White Coke Cans, Designed For Winter Holidays, Get Canned Because Drinkers Think It's Diet

Coca-Cola announced that it's canning this year's design for white holiday season Coke cans before the holiday season even began, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The cans feature silver polar bears on a white background, and were designed, in part, to support the WWF's efforts to conserve habitat for polar bears. But many customers found the cans hard to distinguish from Diet Coke cans, which are silver and red, causing confusion in grocery stores and restaurants alike. So Coke has decided to sub the white background for a more traditional red -- though the company is keeping the polar bears.

The Huffington Post has its own anecdotal evidence to suggest the prudence of Coke's decision to abandon the new design. Not one, but two, senior editors in our New York newsroom admitted to confusing the white regular Coke cans for Diet Coke.

Comments

[Thaddeus Jude]

01:59 PM on 12/19/2011

HOORAY!!! America continues its long history of capitulating to morons and catering to the lowest common denominator! YAY, LAZY STUPID PEOPLE DON'T READ CANS AND NOW THEY HAVE TO CHANGE IT!

[button121]

05:00 PM on 12/05/2011

Please people just start reading the can then this wont become an isue! Thx!

[Ethan0137]

01:18 AM on 12/09/2011

Yep. Because I'm positive you read every can you pick up.

[Thaddeus Jude]

02:00 PM on 12/19/2011

Well, for people with dietary issues (the only people this is a real problem with), yeah, they SHOULD be reading everything they eat.

[HappyBrit]

04:24 PM on 12/05/2011

Drink water. The great thing is that diet water is unique in being as good as non-diet water.

[Corie Lemmon]

12:20 AM on 12/05/2011

Wow, people really have a hard time reading the word DIET on the can/box....Seriously, people will complain about anything.

[JO 789]

06:06 PM on 12/04/2011

Who knows what PETA would say to this design? It encourages people to drink polar bears!!! xD Just kidding, it's a cute design, though I can't imagine why they wouldn't just put the traditional red background behind the silver polar bears and font for the regular and have this design as the diet can to begin with?

[kourage2003]

05:13 PM on 12/04/2011

It's called reading the can. Takes half a second. Not that hard people. And if you're not smart enought to read the can before you drink it maybe you should just stick to tap water. :D lol

[Ethan0137]

01:18 AM on 12/09/2011

How often do you really read a can of soda? You select by the visual representations of what you're accustomed to. It's human nature.

[Thaddeus Jude]

02:01 PM on 12/19/2011

I read cans constantly. Like when I saw two white cans near each other in our work fridge. I read them both and as it turns out, one said Coca Cola and not "Diet Coke". They're very different.

[LeftytheLonghorn]

02:49 PM on 12/04/2011

I'm a law student and I recently took an IP course. Funny to think of the trademark/trade dress issues. Coke forgot the most important rule of trademarks/trade dress: product identification.

[Mr Crabs]

02:41 PM on 12/04/2011

I know, I totally thought someone substituted diet cans in my case of coke.

[button121]

05:01 PM on 12/05/2011

So did I! Haha

[Thaddeus Jude]

02:02 PM on 12/19/2011

How? They look nothing alike. Diet Coke clearly says "DIET COKE" on it.

[Sue Bryant]

02:14 PM on 12/04/2011

Glad I don't drink soda in general. Saved myself a lot of trouble here....ha ha.

[Ledebard57]

02:10 PM on 12/04/2011

At the law firm where I work the facilities manager had to send out a firm-wide email about the white cans being regular Coke. That just cracked me up.

[helper2gir]

01:04 PM on 12/04/2011

GO PEPSI!

[volleyturtle18]

01:18 PM on 12/04/2011

pepsi sucks. it tastes like dishwater in a can.
GO COKE!

[Mr Crabs]

02:43 PM on 12/04/2011

Actually it tastes more like original recipe coke than coke does. Try a Mexican coke made with real sugar, that's what the original recipe tastes like and it tastes like Pepsi.

[tagkev]

01:24 AM on 12/04/2011

IF your not in the grocery industry you dont know...its true you have to dumb down your product information so everybody can understand..ive done many food shows been if front of tens of thousands of consumers ...its true..sad but true

[Thaddeus Jude]

02:03 PM on 12/19/2011

It's so sad that America is full of people too retarded to look at packages closely and read words.

[andietim2]

12:29 AM on 12/04/2011

As a vendor I have been astounded at the ignorance of people who not only thought that it was diet, but some also thought that it was some new flavor despite the fact that the cans and packages clearly state Coca Cola and have a brief statement about raising money to protect the polar bear habitat! I also found it ironic that money is being raised to protect the only creature on earth that hunts and eats people!

[Drblah]

01:06 AM on 12/04/2011

Tigers hunt people
http://natgeotv.com/asia/last-maneater-killer-tigers-of-india/about

[Thaddeus Jude]

02:04 PM on 12/19/2011

There is a difference. Plenty of animals SOMETIMES hunt people, but polar bears will do it practically every time. They are the only mammal that looks at us and sees food 100% of the time (unless they were raised with humans or in a zoo, etc). Other animals see us as food sometimes (usually when starving or if we're smaller than them).

[Ashleigh123]

05:30 PM on 12/08/2011

elephants have been discovered with human remains in the stomach. So have sharks.That does not mean they hunt people.

[Vapula]

12:13 AM on 12/04/2011

I guess the cans would be confusing if you are illiterate ... sorry can't read ... sod it that doesn't work either ...

[Meghan Dwyer]

09:33 PM on 12/03/2011

I also thought the new white cans were diet when I purchased one out of the vending machine and thought it had dispensed Diet Coke. Not that I should be drinking regular Coke, anyway, so maybe it's a deterrent to us die-hard sugar junkies. :P