Coke — which is no stranger to bad marketing floating around its flavor — appears to be hopping on the AI bandwagon, asking consumers to try a new computer-generated flavor called Y3000 Zero Sugar.
The soft drinks giant explains that the new drink was built using ‘human and artificial intelligence by understanding how fans imagine the future through emotions, aspirations, colours, flavors and more’.
The Y3000 is available in the United States, Canada, China, Europe and Africa. Released as a limited edition flavor on September 12, Coca-Cola is now inviting people to taste the futuristic soft drink.
But unscientific taste tests have left customers divided over whether the new Coke hits the mark.
“It tastes like cherry cola mixed with cotton candy,” said a taster named Michael. “That’s pretty good.”
Coca-Cola decided to create a new recipe using artificial intelligence and its called Y3000 Zero Sugar
Bubble enthusiast Emmanuel tells Fox News: ‘I think AI-generated Coke is better than human-tried and proven Coca-Cola. It has something in it that will make me start drinking Coca-Cola.’
But many soda fanatics like Kaycee and Mitra disagreed, saying they couldn’t figure out the new taste and preferred the original recipe.
‘I can’t identify the specific scent. Kind of like cotton candy mixed with Coke,’ Kaycee told the store. While, Mitra describes it as ‘tasting like medicine.’
Another sweet drink lover named Will went into detail about the futuristic drink’s flavor.
“I feel some strawberry, some island flavors, like a hint of papaya, some guava in there, maybe like a hint of a mango,” he said. “I’ll give it a solid 8.5 out of 10, just because I’m looking forward to more, and seeing what they can do next with Sprite.”
The Y3000 is available in the United States, Canada, China, Europe and Africa
The original Coke recipe, introduced in 1892, is loved and cherished by many. However, some have questioned the taste of the brand’s new AI-generated fragrance
The Coca-Cola logo on the Y3000 bottle is made of ‘liquid dots that coalesce to represent the human connections of our future planet.’
Customers can scan a QR code on the bottle to open a website that uses the AI model Stable Diffusion to turn photos of their surroundings into images with a similar color scheme and sci-fi aesthetic. In these images, the future looks smooth and very pink
‘We hope that in the year 3000 Coca‑Cola will still be as relevant and refreshing as it is today, so we challenged ourselves to reimagine the concept of what a Coke might taste like from the future – and what kind of experiences a Coke to investigate unlocking the future?’ Oana Vlad, Senior Director, Global Strategy of The Coca‑Cola Company said.
“The ‘Real Magic’ brand platform celebrates unexpected connections that make the ordinary extraordinary, so we deliberately brought together human intelligence and AI for an uplifting expression of what Coca‑Cola believes tomorrow will bring.”
A ‘new’ Coke formula was introduced by the company in April 1985 and would replace the original formula, 99 years after its introduction
But after nearly 1,500 daily complaint calls began coming in to the Coca-Cola office and their 800-GET-COKE phone line, the company was forced to bring back the original recipe less than 100 days later.
While the Y3000 may have divided people over its taste during initial testing, Coca-Cola hasn’t had a smooth ride with all of its futuristic products.
A ‘new’ Coke formula was introduced by the company in April 1985 and would replace the original formula, 99 years after its introduction.
But after nearly 1,500 daily complaint calls began coming in to the Coca-Cola office and their 800-GET-COKE phone line, the company was forced to bring back the original recipe less than 100 days later.
The move has been called one of the worst marketing decisions of all time. The switch to ‘new’ Coke still lives on in infamy, even decades later.
Then chairman and chief executive officer Roberto Goizueta said in 1995 at a special employee event honoring the 10-year anniversary of ‘new Coke’: ‘We set out to change the dynamics of sugar colas in the United States, and we did just that – although not in the way what we planned.’
Now the question remains whether Y3000 will last longer than ‘new’ Coke.