BIG NEWS

Coca-Cola USA to Introduce Surge, a 'Fully Loaded Citrus Soda'

  • New soft drink debuts in January
  • New wide-mouth can and proprietary bottle
  • Advertising breaks on Super Bowl XXXI

ATLANTA -- It's coming. Surge -- a 'Fully Loaded Citrus Soda' -- will begin hitting store shelves, vending machines and soft drink fountains across the U.S. beginning in mid-January 1997.

Surge soda can Created to appeal to active youths and hard-working young adults, Surge has a bold citrus taste, low carbonation, a bright green color, and maltodextrin, an energy-yielding complex carbohydrate.

The Surge trademark "bursts" off the brilliant red and green packaging. Innovative packaging includes a 12-ounce can with a wide-mouth end to enhance the product's easy "drinkability," and a new proprietary 20-ounce bottle. Surge also will be available in one and two-liter bottles and at many fountain outlets.

Two television advertisements for the brand will air during Super Bowl XXXI on January 26, marking The Coca-Cola Company's first Super Bowl advertising since 1991. By early February, the Company estimates nearly 90 percent of households in Surge launch markets across the U.S. will have seen Surge television ads at least three times.

Surge soda can and bottle "The high-energy personality of Surge is reflected in its taste, its graphics and the spontaneity of its advertising, and is the result of our asking teens and young adults what they'd like in a new soft drink," said Jack L. Stahl, president, Coca-Cola USA. "Based on our research and the superior marketing and distribution strengths of our Bottlers, Surge is poised to become the next major non-cola soft drink."

Marketing support for Surge will include television, radio, and point-of-sale advertising, and sampling to more than five million teens and young adults in the first month of the product's introduction.

"The Coca-Cola Bottling system is excited about the huge opportunity this new soft drink offers," said Henry Schimberg, chief executive officer, Coca-Cola Enterprises, the largest Bottler in the Coca-Cola system. "Surge's enormous appeal to young consumers will make it a valuable addition to our brand portfolio. And it will bring a new level of excitement and interest in the soft drink category for our retail customers."

Specific roll-out markets will be announced in the coming weeks.