JUNE 15, 2003
Surge of Support
A rising tide of fans try to revive the
Coca-Cola brand
There are campaigns to
Save the Rainforest, Save Endangered Species, and even, Save Winona,
but Save Surge? Surge, as in the citrus flavored, green-hued carbonated
drink launched by Coca-Cola in 1997 as a competitor to Mountain
Dew but has now become almost extinct on store shelves? Yes, that
Surge. It seems there is a very dedicated cult following for Surge
and, lately, it has become more organized thanks to the efforts
of Erik Karkovack, a 25-year-old web designer from Pennsylvania.
Karkovack became a Surge devotee when it first
debuted in 1997. However, three years later he noticed that Surge
was starting to disappear from store shelves. He soon learned
that bottlers increasingly were dumping the brand because performance
dropped after its initial launch.
A company spokesperson for Coca-Cola said Surge
concentrate is still produced and is part of the company's brand
portfolio. However, the decision whether to produce the drink
is made by each local and regional bottler, many of which have
opted to not distribute the brand.
In February 2002, Karkovack decided to develop
a website, www.savesurge.org, devoted to Surge fans and their
grass roots campaign to get Coca-Coal bottlers to put Surge back
on the shelves. Visitors to the site can sign a "Save Surge"
petition and also can read a section called "Surge Sightings,"
which lists places where Surge is sold. A section titled "How
You Can Help" gives visitors the opportunity to find their
closest Coca-Cola bottler in order to write a letter demanding
the return of Surge.
It also features a message board on which Surge
supporters post, among other things, pictures of their personal
Surge stockpiles, a Surge taxi won on E-Bay and tales of Surge-searching
expeditions.
The site logs about 500 to 1,000 hits a day
and more than 2,900 people have signed the petition so far, Karkovack
says.
"We get a lot of responses," he says.
"To listen to Coca-Cola, nobody likes the drink, but we get
plenty of letters every day from people saying that they love
the drink and are willing to go to weird extremes to get it."
Karkovack says most fans of Surge are hooked
by the taste, which he describes as being somewhat similar to
dnL, the 7 UP line extension from Dr Pepper/7 UP Inc., but with
more of a bite. But, he also credits Coca-Cola's innovation for
coming up with something different as part of the consumer appeal.
"Surge is truly an original and amazing
drink. I think it's really a Generation-X-type drink since most
Surge fans are teens to late twenties," Karkovack says. "It
used to be a mainstream drink and I think a lot of people my age
have great memories with it. For me, it was kind of part of my
youth. I was always driving around drinking a Surge."
On the Website's petition, Karkovack states,
"With the combination of its delicious, refreshing flavor,
and 'extreme' demographic marketing, SURGE has become not only
the favored soft drink, but indeed one of the benchmarks of our
generation." —Heather Todd
Visit Beverage World at www.beverageworld.com
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