How New Coke Went From Market-Changer to Company's Humbling Biggest Blunder

Still smarting from the "Pepsi Challenge" taste-test battle and facing declining market share, Coca-Cola launched "Project Kansas," a top-secret mission to reformulate Coke. A sweeter version of the flagship cola prevailed and agency McCann Erickson was brought on board to develop marketing behind the April 23, 1985 launch. Marcio Moreira, now vice chairman at McCann Worldgroup, was one of a core group of the agency's execs clued in to the stealth project. Ad Age asked him to reflect on the launch that would come to be known as one of marketing's biggest blunders.