New, But Not Improved.
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
I panic when I see the words “New and Improved!” or “Great New Taste!” on my foodstuffs. And it’s not just because I find the exclamation mark vaguely offensive, as if some guy from Marketing is screaming at me. It’s moreso that some person, or group of persons, has decided that what wasn’t broke needed fixing.
Probably the best example of this (or worst, depending on how you look at it) was New Coke. Some focus group decided that they wanted their Coca-Cola to taste more like Pepsi, and the folks at Coke apparently decided this was a good thing. New Coke begat a lot of pissed-off customers, which, in turn, begat Coca-Cola Classic, which was old Coke in new bottles. (more…)