We continue to work together in our TaB community to convince Coca-Cola to bring TaB back into production.
So far, we’ve focused our energy on the parent company, and we’ve tried to get external entities (like stores and restaurants) to help us.
Today, we have a different approach.
Local Bottlers
There are around 45 bottling companies that create Coca-Cola Products and distribute them to stores around the U.S.
We have selected three large bottlers in a variety of areas around the United States. The way we see it, we could all reach out to our local bottler; and the result would be that each bottler might get a few letters and e-mails…OR, we could multiply our efforts by having all of us contact all three of these bottlers. Having our voices combined will maximize our impact.
Our Reasoning
The hope is that if these bottlers realize there is demand for TaB, they will work with the parent company to bring it back. These bottling companies are very customer-focused and have a much closer connection to consumers as they are the ones who create and distribute the product(s) we all love. We hope they take our request to heart and work with Coca-Cola.
The Bottlers We’ll be Contacting:
Coca-Cola Florida
Great Lakes Coca-Cola
Swire Coca-Cola
Note: if your local bottler isn’t on the list–don’t be alarmed. We have to start somewhere, and our goal is to target bottlers that 1) recently produced TaB , 2) are in a few different regions in the United States where there is demand for TaB, and 3) they previously participated in selling product on Amazon. If we can get even one of these to start producing and selling TaB on amazon, it’s a step in the right direction.
Depending on how things go, we may target others later.
Call Your Local Bottler Too!
In addition to having all of us contact these three bottlers–it’d be great if every one of you contacted your own local bottler too. That way, all of the bottlers are hearing from us.
Next Steps
Please stay tuned for additional mailing address details for these companies. We will be scheduling this effort on Friday 10/8. This will provide us ample time to promote the event and recruit others to join us. The more of us, the better. Do you have a kid or grandkid who is complaining of boredom? Maybe they can help us write letters on 10/8??
In addition to your letters, the Committee will be sending a copy of the TaB stories book with a formal cover letter to the CEO’s of these companies on the same day.
As of the time of this publish, we’ve received over 500 signatures! And that’s in only a week!!!
We aren’t planning to post a lot of reminders about signing this TaB petition in our group, but there will be a few periodic posts about it to catch those who are new to all things #SaveTaBSoda.
Our next goal (once we’ve captured signatures from the TaB Social Media Community and those who follow SaveTaBSoda) is to capture signatures from the general public who support our efforts.
Stay tuned! And in the meantime, let’s do what we can to get those numbers up! If everyone who signed it could convince even one other person to sign–we’d be up to 1,000+!!
Before we go any further: Some of you may have already signed one or more petitions to Save TaB, and wonder why we are starting a new one.
It’s a great question. Let us explain.
Change.org allows any individual or organization to create a petition. And there are several TaB petitions floating around with few to many signatures. The important thing to note is that each petition organizer controls the petition and when/if it is delivered to the recipient. We don’t control any of those, and cannot deliver them to Coca-Cola.
We at SaveTaBSoda Committee have created a new petition–and we hope you sign it, share it, and help our group adopt it as our “official” petition for several reasons:
Control of Petition
The SaveTaBSoda Committee actually controls this petition and has the ability to send it to the Coca-Cola Company when we have enough signatures. Other petitions (while they are fantastic!) are controlled by individuals who decide when to share with Coca-Cola. (It’s perfectly fine to sign those too. Sign any petition you see that will help us save TaB–we certainly would too!)
Advertising
The SaveTaBSoda Committee plans to advertise our petition via Google Ads and Facebook Advertising. So while our petition signature numbers may start off small–they will organically increase as true TaB lovers uncover our efforts to #SaveTaBSoda!
Additionally, we have a call to action directly on our home page to have users sign this petition, with traffic coming in directly from our Google Ads. A petition is one of the best ways we can show Coca-Cola just how many of us love TaB.
