And I think they finally walked that back, but it
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: took years and years and years, and people did not
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: like that. And it's another good example of somebody in
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: charge not knowing what made their thing cool and good
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: in the first place.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: That happens pretty often, especially in podcasting.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: It's clearly happening here with this move fast and break
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: stuff CEO who can't seem to recognize that he's made
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: a horrible mistake.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: And we're also pre widespread internet. So our buddy the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: speculator from Seattle, mister mullins. He sets up a hotline
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: where people can call and voice their complaints about New
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Coke or voice their support for the old Cola drinkers
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: of America. He was interviewed in so many places, folks,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: He told People Magazine, they meaning Coca Cola, have taken
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: away my freedom of choice. It's un American, and a
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: lot of people agreed with it. This is what you
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: talked about in your workdays, right, this is what you
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: talked about on your first dates. Coca Cola was so
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: worried that they hired a psychiatrist to get insight on
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: what was happening with this consumer response. The psychiatrist they
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: hired had to listen to the over fifteen hundred coals
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: a day to Coca Cola's official number one eight hundred
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: get coke.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that one on its own is a little funny.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: It's like a yeah retros drug dealer hotliners.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: It does sound like it right, And the psychiatrist told
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: the top brass of Coca Cola, Hey, these callers sound
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: like they are talking about the death of a family member.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: People tried to sue Coca Cola for new coke.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: You know, Ben, I really appreciate you mentioning the whole
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: pre internet of it all, because you know how quickly
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: the Internet turns on this kind of thing today. This
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: would not have lasted a day before they rolled it back,
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: or they would have teased it out a little bit
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: before they made the swap, and they would have just
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: known this is bad and this is not going to
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: work for us. But it's so interesting to see the
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: way these things play out. And it also makes sense
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: that it was thought to have been a success because
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: there is delayed reaction because we just don't get that
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: instantaneous feedback sands Internet.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. Yeah.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: And it's weird because outside of the South of the US,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: outside of the southeastern United States. New coke was doing alright.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: It was a particularly exciting competitor alternative to pepsi in
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the West, specifically the Pacific Northwest. But here's where they misstepped. Now,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Hating on New Coke became a part of the zeitgeist.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: It was fun to make fun of it. You're on
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the Late Show. You're the host of the Late Show,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: you make fun of new coke, right, and you're at
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the water cooler and you guys bond over making fun
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of New coke. This created a lot of skepticism in
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: potential international markets, especially Europe, and a lot of skepticism
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: in the man of coke itself. Some of the execs,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: or the ZX as we call them now started to rebel.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: There's a mutiny of bruin. Yeah.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: They were subtly arguing with friends and neighbors to reintroduce
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the old formula of Coca cola just one month after
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the rollout of new coke, and people were also hoarding
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: old coke. They were trying to they were trying to
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: order it from different companies or different suppliers in different countries.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Monaco was actually a very popular I don't know why,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: but Monica was actually a very popular stronghold for old coke.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah and formacy.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: Neville Isdell wrote in a memoir Inside Coca Cola that
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: you could feel the tension at HQ, which was fielding
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: similar complaints, even from bottlers.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: And I just love the upstairs downstairs of all this,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: who said they were ostracized at their hometown country clubs.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Not that much downstairs, is it, if you've got.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: A country club.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's pretty much all upstairs.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: One of our favorite quotes, Ben, that you found comes
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: from a hero of the day and Coke freedom fighter,
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: Gay Mullins, again a lead figure in the Battle of
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: New Cooke, who told reporters that he'd been planning to
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: move to Costa Rica before all of this went down.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Crazy.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: He said, and we're quoting here, Ben, the Declaration of
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: Independence and the Revolutionary War occurred because of taxation, without representation,
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: there was no freedom of choice. We went to war
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: to help England because another country was impinging on their
