Long-suffering fans of Surge, the once defunct, highly-caffeinated citrus soda, may now rejoice. A large and still growing social media movement has influenced The Coca-Cola Co. to begin selling Surge again.
Surge, which was marketed by Coke and discontinued in the early 2000s, will soon have limited availability of 16 oz. cans in 12-packs exclusively through Amazon.com
An accordingly enthusiastic Facebook group, The Surge Movement, has accumulated more than 144,000 likes and influenced a resurrection that joins the legendary groove of Mark Morrison as perhaps the most important returns in modern American history.
Surge, the first Coke product sold and marketed exclusively online, has garnered a cult following strong enough for the cola giant to cite the group in its announcement of the return.
“Surge, which debuted in 1996 and was taken off the market in the early 2000s, is making a comeback thanks, in part, to a passionate and persistent community of brand loyalists who have been lobbying The Coca-Cola Company to bring back their favorite drink over the last few years,” the Coke website says.
Wendy Clark, president of sparkling and strategic commerce for Coca-Cola North America, said that this could be the first of a number of future efforts to launch niche products through e-commerce partnerships.
“This will be a great learning experience for us and a refreshing opportunity for fans,” Clark said in the announcement.
The Coke announcement notes that The Surge Movement raised nearly $4,000 in 2013 to design and set up a billboard near Coke’s Atlanta headquarters. It read: “Dear Coke, we couldn’t buy Surge, so we bought this billboard instead.” The billboard also directed onlookers to its Facebook page.
And how do the soda activists feel about the big news?