Staying Power
We hope by now you are seeing that the SaveTaBSoda committee is here to stay. We’re in this for the long haul. We started organizing in October of 2020, and our volunteer army has shown no sign of weakness. In spite of us all having full work schedules, we find the time to work together for our shared cause.
We plan to be around until TaB is back on store shelves and beyond. So we will be here to deliver the petition when we have the right number of signatures.
Note: We have established several committee members as administrators of the petition. Having several stewards of our signatures will help ensure that our petition continues to carry on even if one of us isn’t around to deliver it.
Thanks so much for your support–and now is the time to Sign, Share, and Share again! This petition is going to need some love 🙂
Final Note
We are looking for some additional photographs to post along with the petition. Change.org advised that having several images associated with the petition can help gain signatures. Photos with people are best. If any of you have a nice photo that shows people enjoying TaB, and you’d be willing to use it for the petition–please contact us. We can certainly rotate a few different ones through 🙂
In our prior blog post, we shared the story of the SURGE Movement. Where we left off, the group had been working hard to get Coca-Cola’s attention around the demand for SURGE to hopefully get it brought back into production.
It’s Coming Back!
In 2014 (after 2.5 years of effort), the SURGE Movement finally had received the exact message they wanted to hear from Coca-Cola’s President: J.A.M. (Sandy) Douglas. The e-mail said “…thanks for your ongoing interest in SURGE. We are working on a plan to make SURGE available again by popular demand and we will follow up with you as soon as it’s ready. Thanks.”
“When we received the first communication from [Coca-Cola’s President], making us aware of SURGE’s imminent return, I literally couldn’t stay standing.” said Sheridan. “I was so excited, my body alternated between bouts of jumping and uncontrollable school-girl giggling, and collapsing to my knees, overwhelmed by the gravity of what was happening.”
And it was actually happening 😊
Visiting Coca-Cola Atlanta
As the plans for bringing SURGE back began to emerge, the SURGE Movement members were invited to Coca-Cola headquarters for a SURGE launch party. The group had never met in person—so this opportunity was going to be exciting on many levels. “I had been working with Evan and Sean every single day for the last 2-2.5 years so to finally have had an opportunity to meet them in person was an extremely amazing experience,” said Winans.
“I can’t describe the feeling that came over me when I turned the corner and saw the surprise SURGE party,” said Carr. “The celebration was amazing…the energy behind the relaunch of this product…was…so full of energy!”
SURGE Movement members pose with Coca-Cola Employees at the SURGE Launch party. Photo by Marc Andrew Stephens, courtesy of SURGE Movement
After the Revival
When Coca-Cola brought SURGE back, they started with an online-only distribution through Amazon. And it expanded from there!
During the course of six years, SURGE was produced in:
16-ounce cans
Frozen form (first at Burger King, and eventually at Cinemark Theaters, Wawa’s, Corner Stores, Royal Farms, Stripes, Quik Shops, Loaf ‘N Jugs, and other retailers throughout the nation)
12-ounce cans (produced for a limited time only via Coca-Cola Consolidated Territory)
Fountain (SURGE bag-in-box)
Other Flavors!
SURGE Red Berry Blast, available at Circle K stores
Freestyle Machines
Surge, Surge Zero, SURGE Vanilla Vibe, SURGE Cherry Rush, and SURGE Grape Glory (only in Burger King)
During the time of SURGE’s growth, the SURGE Movement lived on in social media. The SURGE Movement Admins worked together to ensure a positive future for SURGE. “We’ve got something special going on that isn’t going away,” said Carr. “SURGE is in all of our hearts forever and the Movement is where we celebrate.”
2020 Happened
Unfortunately, for SURGE fans and TaB fans alike—it’s very difficult to obtain our sodas these days. TaB has been completely eliminated (other than via fountain at three Coca-Cola Store locations in Atlanta, Orlando, and Las Vegas).
SURGE, while it has not been eliminated, is currently not being bottled or distributed (due to covid supply chain issues, aluminum shortages, and ongoing company transitions). Coca-Cola has temporarily ceased the bottling, production, and distribution of SURGE. Until it’s available in a more widespread manner, SURGE fans can continue to purchase SURGE at participating Burger King Freestyle locations nationwide.
