FACT! #65

Courtesy of Wikipedia. They didn't even believe in truth in marketing, the soda wasn't even OK.

OK Soda is what happens when you try to can the alleged essence of Generations X/Y and their anti-corporate, apathetic, angst-filled and disillusionment. Conceived by Coca-Cola in 1993 and test marketed in a number of "hip" cities that summer, OK Soda had a limited life span on grocer's shelves.

The marketing campaign was created by Portland, Oregon based Wieden & Kennedy and centered around a sense of irony that only the teens and 20-somethings in the 1990's seemed to grasp. Unfortunately for Coca-Cola, it turns out that they were the victims of irony when their campaign was met with apathy and a general anti-corporate attitude.

There were a number of different cans styles that were released, above is just four of them. The artwork was done by Daniel Clowes and Charles Burns. There was also an "OK Soda Manifesto" that was released with the soft drink:

1. What's the point of OK? Well, what's the point of anything?
2. OK Soda emphatically rejects anything that is not OK, and fully supports anything that is.
3. The better you understand something, the more OK it turns out to be.
4. OK Soda says, "Don't be fooled into thinking there has to be a reason for everything."
5. OK Soda reveals the surprising truth about people and situations.
6. OK Soda does not subscribe to any religion, or endorse any political party, or do anything other than feel OK.
7. There is no real secret to feeling OK.
8. OK Soda may be the preferred drink of other people such as yourself.
9. Never overestimate the remarkable abilities of "OK" brand soda.
10. Please wake up every morning knowing that things are going to be OK.

Don't worry, that feeling of your brain melting out of your ears is really just blood. Okay, maybe you should go to the hospital. It's definitely a natural reaction to reading something like. For the kids of today, imagine that in hipster speak... It's essentially the same thing. This is precisely why you don't try to corner the market exclusively on the counter-culture, you really just end up lampooning yourself.

Since it left the shelves in 1995, it has attained a bit of a cult status. The flavor is, apparently, more like Diet Coke than the supposed, marketed taste of "fruity." Though I haven't been able to find anyone or any reviews of the taste back from 1993... Then again, I didn't exactly do much research into this one.