So interesting! My ex worked for Coca Cola for several decades, and I'd never heard of that product, much less the art. Congratulations on your acquisition.
Thanks, Dana! OK Soda wasn't around for very long and, apparently, didn't taste very good, so I'm guess it'll always be relatively obscure!
We were both freshly graduated from high school when OK Soda was unveiled. It's hard for us not to associate with a very specific point in our lives, Karen.
They test marketed it in Portland when I was in high school. There were sheets of "OK" stickers in the Willamette Week free newspapers. For some reason I collected tons of them and plastered them on the dresser in my childhood bedroom. I never liked the soda (I have always hated all sodas), but for some reason I really enjoyed the advertising.
Not a test market either NOR the target. I do like the art.
July 1, 2013 at 9:19 PM
[Image]Twenty years ago this year, Coca-Cola attempted to cash in on the Generation X craze by creating and marketing their own unique fruity concoction to that potentially lucrative, albeit slovenly demographic. By some unknown process, Coke ended up settling on Daniel Clowes as one of the artists recruited for the project, and the male/female designs above were his contribution to that particular ad campaign. A decade back, we lucked out and found the 21x21 male subway slat via a collector in Boston, and earlier this month we were able to match it up with a previously unseen female version.
OK Soda was only available in certain test markets (detailed here) for a little over two years, so turning up any promotional materials remains relatively tough. Complicating matters even further, a young guerrilla artiste named Shepard Fairey took it upon himself to replace these subway-specific advertisements—in Boston and Providence, two of the few locales that would've likely received them—with his own reinterpretations, in an earnest effort to reclaim the underground culture coopted by conformist, corporate hacks.
posted by Gonked, Glooked and Slurped! at 10:30 AM on Jun 7, 2013
7 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formSo interesting! My ex worked for Coca Cola for several decades, and I'd never heard of that product, much less the art. Congratulations on your acquisition.
June 8, 2013 at 12:32 AM
I miss OK Soda. What can I say... I *KNEW* I was being suckered with marketing, but it just felt so right. What a magical year that was.
June 9, 2013 at 5:39 PM
Thanks, Dana! OK Soda wasn't around for very long and, apparently, didn't taste very good, so I'm guess it'll always be relatively obscure!
We were both freshly graduated from high school when OK Soda was unveiled. It's hard for us not to associate with a very specific point in our lives, Karen.
June 10, 2013 at 3:00 AM
I had one of the Daniel C. ones in my fridge for many years, then I saw my room mate drunkenly drinking it thinking it was an old beer.
June 12, 2013 at 9:54 AM
Interesting stuff! Not familiar with this brand....I checked, my area was not one of the test marketed areas. Love the artwork they used though!
June 17, 2013 at 8:58 AM
They test marketed it in Portland when I was in high school. There were sheets of "OK" stickers in the Willamette Week free newspapers. For some reason I collected tons of them and plastered them on the dresser in my childhood bedroom. I never liked the soda (I have always hated all sodas), but for some reason I really enjoyed the advertising.
June 19, 2013 at 2:47 PM
Not a test market either NOR the target. I do like the art.
July 1, 2013 at 9:19 PM