But this is not the end…it is only the beginning!
2021 and Beyond!
SURGE Movement Admins Matt, Evan, and Sean have been through a lot trying to save their favorite soda. And we appreciate their willingness to share their stories with us. With the addition of admins Joey Chemis and Bingo Henderer, they are ready to help take SURGE to the next level!
Words of Wisdom
In closing, they have a few words of encouragement for TaB (and SURGE) lovers alike:
We at the SURGE Movement are seeing the energy being put behind TaB and are inspired by how organized these efforts are. Our advice is to never give up and keep trying new things, let the community decide what’s best.
These brands are much more than soda brands– to those who grew up with them, they are lifestyles. As our community continues to ensure SURGE expands and is broadened, there should be some room on the shelf for TaB as well.
Keep up the hard work and continue to show the loyalty that makes a great brand. In most of our eyes, the comeback story for SURGE is mostly unwritten. Eventually with a balance of the right strategies, the uphill battle will pay off and the power of the people will win the pennant. We at the SURGE Movement wish your team and community the greatest luck ahead!
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed the blog posts about products that have been discontinued and brought back due to consumer demand. And we hope they have helped to inspire and energize you around our plan to Save TaB Soda!
While SURGE and TaB are very different-tasting sodas, there are a lot of similarities between the products and their fans: the drinkers are incredibly loyal, and the products are very unique and very iconic. SURGE screams 1990s, while TaB was the leading diet drink from the prior three decades. Both are “retro,” and both have cemented themselves as pop culture icons!
Stay tuned for additional blog posts about saving our soda, and how you can help! It’s going to take all of us to make a difference.
In our prior blog post, we shared a handful of success stories about products that were once discontinued, and subsequently brought back due to consumer demand.
We left off in the last post talking about SURGE—now let’s dig in to explore how this brand was brought back to life by a group of SURGE Super Fans!
Note: This blog post is made possible by collaboration with Evan Carr, Sean Sheridan, and Matt Winans—the founding members of the SURGE Movement. They love SURGE (and we love TaB). We have a lot in common–we’re united in our efforts to help Coca-Cola see the demand for our favorite sodas! We all want to see our sodas produced for many years into the future.
While this blog post is about another soda brand, we think the amazing efforts a group took to save a discontinued soda are very impressive–and we think TaB drinkers everywhere will be interested to think about this story in the context of what else we might do to save TaB!
About SURGE
SURGE was originally produced by Coca-Cola and available through its bottlers nationally from 1997-2003. It was competing directly with Mountain Dew and marketed to a young demographic—many of them still in middle and high school. SURGE was a green, ‘fully loaded citrus soda, with carbos.’ The bold blend of citrus flavors and maltodextrin, combined with low carbonation provided a bold, yet smooth taste. SURGE was synonymous with video games, MTV, and anything else related to the “extreme lifestyle” that was part of youth culture in the 1990s.
SURGE was there to “feed the rush.” Commercials at the time featured young SURGE drinkers participating in extreme races where they hurdled over couches, rolled down hills in barrels, scaled muddy hills (and other such activities), all to obtain the reward of a single SURGE soda at the end!
The young crowd who embraced SURGE happily made it a part of their lifestyle. It quickly became an important part of the lives of those who loved it.
As these young SURGE fans grew up and started heading off to College—Coca-Cola was already planning to phase SURGE out. SURGE was officially discontinued in 2003—a new soda called Vault was introduced in 2005 to fill that gap in their lineup. Coca-Cola was following the new energy drink craze—calling Vault an “Energy Soda.”
But the incredibly loyal SURGE fans (a whole generation who grew up drinking it) weren’t exactly finished with SURGE—it was taken from them against their wishes, by the Coca-Cola Company. And they wanted it back!
The SURGE Movement Begins!
