Why Coca-Cola's Postmodern Soda Failed
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ค. 2017
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OK Soda was a failed soda from Coca-Cola in the early 90's. In this essay I examine the story behind OK Soda, and the oddball relationship between advertising and postmodernism.
If you enjoyed this video, you'll probably enjoy a podcast I do about similar topics, called Obscurigami: obscurigami.com
Study of Super Bowl Commercials: bit.ly/2twtBqS
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The weirdest example as a counterpoint to this is Shepard Fairey's OBEY brand. The guy took his postmodern street art project - which seemed to be a comment on advertising and our obedience to it - and turned it into a massively lucrative, expensive clothing brand, which people follow like sheep.
Henry Garrett It's like "They live" , but the actual messages are a brand.
MF Whom? Haven't seen it, is it good?
how do people 'follow' a clothing brand? they purchase into it for the signals it conveys -- social prestige among a particular community (graffiti artists and those adjacent)
Fariey also did obamas 'hope' campaign. Kinda disheartening.
Andre the giant has a posse
The one truly somewhat successfull postmodern marketicg campaign is that of Pabst Blue Ribbon. And if you've never heard of their campaign, that's the whole point. They were almost bakrupt in 2002 when the new marketing director came and noticed that some young ironic subcultures like their beer (while also reading agressively anti-marketing book No Logo by Naomi Klein). He decided to organically smuggle the brand into the subcultures, supporting ironic sporting events, local student bars and small local music venues, but just demanding that their beer sells there, without splatting their logos anywhere, nor forcing the modertors to thank them on stage. They didn't actively give out belts and keychains, they just let the word-of-mouth spread that THIS guy, who comes to this bar regularly, has some PBR keychains, and anyone can ask him for one. They refused any change of the cool old-timey logo, they refused TV commercials, they refused Kid Rock's official endorsement.
Basically they did correctly, what OK soda was desperately trying to emulate...
perfect example is in lynch's Blue Velvet - FUCK THAT! PABST! BLUE! RIBBON! - the perfect non-advert
Probably impossible for a corporation the size of Coke to do that tbf.
@@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms Yep. But there might be a way which is currently being tested in Europe with beer brands.
Basically the big boys in the game (Pilsner Urquell, owned by Asahi Breweries) start their own "independent" microbrewery, hide the connection as much as possible (even outright deny it) and start to build up this story of bunch of independent mavaricks who left their comfy jobs in big brewing to start their own dream company.
Will it work? We'll see...
"No logo on the foam."
OK Soda's advertising made an impact on me as a young artist, I thought it was cool.
Same. Me and my friends were totally into it.
I'd never heard of OK soda and now I'm sad it's no longer being sold.
Looking forward to more videos like this! :)
I wish Coca-Cola would revive it!
let's have a petition!
Just go to anywhere they have fountain drinks and put coke, sprite, and orange soda together and Boom!!! You have ok soda. I’d say it’s like a 1 part coke 1 part sprite and 2 parts orange soda with maybe a splash of root beer
I was 10 years old when OK Soda came out and I bought a lot of it, the cans and phone number and advertising sucked my young brain in. I quit drinking it pretty soon though for the simple reason that it tasted worse than most other sodas. It tasted like orange soda mixed with rootbeer to me. It was not a very pleasant taste.
Quick question.... Are you pro socialism and would you have voted bernie sanders?
"OK" Sucked ass. I too was 10 when it came out, remember when it got a Trial release in select Towns across the Southeast US and in Texas. When Mom and Stepdad took me, baby brother alongside my late Grandmother to San Antonio to visit her Father in July of 1993. I remember asking for a can. I paid 50 Cents for it and I took maybe 7 or 8 swigs before I gave up on it. It tasted Bland and Flat, like RC Cola mixed with Fanta(Coca Cola is STUPID to have discontinued its incredibly Sweet and great tasting Minute Maid Orange Soda). Later Mom got me a Can of Mello Yellow to make up for it.
Coca Cola dropped the ball on OK Soda. The Whole thing was a Cynical,Condescending Corporatist Marketing Campaign brought to us by the same Moron that introduced New Coke/Coke II 8 years earlier.
They made up for it a Year later in 1994 by introducing "Fruitopia" a.k.a., The 90s Fruit Drink.
So OK Soda wasn't even OK?
@@help4343 It was "Terrible".
LMAO
ZIMA MOMENT
I loved this soda, and I loved calling the number 1 800 I feel ok, which gave you a simulated live operator to talk to.
They delivered bags of OK Soda like a paper boy would, left randomly at the end of driveways. We would pick them up and enjoy as much as we could. As a fan of the pop “suicide” (mixing of all the good pop from a pop machine) OK was my new #1 favorite and the advertisements were perfect
As someone from the target market in that era... the ads did get my attention.
