Promo for Stranger Things 3 plays up the New Coke tie-in

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I was only 1 year old when the "New Coke" reformulation backlash happened, so the details of that whole issue are lost on me. Apparently I don't pay enough attention to the soda wars. Still, I know that the Coca-Cola Company introduced a new formula for Coca-Cola in 1985, but due to consumer dissatisfaction quickly had to change the name of this new formula to simply "Coke" and brought back the original formula as Coca-Cola Classic. I guess I had both Coke and Coca-Cola Classic to choose from for a large portion of my life, since the "New Coke" wasn't discontinued until 2002, but this choice didn't weigh heavily on my mind.

After seventeen years off the market, New Coke is coming back for a limited time, and it's all because of the Netflix series Stranger Things. Since the upcoming third season of that show is set in 1985, there will be New Coke references, and the Coca-Cola Company is going to make sure viewers have a chance to find out what the characters are talking about.

Coca-Cola will make available about 500,000 cans of New Coke to the public, who can buy it online as part of a package at CokeStore.com/1985, or have a chance to get it at the company’s World of Coca-Cola the week of June 3 on select days. As part of the promotion, Coca-Cola will also unveil limited-edition packages of original Coke with “Stranger Things” designs on them. 

And that's how we get the new Stranger Things promo seen below, which prominently features Coke and looks like it comes from a murky VHS recording of a commercial from 1985.

Stranger Things season 3 has the following synopsis: 

It’s 1985 in Hawkins, Indiana, and summer's heating up. School’s out, there’s a brand new mall in town, and the Hawkins crew are on the cusp of adulthood. Romance blossoms and complicates the group’s dynamic, and they’ll have to figure out how to grow up without growing apart. Meanwhile, danger looms. When the town’s threatened by enemies old and new, Eleven and her friends are reminded that evil never ends; it evolves. Now they’ll have to band together to survive, and remember that friendship is always stronger than fear.

The cast includes returning stars Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Dacre Montgomery, Charlie Heaton, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Priah Ferguson, Cara Buono, Winona Ryder, and David Harbour, along with new additions Francesca Reale, Maya Hawke, Jake Busey, and Cary Elwes.

The season will consist of eight episodes, and these are the titles: 

Suzie, Do You Copy?
The Mall Rats
The Case of the Missing Lifeguard
The Sauna Test
The Source
The Birthday
The Bite
The Battle of Starcourt

Get some New Coke and get ready to binge on Stranger Things 3 when it's released through the Netflix streaming service on July 4th.