Enter the SURGE Movement. It was founded by three SURGE Aficionados—Evan Carr, Sean Sheridan, and Matt Winans. As early as 2008, Matt had created an unofficial SURGE fan page on Facebook and had acquired around 8,000 followers. In 2011, Evan created the SURGE Movement page on Facebook and began gaining followers as well. Sean, another super fan, wanted to be a driving force in the movement to bring SURGE back into production. Matt, Evan and Sean combined their efforts and became the admins behind the SURGE Movement—working together to gain followers and amplify their voices.
SURGE Movement Admins Sean, Evan, and Matt. Photo Courtesy of SURGE Movement
“It was right before Christmas in 2011,” said Carr. “I was feeling reminiscent about SURGE and wanted to know who else felt the same way about it that I did…there weren’t any communities for the brand but I knew there were other fanatics out there just like me, so that’s when I decided to create the page.”
The Early Days
The SURGE Movement has undertaken many of the same tactics we’ve employed to Save TaB Soda! We’ve mailed Valentine’s Day cards, targeted a mass call Coke Day, and sent books and gifts to executives. (And of course, we have more events planned!)
The SURGE Movement had a handwritten letter-writing campaign with theme ‘All we want for Xmas is SURGE.’ “People had submitted creative drawings and custom-made cards,” said Winans. “It was really neat to see our members put that much effort into a single task.”
The Movement created ‘SURGE Coke’ days or ‘Surging’ days where the members would call the Coca-Cola consumer affairs hotline. They created Facebook posts that asked their fans to Call Coca-Cola en masse to request SURGE as a product.
Sample social media campaign encouraging calls to Coca-Cola. Photo Courtesy of SURGE Movement
“Our first organized ‘SURGE Coke’ day was on August 1, 2012,” said Sheridan. “We had been encouraging our members to call since the beginning…but after having it suggested to us, decided to organize a mass call-in day on the last Friday of every month until SURGE was brought back.”
After a few call-in days, the Consumer Affairs representatives caught on and began expecting the calls. “The responses have varied in enthusiasm, from exasperation over fielding thousands of calls to excitement and encouragement,” said Sheridan.
Larger Campaigns
As the SURGE Movement grew in membership and participants, they took their efforts to the next level. With their community numbers now around 11,000 in mid-September of 2012, they began to poll the Movement on the next steps. “We needed to launch a fun project to engage our community’s participation,” said Winans.
Billboard
The group decided a good use of their funds would be to erect a SURGE Movement billboard close to Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters. It would hopefully draw attention to their cause both from Coca-Cola officials, as well as local news media.
“We raised over $3000 and had the billboard displayed about a mile from Coke’s Headquarters in Atlanta, GA,” said Carr. “Had we not heard back from Coke, a bigger campaign was in the works for the $10,000 billboard much closer to the headquarters.”
Billboard near Coca-Cola Headquarters. Photo Courtesy SURGE Movement
Billboard-Start of Something Big
The billboard itself resulted in feature stories from many widely recognized news sites: CNN Money, Business Insider, Yahoo! News, and BuzzFeed.
Photo showing the SURGE Movement made the front page of BuzzFeed. Photo Courtesy SURGE Movement.
Would all of these efforts eventually pay off? Of course! (This blog series is all about product comeback success stories!)
We’re here to Save TaB! If you’re reading this, you may be wondering “how likely is it that Coca-Cola will change its mind and bring it back; what are our chances of saving it?” You’re not alone—we wonder that too.
And while we can’t know for sure—we do know that many companies have brought previously discontinued products back due to consumer demand. This blog post is part one of a three-part series all about products that made a comeback!
This first article introduces a handful of products that have made a comeback! Let them serve as inspiration for our cause 🙂
One of McDonald’s most interesting menu items, the McRib, is a boneless pork sandwich slathered in barbecue sauce and topped with pickle and onion on an obolong bun. It was introduced in 1981 and discontinued in 1985. It was then brought back due to consumer demand–but eventually removed from the menu altogether once more.
