Neither Tish nor Wes Powell of Chattanooga like the white cans that Coca-Cola Co. turned to this fall as part of a campaign to protect polar bears and their habitat.
"It's better than Pepsi" was the best Wes Powell could say about the cans as he picked up a case at the Signal Mountain Road Walmart on Monday.
The Powells aren't alone, and Coke has heard their complaints. The Atlanta-based company said it's bringing back its red holiday cans.
Some people complained the new cans were too similar to Diet Coke's silver cans. Others thought the soda inside tasted different and went online to complain.
Gary Davis, vice president of the Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Co., said plans always were to revert back to the red cans.
Davis, who said the local Coke operation cans 14 million cases of soft drink annually, added that there may be one more run of white cans left at the Chattanooga bottling plant, if that much.
"Going to the white can was temporary to start with," he said.
The company said it's not pulling the white cans from the market, just adding red cans to the mix in response to consumer requests. More than 1 billion white cans are already on the market and will remain until they sell.
Still, Karrie Drew of Rossville said the white can reminded her too much of Diet Coke.
"They ought to leave things the way they are," she said.
Davis said there are Coke purists in the marketplace, and he's one of them.
"Don't mess with things too much," he said the purists say.
Coca-Cola said its formula has not changed, and it has heard from many consumers who like the white cans.
It was the first time Coca-Cola had changed the color of its cans, and it hoped the striking departure would draw attention to its work with the World Wildlife Fund to protect the bears.
Coca-Cola has included polar bears in its advertising for several years. It said it has donated $1 million to the fund for polar bear habitat conservation over the last four years.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Mike Pare, the deputy Business editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has worked at the paper for 27 years. In addition to editing, Mike also writes Business stories and covers Volkswagen, economic development and manufacturing in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. In the past he also has covered higher education. Mike, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. he worked at the Rome News-Tribune before ...
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Everybody knows about Coca-Cola, or "Coke" as many people call it.
I use "Get Official Samples" to find free samples of major brands online. Please note they update their samples every day but I just pick what ever available at that time and use them.
People have enough time to email Coca Cola and complain about the color of cans? maybe we aren't in a recession? how about worrying about things that actually matter! Geez!
I agree crow1033 and from what I've heard about from the radio advertisements the white cans were always going to be for limited time, not permanent, and the reason for the white cans was to raise awareness/donations for wildlife, and specifically polar bears which are slowly but surely dying due to global warming melting their homes. Why would people complain about something that’s supposed to be for the good of the world?! People are unbelievable!
This is so STUPID. People need to focus on more important things. If this story is in the actual newspaper today, it's a waste of space and ink.
"Polar bear habitat conservation" is ridiculous.
"some thought the soda inside tasted different and went online to complain." That pretty much says it all. America scares me sometimes.
""Polar bear habitat conservation" is ridiculous."
Let's put you out on a melting piece of ice in the middle of the ocean and see how you like it.
Y'all are all missing the dumbest statement of all...
"the soda tastes different in the new can"
Seriously?
Seriously, how can the look of a can change the taste of a product it is mind over matter. People do not like change and when something changes with an all American favorite like coke then there will be complaints whether it is the taste of the product or the package it came in. I personally enjoy the fresh new look of the cans. I have yet to hear any complaints about the new smaller bottles though.
This is retarded, "the can makes me think it's diet, b/c I can't read, it taste different b/c I don't know what it is" Complain about can color, how about saving the complaints for when there is a rat IN your can, instead of abou the color. Why is the paper doing a story about this? Chattanooga Times Free Press is just as guilty as the people filing these stupid complaints, stop bringing dumb stories like this one to light, it's a waste of time, I moved from Soddy to Chattanooga, the fire trucks are yellow in soddy, when I saw the red ones in Chattanooga I didn't think to myself hey do these hold water too? I don't like the color, they must not work the same as the yellow ones. Why don't you do a story on that CTFP. Stupid.
This is the reason that America is on the decline. Fat, stupid Americans don't want you messing with their Coke or are confused by a color change. Lord help us.
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