The group repeatedly posted requests on Coca-Cola's Facebook page, and encouraged its members to call Coca-Cola's consumer affairs hotline at 1-800-GET-COKE to voice their desires further, once every month. Vault was discontinued in 2011.Īs a result of Vault's discontinuation, a group was started on Facebook by Evan Carr called the 'Surge Movement'. After Vault's release, Karkovack announced the closure of. Upon cancellation of the fountain syrup, the community continued, adopting an approach of activism that led to the creation of the citrus soda Vault in June 2005. The community initially mapped the locations at which Surge could be purchased in fountain form. Revival Īfter the discontinuation of Surge in cans, a community was formed by web designer Eric 'Karks' Karkovack entitled 'Save Surge'. In 1997 Coca-Cola settled a trademark dispute with Babson Bros., an industrial cleaning product company whose cow-milking machine has been known as Surge since 1925. Īfter its inception, Surge's logo was updated and redesigned to a sharper and more modern look by a graphic designer/marketer named Colin Nekritz. Some of these catchphrases included 'Feed the Rush', 'Life's a Scream' and the references to Surge as 'A Fully Loaded Citrus Soda.' Further touted was that Surge had a considerable number of carbohydrates, hence the 'with carbos' tagline that was occasionally used in the marketing campaigns to emphasize the fact that Surge was supposed to be more than a soda, but an energy drink as well. Coca-Cola also used provocative catchphrases to market Surge to extreme sports enthusiasts and teenagers alike. Surge was widely associated with the extreme sports lifestyle, with television commercials similar to those used by Mountain Dew at the time. Until September 15, 2014, when Coca-Cola re-released Surge, Norway was the only country where one could still buy a similar soft drink in any form, as the original Surge recipe was still popular there.

Local food regulation prevented the bright green color from being used, so it was launched with a pale, more natural juice drink look and given a slight orange taste to match the flavor with the color. Because the Surge brand was already registered by another firm, the product was launched as 'Urge'. While preparations for the US launch were underway, a cry for help came in from the Norwegian Division, who were battling a successful launch of Mountain Dew in their market. Surge could be found in cans and fountain drinks until its eventual discontinuation in 2003. The Surge coolers were placed in high traffic areas in gas stations as a key promotion to push sales away from competitors coolers in the back of stores all over the United States. Surge continued to be sold in vending machines, and 5-foot-7-inch-tall (1.70 m) promotional surge coolers. A few years after the release, sales began to slip. Its release was accompanied by a $50 million nationwide marketing campaign that led to high sales and popularity. Surge was intended to improve on Mountain Dew by using maltodextrin for a longer-lasting blast of energy and with bolder, brighter presentation.

Coke's attempts to draw users away with divergent products like OK Soda or with similar ones like Mello Yello had not succeeded. In 1997, Coca-Cola started production of Surge in the United States, with its original whitepaper name being 'MDK,' or ' Mountain Dew Killer.' It was developed to converge with Mello Yello as a means of slowing Mountain Dew growth. History Early years Urge: the Norwegian variant of Surge Surge was re-released internationally in September 2018 in Burger King restaurants in the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines. Following a test-market for the beverage in the Southeastern United States in early 2015, Surge was re-released primarily in convenience stores in the Eastern United States and some Mountain states in September 2015. However, popular fan bases such as Facebook's 'SURGE Movement' led Coca-Cola to re-release the soft drink on September 15, 2014, for the US market via Amazon Prime in 12-packs of 16-US-fluid-ounce (470 mL) cans. Lagging sales caused production to be ended in 2003 for most markets. It was originally launched in Norway as Urge in 1996, and was so popular that it was released in the United States as Surge in 1997. Surge was advertised as having a more 'hardcore' edge, much like Mountain Dew's advertising at the time, in an attempt to lure customers away from Pepsi. Surge (sometimes styled as SURGE) is a citrus-flavored soft drink first produced in the 1990s by the Coca-Cola Company to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew. February 7, 1997 26 years ago ( ) (original run)Ģ014 9 years ago ( 2014) (Amazon-exclusive revival)Ģ015 8 years ago ( 2015) (Eastern United States)Īugust 2018 5 years ago ( 2018-08) (all Burger King and McDonald's Coca-Cola Freestyle machines)Ģ003 20 years ago ( 2003) (original run)

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