But ads can only do so much, the product itself has to deliver. And what they delivered was a gross citrus concoction with a disgusting aftertaste. If the product was good, this story could be totally different.
In an alternate history OK Soda tastes good, becomes wildly successful, and Postmodern Advertising becomes a trend 15 years earlier.
OK" Sucked ass. I too was 10 when it came out, remember when it got a Trial release in select Towns across the Southeast US and in Texas. When Mom and Stepdad took me, baby brother alongside my late Grandmother to San Antonio to visit her Father in July of 1993. I remember asking for a can. I paid 50 Cents for it and I took maybe 7 or 8 swigs before I gave up on it. It tasted Bland and Flat, like RC Cola mixed with Fanta(Coca Cola is STUPID to have discontinued its incredibly Sweet and great tasting Minute Maid Orange Soda). Later Mom got me a Can of Mello Yellow to make up for it.
Coca Cola dropped the ball on OK Soda. The Whole thing was a Cynical,Condescending Corporatist Marketing Campaign brought to us by the same Moron that introduced New Coke/Coke II 8 years earlier.
They made up for it a Year later in 1994 by introducing "Fruitopia" a.k.a., The 90s Fruit Drink.
OK Soda sucked and was obviously a Condescending Product and Bad Idea. But hell, at least Pepsi "Wild Bunch" line from 1991 had some dignity and actually tasted pretty good.
OK Soda was actually a lot better once they replaced the carbonated water with insect repellent and changed the name to Fruitopia.
Totally disagree. In fact, the complete opposite. The ads and can images were horrible. But OK was better tasting and easier swallowing than Coke.
I used to love OK Soda. I didn't drink it, because it was just okay and my money could be spent on better things. I loved the concept thought. It wasn't trying to be the best soda, it was aiming for mediocrity and it hit the mark exactly. It was the closest thing to corporate trolling.
I was a freshman in a college in Boston - moved there from Maine. We didn't have a TV in our dorm, so I wasn't aware if OK Soda was advertising on TV. No internet in 1993. Wow, was I naive. Me and my roommate used to go to the corner store to see if they had OK. We called the 1-800 number. We thought we were part of some underground soda revolution. Eventually, we figured out it was a lame attempt to market to Gen-X slackers like us. And it tasted like shit.
When _O K_ came out, I didn't see advertising of it. I heard of it, saw it in the store and got one. You know what?! For me, it was still _THE BEST_ pop I ever had even now in 2021. I was so p'd off when it was no longer available such a short time after it came out. I have not forgotten the pop throughout the decades. I hear someone say _okay_ and I feel like I just have to joke about them talking about the OK pop. Come on!!! It's pop and I often think of it and miss it for 25 years... That's saying something! I don't remember other pops that went off the market. I truly want it back before I die. That's the drink I want for my last drink in life.
BRING BACK OK!! BRING BACK OK!! BRING BACK OK!!
I liked it when I was a kid. I wonder if I still would...
I had the please of having OK Soda back in the day. I might have easily forgotten about it if not for the fact that my best friend stripped the labels off a couple of bottles and taped them to his bedroom walls like posters. Fast forward to today and I know those labels are still there! His parents turned his old room into a storage space after he moved out, but all his old posters on the walls, they left them up! :)
As a Gen-Xer I'm no longer "young" or "cool" (just ask my daughters) but I was squarely in the cross-hairs of this marketing when it came out. (I turned 22 in 1993.) I never got around to tasting the stuff because my impression of this campaign is that it was patronizing and condescending -- Coca-Cola hamfistedly trying to speak the language of "the kids." It was almost a direct echo of the bit in "Reality Bites" (really dating myself here) where Ben Stiller's smarmy TV exec uses Wynona Ryder's jump-cut-happy filmmaking to sell pizza.
(On the Fast Company site where this is hosted, the next article is about the marketing of "Stranger Things," another bit of pop culture I'm absolutely the target of. (And yes, kiddies, I turned 13 in 1984.) But there my reaction is unbridled enthusiasm instead of disgust -- it's obviously a labor of love, not cynicism.
"How do you do, fellow kids?"
This was really good. Literally the first time I've ever heard of Ok-Soda. I was admittedly rather surprised you didn't bring up David Foster Wallace's discussion of Pepsi advertising, since that seems to be running along rather similar lines, but this was super interesting nonetheless. Subbing!
Still miss this stuff. I loved OK.
This came out while I was in high school, we drove all over trying to find it. It tasted just, OK, but these commercials SPOKE to us.
I was obsessed with OK Soda - 20 years old when it came out. I've been a "Coca-Cola dude" my whole life, so i had to try it. The marketing worked on me!
I loved the campaign, and I actually really liked the taste.
Bro this video was sick, keep making these types of vids and you'll stand out of the crowd of film analysis dudes.
Glad you liked it! I'll definitely be doing more like this in the future.
