The radical change struck consumer-marketing experts as more than a little risky, though Goizueta insisted at the time that he and his colleagues considered it “the surest move ever made.” He failed to mention that it would also be markedly sweeter-doing so would have meant admitting that the more sugary appeal of Pepsi was steadily encroaching on Coke’s market share. This decidedly welcome news came just 79 days after the traditional version had been pulled abruptly to make way for “New Coke.” The almost palpable chagrin enveloping the company’s official press briefing on the about-face was a far cry from the unrestrained bravado that had marked CEO Roberto Goizueta’s announcement back on April 23 that Coca-Cola was scrapping its jealously guarded secret formula, which had gone unchanged for almost a century, in favor of a new mixture that he promised would be a “bolder,” “rounder” and more “harmonious” flavor. Yet viewers raised few complaints after ABC’s Peter Jennings broke into General Hospital, on July 10, 1985, to tell them that, bowing to public outrage and stunned by the anemic sales figures of its replacement, Coca-Cola was moving to put its original soft-drink formula back on the market. Network executives had been understandably hesitant to interrupt the nation’s most popular daytime soap opera.
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