Glug !

Obviously New Coke made thousands of customers wonder why in the world the Coca-Cola Co. thought that it was better than the old stuff. New Coke, they said, is flat and sweet and lacks the zing of real Coke. So they did what comes naturally to outraged consumers--swamped Coke headquarters with complaints.

At first Coke stood fast, insisting that there was no way that they’d bring back the original drink. But reason (and, one suspects, sales) persuaded them otherwise. In a complete about-face, the company announced that Old Coke will soon reappear.

Mind you, before deciding to abandon the century-old formula that had made Coca-Cola the world’s No. 1 soft drink, the Coke folks spent millions on market research, taste testing, encounter groups and other such analyses. But, once again, the future has confounded the best predictions. This property of nature is pleasing to some people and annoying to others.

Now trying to salvage a marketing disaster, the company says that it will sell Old Coke and New Coke, thereby giving the the cola-drinking public a choice--and who can be against choice? We bet that in time New Coke will quietly disappear, die an unmourned death and wind up in Edsel heaven.