Cannibal Johnson "Film Analysis Dudes" sounds epic
I had this video on my watch later playlist for two weeks and I finally got around to watching it. Great video.
My high school was a test market for OK Soda: Fulton High School in Knoxville, TN. I seemed to be the only one in the whole school that dug it.
in depth analysis on marketing ads, i love it! keep it up
This was great. Keep it up.
It was ok.
I've never heard of OK soda, but this was interesting non the less. Great job! 👍
I'm surprised I hadn't heard of this strange "OK soda" thing before now (I came across it while going down a Daniel Clowes rabbit hole - you know, the alt comics writer/illustrator who did one of these OK soda can designs). Anyways, I find this kind of shit so fascinating. Postmodern "anti-advertising", etc. This OK soda thing is so very '90s, in the best way. Great video!
I remember OK and had no idea about this back story. Great work. Would be love to see more of these.
I remember wanting to like it because I didn't know they were part of Coke and felt like they were trying so hard with their advertising, but the fact was it tasted like dirt. I guess they were trying to reject everything about polished consumer products up to and including the actual product. It tasted like it was the slurry made from the runoff of a bunch of different soda tanks, mixed together. Mostly a crappier Dr Pepper with some orange and I don't know what else. Bad.
Great work, bravo. Definitely do more like this, I'll be watching for sure. Onward.
Can you make more of these advertising videos. Advertising in the 90s was wild.
Can sort of trace shifts in society with these.
Great channel. Keep 'em coming mate.
Love this. It still holds up. Thanks for making it!
The can of Bubly I'm drinking right now has cute, lower-case letters reminding me of things I know on it's pop tab. OK Soda was way ahead of it's time.
I didn't see any of the commercials, but I used to habitually buy it. The flavor reminded me of mixing sodas together at a restaurant.
Thanks for this. I was 23 in 1993, and vehemently hated corporate bullshit, yet this marketing campaign worked with me. OK and rye whisky was a staple in my house at the time, it was very good.
Was this drink better as a mixer than a drink? Seems like something that might have been.
@@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms Yes, it was a great mixer. I mixed it with Whiskey most of the time, but rye whiskey was super good. Rum and vodka not so much.
I really really liked the video, please make more like it!
Very clever and thought provoking and interesting and all that ;)
I'm sorry I missed OK Soda. I love the design concept. And, subscribed to your podcast. Thx 😀
This stuff is really fantastic. Keep it up.
Wow this is genuinely amazing stuff man, thanks for making it
Thanks for watching!
This was really well done. Thanks guys, very interesting!
ahead of your time with this video. Great work!
I really enjoyed this video and your style, subscribed :)
Loved this video! Glad I stumbled across it.
This is excellent. Do more of this.
That was fascinating, great video!
Nicee.. almost an advertising case study. Plz come out with more such videos
This is so interesting, keep it up mate! instant subscribe :)
I absolutely love the ads from OK soda in this video. I would have bought it at LEAST once just because the advertising seems so.... ok
This is a fantastic video essay I love this
Gotta say, those commercials made me want to try OK. So they really were ahead of their time
needs to be shared with the ad press. nice work
Ok Soda was art. Love the can designs. Great video
Damn good content man!
Please review The Departed! Btw man i love your work. It's always critically in depth and cinematically pleasing
Great video man!
This is brilliant
Thank you a thousand!
Yes do more of this.
Enjoyed this immensely.
yes, more videos like this please
Definitely more coming up.
I loved OK soda as a kid and had some SWAG from them like stamps I would put on my folders. It was an acquired taste, to say the least.
Great video
How has this only got 600+ views. Addicitvely interesting video about an equally interesting product. Never knew Ok Soda ever existed, I really like the tactical and diverse branding, why can't companies try some stuff like this today?
Good job with the video. You should check out Thomas Frank's first book, "The Conquest of Cool," which traces this sort of advertising back to VW's "anti-ads" in the late 1950s.
Yes -- a good example.
your channel is gonna be big one day my friend it took me nearly 5 years just to get to 6k+ subscribers and 3,000,000 million total views I see you making it to twice or triple that in the same amount of time
I like that Spy Vs Spy music. Picked up on it immediately.
Would you ever consider doing a film essay on Logan? That is probably the best film I've seen this year and seeing you do an essay on it would be cool.
I haven't actually gotten a chance to watch Logan yet, but you should check out my friend Like Stories of Old's video about Logan: th-cam.com/video/oakNlTdDm-8/w-d-xo.html
You made it onto TH-cam trending :)
congrats to him right but trending is a mystery.How do they choose trending vids?
awesome!
Where did you get the old audio of the OK Soda line? There was a rumor in Austin that Coke had lost a lawsuit and that the hotline was some kind of suicide prevention line the courts made them do, but I don't remember ever calling it.
