Reminder that the Internet, too, could have saved Coca-Cola from ‘New Coke’ debacle

Don Keough, retired chief operating officer at Coca-Cola, died earlier this week at the age of 88. He is described in a Fortune headline as “The real boss behind Coke’s secret formula.”

Among the accomplishments credited to Keough is one that directly involved that secret formula, namely convincing CEO Roberto Goizueta in 1985 to reverse course on the disaster that was “New Coke” in favor of returning to the original recipe.

News of Keough’s death had me rereading a 2010 Buzzblog  post that involved this thought experiment:

Let’s rewrite history: It was 25 years ago tomorrow, April 23, 1985, that the world’s most famous soft drink company committed arguably the world’s most famous product development/marketing gaffe: New Coke.

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Network World Paul McNamara