One Pepsi fail most of us remember is their launch of Crystal Pepsi, which got a strange revival in 2016, but the company had an even bigger fiasco which few remember when they launched Pepsi AM in 1989. The soda was marketed as something to drink in the morning instead of coffee, with 28% more caffeine than the original Pepsi.
Although Pepsi advertised the new product like crazy, it had no real chance of replacing people’s morning coffee, which still had 77% more caffeine than the new soda brand. Pepsi AM had a few devoted fans for a while but never really took off like Pepsi bosses were hoping it would. Sales eventually dropped and Pepsi AM was removed from the shelves only a year after its release. The next product proves that smoking the competition isn’t as easy as it seems.
Coors Rocky Mountain Spring Water
Since we need water to live, it doesn’t seem too hard to be able to sell people water and it’s no wonder that bottled water is such a big business. One company, however, found that selling people something which keeps them alive was surprisingly difficult. In 1990, Coors tried to go off-brand and their customers weren’t having it.
The company used water to make their beer and decided the natural next step was to bottle that water and sell it. The problem was, that they used their famous Coors Rocky Mountain logo on the bottles. Many consumers were confused and probably a little disappointed when they discovered the product didn’t contain alcohol. It only took two years for Coors to get out of the bottled water business. Keep reading to find out what the iPods’ grandfather was like.
RJ Reynolds Smokeless Cigarettes
Yes, you read that right, and if you’re wondering why that seemed like a good idea, we’re sure RJ Reynolds also asked themselves that, after the fact. The company was looking for some good publicity following multiple news stories about the dangers of smoking. They came up with smokeless cigarettes, a “healthier” alternative which contained less charcoal, giving them a relatively smokeless burn.
To say these new cigarettes were not a hit with smokers would be an understatement. They found them hard to light, and just as hard to actually inhale. The fact that the cigarettes didn’t contain nicotine, meant that they were not fun to smoke, and most users preferred to dump them in the garbage rather than smoking them. But don’t worry too much about RJ Reynolds, they may have missed the mark with their smokeless cigarettes, but have since found their niche in e-cigarettes and are currently that product’s leading manufacturers. Cigarettes without smoke may sound like a wild idea, but this company trying to sell water is even wilder.
New Coke
In the 1980s, everyone had an opinion on which was better, Coke or Pepsi. After completing rigorous taste tastes, Pepsi went public with results that proved that Americans preferred Pepsi’s sweeter soda recipe. Coke decided to respond, aggressively. In 1985, they released New Coke, the soda which promised to be sweeter than all others and was intended to replace the old recipe for good.
The only problem was that Coke lovers didn’t like New Coke. They said it didn’t taste good and they wanted their old coke back. It only took three months before the company got rid of the new recipe and went back to the old one. The original coke recipe is now known as Coca-Cola Classic and is beloved by many to this day. More than one cola company made some seriously bad gambles during the 1980s.
Touch of Yogurt Shampoo by Clairol
In the 1970s, the natural beauty products trend was becoming increasingly popular. Ingredients such as fruit, honey, and surprisingly even beer, were being used in various shampoos. At the same time, yogurt was gaining a reputation as being really good for you. Shampoo company Clairol decided to monopolize on both trends and came out with Clairol’s Touch of Yogurt Shampoo. Unfortunately, while both trends were popular, that did not mean that people wanted them both together, especially when that meant putting an aged diary product on their heads.
This wasn’t Clairol’s only dairy-based disaster. They also launched the Touch of Buttermilk Shampoo during the 1970s. The company and its competitors have since decided that milk has no place outside the diary aisle. If putting yogurt in shampoo seems strange to you, wait until you see what Coke did to their soda.