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: freedom of choice. I feel that this is a battle
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: of that magnitude.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know about that, mister Mullins.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: I appreciate your passion, but maybe you could take that
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: energy and put it into something that like matters.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like library or public education in Costa Rica.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: This guy can really make a difference if he just
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: got his priority straight. Again, I know, hindsight and all
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: of that.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Everybody's got their thing, you know what I mean.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: But there was this represented. This was not a minority voice.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: No no, no, It really did start becoming an absolute
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: embarrassing fiasco for the Coca Cola Company.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and our buddy Mullins is surfing the outcry
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: right at the crest of the wave. We have to
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: remember that, as you said, Noel, there were a lot
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: of ongoing lawsuits, especially from those third party bottlers who
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: remained pretty pod about having to make diet coke in
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the first place. So with all this public backlash, Coca
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Cola Company revers his course and they say, hey, everybody,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: we're doing a conference. It's July eleventh, nineteen eighty five.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: We're bringing back the original formula of Coca Cola. This
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: is just seventy nine days after the introduction of new coke,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and they still made this new formulation. They just called
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: it coke. Then starting in nineteen ninety they called it
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: coke two. But the returning purportedly original formula was called
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Coca Cola Classic. Here's here's the thing, guys, that old
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Coke returning Coca Cola Classic was indeed not the old Coke.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Give us a sound q Max, the conspiracies begin.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: I mean there's part of me that all along the
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: way I was thinking, I mean, it's just it doesn't
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: seem like very practical. But like, what if they did
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: this whole thing just to create a renewed surge of
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: aiation when they gave the people back what they wanted
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: in the first place.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: One of the most popular conspiracy theories.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and rebranded it as Coca Cola Classic, which is
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: still what it's known as today.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: That is true.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, I think that's true. I think it's on
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: the on the can as Coke Classic.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: I only learned the phrase calling it the unleaded from
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: my dad, who would uh if he was partying, because
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: he never was a traditional partier, so his idea of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: a big wild night out would to be drinking an
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: unleaded Coca Cola, which meant not diet, not zero. Anyway,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: this is the truth. The pre New Coke coke was
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: made with cane sugar, which is why Mexican coke always
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: tastes better, right, But the new quote unquote old coke
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: was now made not with caine sugar, but with high
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: fructose corn syrup, and man, Big Sugar was pissed off.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: They were super mad.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and then this had to have been a business decision,
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: you know, to get around dependence on that industry. They
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: launched their own campaign arguing that this new stuff was
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: absolutely not the real thing. The Sugar Association in Washington,
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: DC a lobbying group, of course, for the beat and
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: cane sugar industry. I love that they're wrapped up and
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: won poor beet sugar. Poor nobody talks about beat sugar.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: But apparently they're rolled up in that lobby as well.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: They took out a full page add of multiple full
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: page ads in national newspapers that read the following, ben,
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: you found this and give it to us.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: The Old Cola Drinks of America is an organization that
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: monitors consumer responses to soft drinks and other products. Out
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: of July thirty first press conference, they turned their noses
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: up at Classic coke because it is sweetened with a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: cheaper sweetener, corn syrup instead of sugar.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: America's sweetener, sugar, and boy oh boy, don't even get
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: us started on the corruption and horrific.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: History the sugar industry.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: Do check out the podcast Big Sugar, an exploration of
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: the history and very fraught and problematic presence of the
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: sugar industry by Celeste Hedley.
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: Also to jump in here real quick.
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: Uh, since sugar Beet's gotta caught a stray there, sugar beets.
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: According to sugar dot org actual website, sugar beats the
• 26:35
  Speaker 6: coup of fifty total sugar produce in the United States.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Phones. He drops in the knowledge just for you.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: So good, there we go, No way, great everybody, Okay,
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: great job.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry for those strays. Beat Sugar, I'm not so.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: I do love a roasted beat.