That's some fucking golden content you got there man! I'm pretty sure dubs are gonna come. I'm from Egypt btw and your vids are top-notch :)
Never heard of this soda and I absolutely fucking love it. We need more of this stuff in this commercialised world.
I liked OK and loved the ads
I remember drinking this at summer camp. Aptly titled, OK Soda was simply...okay.
Wholesale postmodernism coming to a NihilMart near you. I'm off to clean my room.
Love the video but is there a reason why the background music for really loud at 6:35
totally random and totally awesome.
Dude ur so cool ur picture is exactly like mine. I've had mine for two years now
I don't know why but I think there's a connection between ok soda and radiohead's ok computer.
OK was way ahead of its time, I'll tell you that.
A "suicide coke," also known by regional names like "graveyard" or "swampwater soda" is exactly what this beverage tasted like -- and was intended to taste like. It is made by mixing cola, orange, root beer, lemon, cherry, blackberry, prune, caramel, nutmeg, ginger, almond, and vanilla syrup -- and more flavours, if you have them. This taste experience was given spooky names (like suicide and graveyard) by kids in the 1950s, who dared each other to drink it. Such sub-lethal experimentation with teen edginess is born anew with each generation. The OK ad narrator's Stan Freberg-inspired condescending voice echoed the cynical, buttoned-down comedy of 1960s modernism. The placing of ordinary words in "quotes" hinted at offering an insider's knowing view on corporate manipulation, ala the 1980s Macintosh ads. The pessimism and anhedonia being sold by OK Soda was a far step from the optimism of the mid-1960s jingle, "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" -- but it seems to have been a step that many young people chose not to take. This 1990s anti-commercial ad campaign would probably have worked better if the art on the cans was not so dismal and the taste of the product was not so unappealing to the market it was intended to intrigue.
I was so into this soda when I was 10. I thought it made me sophisticated.
What is the song at the beginning? It's basically Zorns "Batman" but not. While i'm asking questions that will likely go unanswered, what is the second song? It was used in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the first flashback story-telling sequence.
I bet this would catch on now.
I totally forgot about this! Back in the day when this came out I was initially intrigued, but that interest quickly turned to suspicion. It was a bit too obvious, but the cans did look cool.
The biggest problem was that it tasted disgusting.
What is the link to Jordan Peters on that people in the comments are seeing?
Late to the party, but I loved this video essay! I mean, it w45 0K (:
Wonderful video essay on an obscure pop cultural topic!
Yo, is this Ian Paul from MN? If it is, I know we shared a 12 pack of OK back in the day.
peterugh Sorry, I've never had a can of OK soda. I wasn't even born when it came out. I'm not the I am Paul you're thinking of sorry
No worries bruh
Anyone who wants to know what OK Soda tasted like do this, goto a Coca-Cola soda fountain at a gas station and mix the sodas, i'd guess maybe 30% coke, 40% orange 20% rootbeer and 10% dr pepper aka what we use to call "graveyard."
OK soda, to me, tasted like what we called a graveyard. When you go down the soda fountain line dispensing a little bit of each in the glass.
I do miss it.
FASCINATING VIDEO. Also, I knew that art looked familiar as hell. Charles Burns. I had no idea this soda existed. Not gonna lie, I think the campaign is fucking awesome.
Fuck oath dude, new sub here, keep up the good work, I'm seeing some real nerdwriter and every frame in ya. And also I really wanna try this goddamned soda xD
that phone line now goes to a " talk to a hot girl" line
Can be music promotion be counted as advertising?
How do you get from the early 90s to now in 14 years?
I wish Coca-Cola would stick to good ideas every so often. I liked OK soda better than Coke and actually stopped buying the latter altogether until they discontinued OK. By then, they had changed the Coke recipe to make sure the carbonation burned your throat and bloated you with gas on your first couple sips. It’s only been going downhill since then, as far as I’m concerned.
People always joked about Coke feeling like battery acid. But it wasn’t really a joke. That junk actually hurts to swallow. A drink should be refreshing, not painful.
OK soda never had that problem and it tasted great. Who cares about the marketing? They should have given it a real chance. (Not to mention some of the other great drinks they discontinued for no good reason. JOLT was another great Coke substitute.)
I like stimulating videos that make you think. It was just informative enough and long enough and satisfying.
Now I want to see the movie "Crazy People"
... maybe not
this reminds me of Obey a lot, which never convinced me, because even back then I knew it was fuccboi and ugly and buying it would mean to give in and actually obey.
it was the best soda i have ever tasted.. i wish someone would buy it and sell it again.
The best ads are the ones that don’t exist
Well something's working because I now want OK Soda more than that damn Szechuan suace
Uhh... Naked City in the background. Neat.
Thx for this cool piece of history. Didn't know OK cola. US only I guess right?
It wasn't only released in certain cities in the US.