1990 was the year my soda nerdom first surfaced. I really should have prepared myself for all that was to come, but at the time, I was oblivious. All I knew was that I must collect all of the Pepsi Cool Cans. It was my mission, my burden, my legacy. I lived within walking distance of a small local grocery store that had a Pepsi vending machine out front, and I was there nearly everyday popping my quarters in. By the end of the summer I had amassed a garbage bag full of the empty cans. My mom threw them all away shortly after. I will never forgive her for that and I’m counting down the days until I can stick her in a darky, dingy nursing home.
The Cool Cans accomplished two things. First, it freshened up the stale pepsi look to appeal to younger drinkers. Its last major can redesign had been 1973. A year after the success of the Cool Can promotion, Pepsi made their first official logo change in almost 2 decades. Second, if you looked in the bottom of empty cans, some had a dollar value ($1, $5, $25, etc) which could be redeemed for cash.
There was a minor controversy over the cans. Specifically, the black neon-like can. Some ingenious chap figured out if you stack two of these cans on top of each other in the correct position, a vertical “S-E-X” appear. A Pepsi spokesman insisted it was merely a coincidence.
More information about the Pepsi Sex Cool Cans, check out Snopes.com for a great article on it.
Not to be outdone, Coca-Cola also released special cans in the summer of 1990. Things didn’t go nearly as well. MagiCans were an odd bit of engineering and technology. Unfortunately, it might have been a little ahead of its time. MagiCans were spring-loaded with actual cash. When you opened one of these, money would be lifted up, popping out of the can. Many malfunctioned, and a few people ended up drinking a disgusting mix of chlorinated water and aluminum sulfate.
In many cans, the spring would get jammed and not release the prize inside. In these special cans there was also a sealed-off portion that contained liquid. ( to give the can enough weight so you wouldn’t know if you had a winning can until you opened it) In a few of the cans, that sealed-off portion wasn’t sealed tight enough.
A whole article in the New York Times was devoted to the fiasco shortly after the promotion kicked off.
Worried about the bad publicity from that report, Coke took out advertisements yesterday in newspapers in 50 big United States markets. The full-page ads, to be run only once, warned consumers that a ”very small number” of cans contain a foul-smelling, but harmless, water that should not be drunk.
Coca-Cola also bought television time to deliver the same message.
There was also a rumor someone died from drinking the foul-smelling water. This time, according to Snopes, the rumor was false.
Nowadays new packaging designs seem to change yearly, if not seasonally, but back in summer of 1990, these limited time cans caused a lasting memory for many soda drinkers.
Note: Coca-Cola is releasing a few summer can designs this year:
I have 3 / 4 of the 1990 cool cans in my collection ( missing the most boring one in my opinion, the confetti looking one ). I’m excited for cokes new designs for this summer but I haven’t seen any out in the wild just yet. Hopefully soon.
They did the same thing with indie artists and aluminum mountain dew cans last year Tim, I actually have two of them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23475878@N07/2868627245/
You should to an article about these, they’re amazing.
hi tim
heres a drink i remember from my youth called QUATRO. i think it was supposed to be a mixed fruit drink. i dont know if you had it in the us.
heres a link for the advert. very 80’s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rPlO8qEmco
i personally like the throwback cans more than any of the others
The third Pepsi from left to right has those 80’s zig-zag lines and confetti. The ad would have a topless 40 year old on a skateboard wearing a sideways baseball cap and tight shorts.
Crap, I remember those! I think I had all four of them as collectors, but the bottoms of the cans started to rust and I threw them out. That was a cool promotion.
http://consumerist.com/tag/anti-energy?i=5013314&t=meet-drank-the-anti%20energy-drink the new anti-energy drink, purple drank.
I spose its designed to help niggers take more naps.
Got my second new coke can this weekend at WaWa. (The one with the stars, all the way on the right.)
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