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: Beats are amazing. It's a great scene in start at
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: fifth nine about beats.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: I have a different relationship with them because for a
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: time in Central America, I could only afford rama latches,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: the can the beats.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Oh that is it awful. That is not how you
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: get a relationship with beats.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well, we'll repair the reputation one day. I
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: hope they quote Big Sugar the Sugar Association, excuse us.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: They quote Gabe Mullins saying, this is not the original formula,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: This is not the coke of my youth. They were right.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: For ninety four years. Coca Cola unleaded was in fact
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the real thing. It was sweetened with cane sugar. As
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: we said, it was trusted across the world. But five
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: years ago, says the Sugar Association in these full page ads,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Coca Cola began quietly changing its formula five years ago,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: astute listeners, way before this big reveal of new coke,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: that the issue was that Gabe Mullins, despite being sort
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: of the point man of the protest against new coke,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: he did not initially reveal that drinking old Coca Cola
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: had made him physically ill for a number of years.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: He first said, maybe I'm getting older. But it seemed
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: whatever had changed about the old coke formula prior to
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the new coke rollout was the culprit. Reporters learned there
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: was a secret switcheroo with the old stuff, and also
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: our guy, Gay Mullins, Our man Mullins, as the sugar
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: boys told him, turned out to be not so much
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: of a conscientious subjector not so much of a hero.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: He was a grifter. Rule.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, our man Mullins wasn't the hero that we
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: made him out to being.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: We're doing a little bit of a twist ending here.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: It turns out his Old Cold Drinkers of America was
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: in fact a bit of a cash grab. He'd hoped
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: to cash in on the culture war. It does make
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: a lot of these really over the top statements start
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: to click a little more now in retrospect. By getting
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: either Pepsi, Coca Cola, or Big Sugar to pay him
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: off shut him up. Heck, he even privately asked Coke
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: to pay him two hundred grand to endorse New Old
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: Coke Make your Head Spent when it rolled out, and
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: they of course declined. When he realized that this was
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: not going to be a payday for him, he kind
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: of lost interest and the public outcry kind of faded away,
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: So it would seem, you know, I was sort of
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: in the moment just being like, who are these people?
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: And I think now the question maybe remains, who are
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: these people? Was this outcry entirely manufactured or was there
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: some actual, you know, humans that were genuinely upset about this?
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: There were actual people who were actually upset but they
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: were empowered, radicalized, and their complaints is ascerbated by what
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: we call astroturfing campaigns.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: So remind us the non conspiracy listeners in the crowd
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: what astroturfing means.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: So astroturfing, excellent question is when a powerful organization attempts
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: to disguise itself as an organic grassroots movement. So like recycling, right, yeah,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: check out our episodes on that. So astro turf versus grassroots.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: That's the etymology.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: It has a lot in common with the idea of
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: crisis acting, and like flag attacks, it's sort of anything
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: that's done with the intent to deceive the public. I
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: believe into into thinking that there's a real, actual organic
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: on the ground response to something, but it is in
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: fact created for the benefit of the organization that it seems.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: To be opposing. In some ways, it's very.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Or for the obscured proxy benefit of a larger corporate power.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Like a lot of like a lot of maybe land
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: rights protest that seemed to be organic will ultimately be
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: sponsored and bankrolled by large corporations that want to conduct
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: resource extraction without environmental regulation. That happens all the time
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: in the United States and like you were saying, no,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: our buddy y A mullens his grift doesn't work, so
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: he cancels massive planned protests without the support of Old
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Cola Drinkers of America and similar other grifts, The public
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: outcry starts to fade away, and New Coke limp saw
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: it in one form or one name or another until
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: it is finally discontinued in July of two thousand and two.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: I had no idea.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: That log Yeah, dude, I had no idea.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: That's wild. We know that.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: In the wake of the death of New Coke Rip,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: multiple conspiracy theories proliferated. Now no Yeti's one of our
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: favorite ones. It's the idea that Coke intentionally changed the
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: formula because they were losing to Pepsi and they always
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: planned to bring back Coca Cola Classic.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: It just seems so risky.
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: It seems so risky, and like a lot of conspiracies
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: that are sort of easily debunked. Usually if there's like
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: this real circuitous route to get to a thing that
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: involves all kinds of moving parts, typically the the what
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: is it Rockham's razor of it all, like it just
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: doesn't really lend itself to being the way one would
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: go about accomplishing a goal like that, you know.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Right right, Like if there is some sort of Illuminati,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and there are a lot of cabals, but if there
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: is some sort of conspiratorial group of secret, very powerful people,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I really doubt any of them look around in their
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: avatoirs or in their boardrooms and say, you know what
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I love about this plan. I love how fing complicated
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: it is. I love how we have multiple opportunities for
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: this plan to face. You guys know, I love mouse Trap,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: the board game.
