For years, Diet Coke has been derided. Rumors of Gene Siskel, of the famed Siskel and Ebert, had developed a brain tumor from consuming Diet Coke. This was not out of the blue, in 1996, the National Institutes of Health had insinuated the same thing. Though Atlanta drink company Coca-Cola had shut them down, much like they had with the dangers of caffeine about a hundred years before. In fact, consuming artificial sugars is linked to weight gain, increased anxiety and panic attacks come from the high levels of caffeine, So, with mountaining information, Coke decided to act! By letting men know Diet Coke was not just for ladies.
This ad is remarkable for a lot of ways. Sexualizing Diet Coke is one thing, but the Coca Cola company had done a lot for diet drinks. The first major diet drink to market was Coke product Tab. Flavored like Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi, but much sweeter (thanks to the saccharine) and more bitter, the can was pink — for the ladies.
Because in order to fight the good fight, against communism, men could be barrel chested with an average 1960-1980 blood pressure of 160/100, but women were expected to stay thin with cigarettes, meth, and diet sodas. Thus, in 1963, Tab, followed by Diet Coke in 1982.
Diet Coke soon dwarfed the Tab market, eventually leading to Tab’s dismissal. Followed in 2005 (and reformulated in 2017) with Coke Zero, which actually was supposed to taste like Coke.
The commercial addresses the problem, what can we do to make Coke sexier, but show it’s for men too? One of the more iconic commercials of the era; tying us even more to our caffeinated overlords.
With the sweetener aspartame declared a known carcinogen by the WHO recently, who knows if Diet Sodas will ever be this sexy again.
