Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
New Coke, from 1985, gets role on ‘Stranger Things’
NEW YORK — CocaCola drinkers will get a chance to relive one of the company’s darker chapters as New Coke makes a comeback under a partnership with the Netflix drama “Stranger Things,” the companies announced Tuesday.
Season 3 of the show will take place in the summer of 1985, when Coca-Cola changed its formula for Coke. New Coke was considered one of the biggest marketing blunders of all time, and the new version was dropped after 79 days, though sales of the original Coca-Cola rebounded.
“The summer of 1985 did in fact change everything for us with the introduction of New Coke, which was also arguably one of the biggest pop culture moments of that year,” said Oana Vlad, director of Coca-Cola Trademark, Coca-Cola North America.
The New Coke recipe had to be retrieved from the beverage company’s safe for the “Stranger Things” partnership.
“All told, everything took about six months and was top-secret,” said Peter Shoemaker, director of sparkling category commercialization.
Workers also had to recreate the logo and the slightly different Coke red for the cans from more than 30 years ago.
“The partnership with Coke gives Netflix the opportunity to reach a massive audience via one of the most recognizable brands in the world in a deeply authentic way,” said Barry Smyth, Netflix’s head of global partner marketing.
On Thursday, Coca-Cola will release a limited number of cans of New Coke as part of a “Stranger Things” package.
Netflix said it hasn’t accepted any money from Coke for the prime placement of soda in the new season and that show creators Ross and Matt Duffer conceived of the idea on their own.
Netflix has built a video business worth more than $150 billion by giving its users an advertising-free alternative to cable and satellite. But the company has begun to experiment with ways of working with large corporations without selling traditional ads.
“Stranger Things” is Netflix’s most popular original series, according to data from outside researchers, and has served as a way for Netflix to toy with new business opportunities.