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: I always just like triggering the trap. I don't think
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: I ever played I don't think I ever played the
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: game properly.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Reason and play the game. I don't think people really
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: play that game as like a tabletop RP.
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: You played it before. The game is not very fun.
• 34:19
  Speaker 6: And the problem the game is you try to play
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: it and you actually bump the board.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: You just trigger off the Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: We we also know there are other conspiracy theories, one
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: of which would be that Coca Cola designed New Coke
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: to fail as a way to cover up that earlier
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: shift from sugar to high fructose corn syrup. And before
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: we get to our third conspiracy here, Please everybody, do
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: check out stuff they don't want you to know. Is
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: episode on America's Addiction to corn and no, you found
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: some hf CS facts for us.
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: Well, I don't know, having a hard time parsing it out,
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: like it does seem that, you know, consuming too much sugar,
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: whether it's HFCs or you know, actual sugar which they
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: call added sugar, can lead to obviously excessive weight gain,
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: potential for diabetes, you know, empty calories, dental problems, et cetera,
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: cardiovascular disease, and excessive intake of fryctose from hyprotose corn
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: syrup or added sugars can increase liver fat, can lead
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: to things like fatty liver, can raise triglycerides in the body,
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: and can also contribute to things like insulin resistance. And
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: I think that the issue with hyrictose corn syrup is
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: that it's just like really potent, and it's almost like
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: if you're just consuming that on the regular, it's a
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: hell of a lot worse. And say you're just getting
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: normal organic sugars from like fruits, you know, and things
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: like that, so annie overly sugary or like sugar flavored beverages,
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: like sort of like putting a little sugar in your
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: coffee or whatever. I actually, my godmother was telling me
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: that her doctor, when she asked, should I what fault sweetener?
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: Should I use? Artificial sweeteners? Should I use? The doctor
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: actually recommended just using regular sugar. So there's even a
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: whole we should do this stuff that I want you
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: to know sometime all of the various conspiracies around artificial sweeteners.
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: But I was interested to hear that the doctor recommended just,
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: you know, moderate use of regular, regular, regular sugar.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fructose metabolizes differently. Please check check out our earlier
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: episode how corn took over America back from I want
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: to say twenty twenty three.
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: But well, and we have to think about the behind
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: the scenes pivot of like what it means for a
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: big corporation like Coke to pivot to corn syrup away
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: from being imbedded sugar.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: And hundreds of millions of dollars big sugar.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: So pissed.
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but I'm saying like they had a reason because
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: it was more cost effective for them, and that also
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: led to this increased reliance on corn based products.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: And then of course we've got ethanol and things.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Of course, we have ethanol and flex fuel, and we
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: also have a third conspiracy around this bizarre saga of
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: new coke. There are people now who will tell you
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: with a straight face that it was actually a move
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: to get rid of all the Coca derivatives and to
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: swash the DEA under the Reagan administration's heightened war on drugs.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: So we talked plausible. Well, no, you mentioned in our
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: first leader here that there is a processing mechanism with
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Coca Cola today that will take out all the cocaine
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: of the coca plant, right, yeah.
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: Ben, And actually after the fact, when we finished recording
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: the episode, dug around a little bit and found the
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: article that I was thinking of. Coca Cola produced as
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: three billion dollars worth of pure cocaine every single year
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: that gets processed extracted from you know, the product that
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: they end up using to make the drink, and then
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: it is chipped to a massive pharmaceutical manufacturing company that
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: uses it for topical anesthesia.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: All right, that makes sense, And none of these conspiracies
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: can be conclusively proven. In fact, a lot of these
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: theories and similar theories can be debunked pretty easily. But
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: They're still fun to think about. This is the end
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: of the saga. What we can tell you is this
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: New Coke's failure was due to a number of factors,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: but it genuinely seems the primary issue of that failure
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: was not taste. It was cultural identity. No people were
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: ready to lash out at something, and this new spin
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: on their beloved nostalgia ridden sugary standby just happened to
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: be in the right place at the wrong or the
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: perfect tide, you know what I mean, something to get
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: mad at.
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: Oh gosh, yeah, people love flexing righteous indignation.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Ben, I love this fact that you found.
