Elon Musk just made some serious rebranding changes to Twitter and in an odd chain of events, it led to ‘new Coke’ trending all over the platform. Coca-Cola may have permanently revolutionized marketing but even they were not free from some slip-ups that cost them. New Coke was one such mistake, which will go down in history as a moment to forget for the company. In order to understand why it is trending, let’s take a quick look at a brief history of new coke, and how Twitter’s rebranding to X falls under a similar category.
Why is ‘New Coke’ trending on Twitter?
It’s been less than a year since Elon Musk took over Twitter but it sure doesn’t feel like it. Over his tenure as CEO and now CTO, the billionaire has been coming up with one change after another. The most recent and significant one involves the company’s rebranding.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Musk announced that the microblogging platform will lose its name and the iconic blue bird. It will be replaced by ‘X’ in both name and logo. In fact, X.com now redirects to Twitter. The decision has not really clicked with people as they expressed their opinions on the platform.
https://twitter.com/Calebej37/status/1682974284191350784?s=20
Serious New Coke vibes here. pic.twitter.com/qYHUPbkAzg
— Christopher Monks (@crmonks) July 23, 2023
The move immediately drew comparisons to other rebranding decisions such as HBO Max to Max and Facebook to Meta. However, the one that stood out was Coca-Cola’s utterly forgettable New Coke campaign.
The History of ‘New Coke’
The importance of Coca-Cola’s iconic formula needs no introduction. Since the end of World War II, the company had over 60% share in the cola market. However, by 1983, it dropped to 24%, thanks to competition from Pepsi.
In order to match up to its rival, Coca-Cola decided to reinvent its legendary drink and introduced New Coke in 1985. The revised formula did not work well with the American public and this damaged the company even more.
As a result, the original formula came back in three months’ time, dubbed the ‘Coca-Cola Classic’. Somehow, this boosted their sales and gave them the market lead again. The company renamed New Coke as Coke II in 1990 and discontinued the formula in 2002.
https://twitter.com/RealSamSNJ/status/1681651028255539201?s=20
To date, Coca-Cola’s experiment with New Coke remains an example of why a company should not tamper with an established brand identity.
Twitter’s rebranding to X, explained
Now that we understand how the New Coke campaign correlates to Elon Musk’s rebranding of Twitter to X, let’s explore the decision in detail. The Tesla CEO announced X Corp. as a holding parent company of Twitter and his AI firm, xAI.
Not sure what subtle clues gave it way, but I like the letter X pic.twitter.com/nwB2tEfLr8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Although X came into existence earlier this year, X.com has been around since 1999 as an online bank, co-founded by Musk himself. Interestingly, the company later evolved into PayPal. Tesla’s Model X is also one of the manufacturer’s most popular cars.
Elon Musk’s association with the ‘X’ branding is also evident in his outer space exploration company, SpaceX. Interestingly, the billionaire’s son’s first name is also X as in X Æ A-12. Twitter’s evolution to X aims to bring a future state of unlimited AI-powered interaction.
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