Diet Coke, every mention

Coca-Cola: The Complete History & Strategy (Audio) · Acquired Nov 24, 2025 · 26 mentions

• ▶ 2:01:00 David Rosenthal Tab, which is their new diet drink product that they had considered naming Diet Coke, but
• ▶ 2:01:58 David Rosenthal And supposedly, that is actually the real reason why they didn't call Tab Diet Coke.
• ▶ 2:03:44 Ben Gilbert Tab quickly becomes the best-selling diet soda in America, I think in the world, and stays that way all the way up until they release Diet Coke, which we'll talk about in a little bit.
• ▶ 2:17:49 David Rosenthal Well, over Coca-Cola Classic, but, uh, I'm mostly a Diet Coke guy these days, but we'll get to that in a minute.
• ▶ 2:40:00 David Rosenthal Basically, the only soda that I drink today, Diet Coke.
• ▶ 2:40:03 Ben Gilbert You're a Diet Coke man, not a Coke Zero man.
• ▶ 2:40:06 David Rosenthal I'm a Diet Coke guy.
• ▶ 2:40:11 David Rosenthal Uh, like Diet Coke.
• ▶ 2:40:18 Ben Gilbert Diet Coke is sort of meant to be its own thing.
• ▶ 2:40:41 Ben Gilbert So Diet Coke is fascinating because they did start work on it.
• ▶ 2:41:25 Ben Gilbert It is a huge risk in two ways to release Diet Coke.
• ▶ 2:42:10 David Rosenthal There, uh, was one other reason why they finally decided in the late seventies to start work on Diet Coke.
• ▶ 2:42:38 Ben Gilbert So David, do you know about how they announced Diet Coke?
• ▶ 2:42:54 David Rosenthal They announced Diet Coke in the summer of 1982.
• ▶ 2:43:15 Ben Gilbert Diet Coke was announced on stage with the Rockettes performing to celebrate the new beverage.
• ▶ 2:43:26 David Rosenthal By the end of 1983, the first full year on the market, Diet Coke is the number one diet drink in America.
• ▶ 2:43:43 David Rosenthal 30% of Diet Coke drinkers, even in the early days, are men.
• ▶ 2:43:49 David Rosenthal And by 1984, Diet Coke becomes the third best selling soft drink in America, period, behind Coke and Pepsi.
• ▶ 2:43:59 David Rosenthal And Diet Coke costs significantly less for Coke to produce because it doesn't have sugar.
• ▶ 2:44:11 David Rosenthal So diet Coke is go sweat is like huge, huge grand slam win.
• ▶ 2:44:48 David Rosenthal So, despite all the success of Diet Coke, and it was a huge success, even
• ▶ 2:47:37 Ben Gilbert There's Diet Coke.
• ▶ 2:51:55 David Rosenthal And then the final question of the day, a reporter asks whether assuming this new Coke thing is a success, if diet Coke will also be reformulated.
• ▶ 3:16:07 Ben Gilbert And the answer is Diet Coke and Coke Zero.
• ▶ 3:16:24 David Rosenthal Yeah, it is sort of ironic that the last 20 years have been about a metamorphosis into a total beverage company, and it's Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero that are leading the way.
• ▶ 3:25:23 Ben Gilbert 40% of all volume is trademark Coca-Cola, which is just Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and the like caffeine free and flavored variants.