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: If we're wrapping up and talking about New Coke for
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: a new generation and the nostalgia play of it all
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: and like the big business of nostalgia. On May twenty first,
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: in twenty nineteen, Coke Coal Company announced that they were
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: going to reissue or do a special drop of New
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: Coke as a tie in for the very nostalgia driven
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: Netflix series Stranger Thing.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: That is correct, and some of us may remember, if
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: you're a Stranger Things fan, some of us may remember,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: there's a moment where I think it's the character Dustin
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: who drinks a new coke and says I think it's good.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's that bad, and his whole crew goes,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: what the heck is here? Get it out here. Yeah.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: We also know, as we're wrapping up, that Coca Cola
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: does clean pennies due to phosphoric acid.
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: Well, it'll also dissolve corrosion off of your battery terminals.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: And that is true.
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: Oh, well done, Yeah, that is true.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Did you ever have to do that? I have had that.
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: I have done that before, and it works like a
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: charm and it's real satisfying to watch it is.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: It's a cool science experiment at home. We also know that,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: to be fair, folks, if you're hearing about this saga
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: and you're worried about the Coca Cola company, don't just
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: don't worry about them. They own way more brands than
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: you might imagine. They control soft drinks, water, sports drinks, coffee, tea, juice,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: even dairy products. Coca Cola is all up in your refrigerator.
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: I think they even not that recently, but in the
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: last five years acquired Topo Chico, which is a delightful
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: mineral water that for a long time felt a little
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: more regional and kind of special. But it's another good
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: example of a giant corporation, sort of like the micro
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: breweries acquired by bush Mills, still keeping the old school
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: packaging and not making a big show of the fact
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: that they acquired it.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: It just all of a sudden becomes more available.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they own Sprite, They own Fanta, which I think
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: should be an episode in its own right.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: We've talked about Fanta, I believe.
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: I don't know if it was as I mentioned in
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: another episode, but we talked about the apple scraps in
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: the wartime of wait.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: For an episode in its own Reich.
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: Oh that's right, Yeah, do dig through the archives. I'm
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: certain that we've done something about the history of fantas
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: super interesting.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and folks, thank you so much for tuning in.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: We are big fans of soda in particular. We are
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: big supporters of learning hidden history. And you know what,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: I was looking back and I asked my parents if
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: they had ever tried a new coke and they said
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: they did.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: It was too.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Sweet, but it was a culture war. Here endeth the Saka.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: We can't wait for your input, folks. Please do check
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: out our earlier episode on discontinued sodas throughout history and
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: big big thanks to our super producer, mister Max new
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Coke Williams, Max Nolan and I are going to lie
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: about you every time you're not around. We're gonna say
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the only soda that Max drinks is Vintage New Coke.
• 43:00
  Speaker 6: I mean, considering I was not even born when this
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: came out, I think giving me another chance to job
• 43:05
  Speaker 6: how much younger I am than y'all I am.
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: I'm fine with that rumor because I can quickly and
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: easily disprove it.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: We'll see. Sometimes you become the monsters you hunt.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Max.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: All right, that's a little cryptic, big thanks to you.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Speaking of monsters we hunt, big thanks to Jonathan Strickland
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: aka the Quist Noel who else? Who else?
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: Well, Geez Louise Ben Christopherrasiotis's name is Jeff Coats.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Here in spirit a j Bahamas Jacobs, the Puzzler. I'm
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: gonna do one of yours this time. Rachel Big Spinach Lands.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: The doctor of underwater explosions, who we reference at the
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: end of every episode despite her only having been on
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: the show twice.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: Right right, world expert in underwater explosions. Big thanks also
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: to the rude dudes of Ridiculous Crime. If you dig us,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: you will dig the Thank you, as always so much
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: for tuning in. Joined us in the near future when
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: we explore the trials and travails of a little thing
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: called Santa Con. I've been our research associate for this
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: episode at Noel. Thank you man. What's the last soa
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: you drink?
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: Like I said, I'm a DDP man, Yeah, diet doctor
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: paptro I haven't had one this week, but I really
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: do like making myself a little pomegranate sprits, So I'm
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: a Lacroix boy.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: We'll see you next time, folks.
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.