- A single mom was fired before she could even start her new daycare job after posting this on Facebook
- Man sees homeless woman living in the dirt, builds her a tiny house
- Waitress gets 7,000 percent tip, plans to 'pay it forward'
- Georgia mother arrested over Facebook post threatening police
- Caught on camera: Baltimore mom slaps son for throwing rocks at police
The screenwriting duo behind the highly successful “Zombieland” and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” movies and much-anticipated X-Men spinoff “Deadpool,” are turning their quills to what might be considered Coca-Cola’s biggest marketing blunder, New Coke.
Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese will base the New Coke movie, if it is eventually made, on the 1987 book written by former Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer/editor/columnist Thomas Oliver, “The Real Coke, the Real Story.” Word of the new movie was first reported by Deadline.com.
It was during the cola wars of the mid-1980s that Coca-Cola replaced its then-nearly 100-year-old iconic soft drink with a new formula, calling the soda “New Coke.”
The backlash was almost immediate. The company was bombarded with complaints, with many boycotting the new drink and others hording the original Coke for fear they would never taste it again.
Ten weeks later, Coke reintroduced its flagship brand with “Classic” added to its name. Coca-Cola kept the “Classic” add-on until it was dropped in 2009.
The Wernick and Reese film will revisit the New Coke debacle.
Oliver, a journalist-turned-full-time singer/songwriter who retired from the AJC in 2009 and now lives on the Georgia coast, said the lesson of New Coke is this:
“You’d better understand the product that you are changing. If you have brand loyalty, that’s something really money can’t buy.”
Oliver, who covered Coca-Cola for the AJC, said the company was overwhelmed with market research that didn’t take into consideration the depths of human emotion.
“New Coke was rejected based on human emotion,” he told the AJC on Friday.
Oscar-nominated films are often based on books. Oliver said he was contacted in January 2014 about an exclusive option to purchase the movie rights to his book. He expects to be a consultant on the film.
Deadline.com reported Wernick and Reese will “write the script and produce a period piece set in the vibrant ’80s that will convey how a perceived threat by No. 2 rival Pepsi driven home by a clever 'Pepsi Challenge' marketing campaign led to corporate panic.”
There is no guarantee, however, that a film will be made. The option period allows time to develop a screenplay, create a cast and come up with financing, among other things. It could be several years before the final product hits a theater near you.
About the Author
