In the world of disastrous marketing campaigns, few companies have seen such massive failure as Coca-Cola’s promise of New Coke back in 1985. The company was the cola brand of choice for years, with a series of competitors putting pressure on the soft drink distributor to shake things up, ultimately deciding they would craft a new formula and reinvent themselves as “New Coke.” The only drawback is that consumers didn’t like the beverage, ultimately causing Coca-Cola to go back to their original formula in just a few months, which they then referred to as “Coca-Cola Classic.” Despite being a punchline for three decades, fans are currently clamoring to buy New Coke in such massive numbers that the brand’s website is crashing.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In honor of the upcoming third season of Stranger Things, which takes place during the summer when New Coke debuted, Coca-Cola launched a limited opportunity to purchase the throwback beverage to celebrate the launch of the new episodes. A similar marketing campaign took place with the release of Ghostbusters in 2016, with the Coca-Cola subsidiary Hi-C releasing Ecto Cooler, a tie-in beverage for The Real Ghostbusters animated series in 1987.
Coke’s website has been so slammed with eager fans that the site is crashing, making it nearly impossible for fans to complete their purchases.
Scroll down to see fans venting their frustrations about not being able to purchase New Coke online and check out Season Three of Stranger Things on July 4th.
Grief
The stages of grief:
— David (@davidnelson34) May 23, 2019
1. 504 errors
2. 502 errors
3. 503 errors
4. Actually drinking #newcoke
Not a Good Look
I keep hoping enough people give up and lay off the bandwidth so I can sneak in for #newcoke @CocaCola You need to make a statement, something. Silence in this day and age, even an hour in, is not a good look. #cokeisit
— Unusual Retail (@Unusual_Retail) May 23, 2019
Meta Launch
#NewCoke launch having issues…. sounds a little too familiar… Accident? or the most meta launch plan ever? pic.twitter.com/pPWg6cKy3G
— Aaron (@imthewinterwind) May 23, 2019
See Ya
The New Coke website when it hit 5pm pic.twitter.com/rEDAXiK21w
— (@QuinnsterX) May 23, 2019
You Win
Ok @CocaCola…
— CoolNotCool (@YeahCoolNotCool) May 23, 2019
It’s been an hour of refreshing my cart to try and fill in delivery & payment details… You win. Keep ya #NewCoke. pic.twitter.com/OzTkhamA8O
A Fool
puh-lease give us an update!!! i’m looking like boo-boo the fool over here i’ve been refreshing the page since 4:50 #NewCoke pic.twitter.com/fsF5RuzEd4
— sam \\ (@_Samgarciaa) May 23, 2019
Website Fail
The New @CocaCola website looks awesome!
— ElevatedFilmFanatic (@RRR5280) May 23, 2019
So much for trying to do the
NEW Coke Stranger Things Promotional purchase
Website #Fail pic.twitter.com/qLBy0WZbzr
Time to Go
The Coca-Cola social team when their website servers crashed due to too many people trying to log on at the same time to buy #NewCoke: pic.twitter.com/FU4SC18V5f
— Sam Franco (@samjfranco) May 23, 2019
eBay Crooks
Trying to buy some New Coke, and their website crashed the moment it went live. But never for the crooks who then sell it on EBay for Thousands of dollars #newcoke #sellitinstores @CocaCola
— Christopher Waits (@cressidarules) May 23, 2019
Need Our Fix
Wow. @CocaCola just deleted their tweet announcing the return of #NewCoke because their site has been down since launch. I hope they return with a working store and a LOT more stock! We need our 1985 fix! #StrangerThings3
— Houston (@radiohouston) May 23, 2019