New Coke Goes Flat with Preacher Lawson and Paul F. Tompkins | 40

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the early 90’s, an earth shattering event occurred that would change the face of American culture forever: Coca-Cola changed their recipe. New Coke was supposed to be sweeter to combat the rising popularity of Pepsi, but the customer reaction was decidedly sour. Lawsuits and public outrage contributed to the PR Nightmare - somehow hiring Bill Cosby as their spokesperson wasn’t the worst business decision Coca-Cola made that year!

Preacher Lawson (My Name Is Preacher, America’s Got Talent) and Paul F. Tompkins (BoJack Horseman, The Great North) join Misha to savor the sweet, sweet Flop that is New Coke.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the Big Flop early and ad-free.
0:05.3	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:15.7	Gay Mullins is pissed off.
0:21.8	A humble, retired medical engineer from the great state of Washington.
0:27.9	A little guy.
0:29.1	Mullins is about to take on one of the biggest companies in the world.
0:35.1	Soda giant Coca-Cola, because he has no choice. What has Coke done wrong?
0:43.0	Well, after almost a hundred years of fizzy deliciousness, they've changed their recipe.
0:52.7	Hang on. Changing Coke? I mean, you can't just do that. This is an unpatriotic desecration of all that Americans hold dear. It's unthinkable, unconscionable. They must be stopped. And the right to drink the old kind of Coke must be restored to all flag-waving beverage
1:16.3	guzzlers as quickly as possible.
1:19.6	Mullins has started an organization, the old Coke drinkers of America.
1:25.9	They've collected signatures, started a complaint hotline, organized
1:30.4	protests, and if none of that moves Coca-Cola, they're ready to sue for their traditional
1:37.1	recipe. The old Coke drinkers are going to save this country from the biggest threat to liberty
1:43.6	since the Redcoats.
1:45.0	New Coke!
1:51.0	Coke today announced that is changing the near century-old recipe.
1:54.0	Introducing the new taste of Coca-Cola.
1:58.0	If things have been going better with Coke all along, why tamper with success?
2:02.6	Pepsi has overtaken Coke in sales.
2:05.0	Coca-Cola has made a marketing mistake.
2:07.6	The truth is, we're not that dumb, and we're not that smart.
	...

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