But consumers wouldn’t have it! Now it’s regularly brought back on a limited time basis in select restaurants—and consumers wait all year for the announcement to get their McRib value meal.
The disc-shaped candies wrapped in waxed paper were discontinued when the factory that produced them went out of business in 2018. (If you’ve ever tried a conversation heart around Valentine’s day–you know what these taste like, because they’re made by the same company).
Nearly two years later, the candies were brought back into production by the firm that purchased the intellectual property. Now consumers everywhere can get their old-timey candy fix with the re-released Necco wafers. The candy that lived from 1847-2018 gets a second chance in the spotlight!
Pepsi introduced Crystal Pepsi during the 1990s when ‘clear’ meant healthy in consumers’ eyes. Taking the caramel color out of regular Pepsi seemed like a no-brainer for the company to sell more sodas and gain market share from their competitors. Unfortunately, consumers didn’t really fall in love with the clear cola, and it was discontinued. It was brought back for nostalgia reasons (or as Pepsi called it “overwhelming fan demand”) for a short time in 2016 for consumers to get another taste! We’ll see if this one comes back again, or if soda fans have had enough!
Cheez Balls and Cheez Curls:
Planters.com
These iconic 1990s snacks were off store shelves for 12 years until being brought back into the spotlight by the Kraft-Heinz company in 2018 for a “limited time only.” As recent as today—they’re still for sale on Amazon! Three years is a long “limited time,” let’s hope they keep them around for the consumers who love the products!
This is our favorite comeback story, and the most relevant for TaB drinkers! Coca-Cola’s soda designed to compete with Pepsi’s Mountain Dew was released in 1997. The “Mountain Dew Killer” in all its green glory was available in stores nationwide until its discontinuation in 2003. During those six years, it acquired a fanbase unlike many other sodas (with loyalty similar to us TaBaholics!) And the Surge drinkers weren’t prepared to let it disappear without a fight. Our next blog post is about the fanbase who worked together to save Surge from the history books….
As previously communicated, we are scheduling a virtual social event! You have two days to RSVP!
Who: Anyone who loves TaB and wants to meet other TaB lovers.
What: Fun TaB Happy Hour
When: Friday, August 13th from 7-9 PM EDT. Join when you can, leave when you need to!
Where: It will be a virtual event–RSVP On Facebook to get the login information.
Why: It’s just for fun! But we also want to keep our group engaged in our quest to SaveTaBSoda!
IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to wear your favorite TaB apparel (if you have any) and if you have any TaB collectibles–make sure you have them close by for a TaB Show and Tell 🙂
Thanks to everyone who contacted Wal-Mart and McDonald’s on behalf of the greater TaB-drinking community!
We received many e-mails from TaB drinkers who confirmed they contacted both entities, and we saw a lot of activity indicating participation from those on Facebook as well!
So far, we’ve received a few responses back from McDonald’s–nothing committing to bringing TaB back–but nothing saying “no” either! So far, no response from Wal-Mart–but it’s early.
Next Steps
(Action Item) If you receive a response from either company–keep in mind it is likely going to be a canned response that comes from a front-line employee. To be sure someone heard you–reply back and ask them to escalate your request to a supervisor or manager.Make sure they know you’re serious about your request, and how adding TaB to their product lineup will benefit them as well!
If you receive an interesting response, please be sure to let us know!
If you haven’t–don’t forget to like us on Facebook! And stay tuned for additional activities and events from the SaveTaBSoda Committee.
As previously communicated, we are scheduling a virtual social event!
Who: Anyone who loves TaB and wants to meet other TaB lovers.
What: Fun TaB Happy Hour
When: Friday, August 13th from 7-9 PM EDT. Join when you can, leave when you need to!
Where: It will be a virtual event–RSVP On Facebook to get the login information.
Why: It’s just for fun! But we also want to keep our group engaged in our quest to SaveTaBSoda!
IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to wear your favorite TaB apparel (if you have any) and if you have any TaB collectibles–make sure you have them close by for a TaB Show and Tell 🙂
Save TaB Soda 