Hello members of the SURGE Nation and welcome to the 47th edition of SaveSURGE News! It's fully-loaded with all the latest news and information about SURGE.

Sightings Report
There have been 2 new SURGE Sightings added since the last edition of SaveSURGE News. They are in: LA & TN.

Sadly, there were 6 deletions in: KY, MD, OH (2) & WA (2).

There was one change: Arlington Heights, IL was changed to Palatine, IL.

Currently, there are 173 SURGE Sightings listed. Thanks to everyone who's reported a Sighting!

E-Mail the World's Largest Coke Bottler
A new button has been added to the right side of the SaveSURGE.org home page recently asking you to e-mail Coca-Cola Enterprises (also known as CCE), the world's largest Coke bottler. Whether or not CCE produces a particular product pretty much tells you how Coke feels about it.

Please e-mail CCE at: ccemail@na.cokecce.com and TELL THEM YOU WANT SURGE! Also tell them your hometown so that they know where the demand is coming from. This is a very important step in letting the most influential Coke bottler in the world know how you feel about SURGE!

URGE in the USA
We at SaveSURGE.org are continuing our efforts to bring SURGE's Norwegian cousin URGE to the USA. We're trying (and you are doing a great job) to convince the folks over at Real Soda that importing URGE would be a great move. We've set up a special topic on the Real Soda message board dedicated to URGE:

http://www.realsoda.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=26

It's easily the most popular topic on their board, but we need every SURGE fan to leave a message! The more people who make their voices heard the better our chances so please sign in today.

Tim's SURGE Cab
Tim has been a supporter of SURGE and SaveSURGE.org for quite some time now. He's campaigned tirelessly for the soda he loves and now he's even working on a documentary, or as he loves to call it, a "Surgeumentary" ;) As if that weren't enough to prove his undying love and dedication to SURGE, he now owns a very rare SURGE Checker Cab!

The neon-green 1980 SURGE Checker Cab was a part of the SURGE Fully-Loaded Summer promotion which ran back in 1997. One of the major giveaways from the contest were the 39 cabs that Coca-Cola refurbished to spread the word about SURGE.

Recently one of these cabs went up for auction on eBay and Tim was determined to make it his. A bidding war ensued but in the end, Tim prevailed! That beautiful piece of machinery is now his and we were lucky enough to interview him afterwards. He tells of his plans for the cab and for the Surgeumentary as well. Be sure to check it out in For the Love of SURGE. Congratulations Tim!

Holy Cow, it's the SaveSURGE.org Baseball T!
With summer rolling in across the USA and our national pastime in full swing, SaveSURGE.org has added a special new item to our store. It's the SaveSURGE.org Baseball T, complete with colorful baseball-themed graphics and a message that needs to be seen. And remember, everything in the SaveSURGE.org Store is sold at cost, meaning we do not profit from any items sold.

Tim Likes Sprite Tropical Remix
The first positive comment for Sprite Tropical Remix came from Tim S. who wrote in: "I liked Sprite Tropical. It was a very good soda, but Surge is the best soda no matter what."

So far he is the only SURGE fan who's had something positive to say about the new soda. What do you think of Sprite Tropical Remix? E-mail your comments to surge@savesurge.org and we'll publish your comments right here!

Mountain Dew LiveWire Debuts
As if there aren't enough new sodas rolling out, another one has hit the radar screen within the past two weeks. Mountain Dew LiveWire is currently available across most of the USA (check your convenience stores for 20oz. bottles, 12 packs will follow soon). This orange-flavored soda follows the recent trend of brand-extensions that seem to have taken over the new soft drink market (including the successful Mountain Dew Code Red).

I had the opportunity to grab a 20oz. bottle and I have to say that this one isn't half bad! I couldn't quite remember where I'd tasted that sort of very strong, ultra-sweet (almost candy flavored) orange before until someone on the BevNet.com BevBoard mentioned that it tasted like a Fla-Vor-Ice popsicle (the kind that are packaged in long plastic tubes).

The flavor was kind of enjoyable but I don't think it's something I could drink on a regular basis because it is so incredibly sweet. That probably means I won't be drinking too many because Pepsi plans on selling LiveWire for the summer months only!

As for other opinions regarding LiveWire, Co-Webmaster Avery Lund says "Tastes a bit too cough syrup like to me. Way better than Code Red though. Sorta like flat Orange Slice. Not very refreshing though. I'll put it on level with Remix but way below dnL."

Over on the SaveSURGE.org Bulletin Board:

"it tastes pretty good kind of half orange soda half mountain dew"

"Yeah, I think it's actually pretty good, too (of course, they finally make a good drink and they have to go say right on it that it's only for Summer 2003). It sort of tastes like Orange Slice, I think. But it's good (but no Surge, of course)."

"right up there with surge, well maybe not, but still a keeper. I guess you could say right up there with dnL, and i'm practically addicted to dnL now, so looks like pepsi has a winner"

"Between this and dnL, I'll never sleep again"

"mountain dew livewire is one of the grossest pops ever. it's right down there with pepsi blue ,sprite remix and dnl. pepsi blue tastes like liquid gummy bears and livewire tastes like liquid orange jello. pepsi should just stick with sunkist that is actually good."

What do you think of Mountain Dew LiveWire? E-mail your comments to us at: surge@savesurge.org and we'll post them here.

Vanilla Coke & Code Red Sales are Down
Our friends over at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week that sales of two very popular new sodas, Vanilla Coke & Mountain Dew Code Red have fallen sharply since their initial success.

According to Beverage Digest magazine, Code Red sales dropped over 40 percent in supermarkets and convenience stores during the first quarter of 2003. Vanilla Coke sales fell 30 percent between October 2002 & March 2003. The biggest drop belongs to Diet Coke with Lemon, which is down a whopping 76.2 percent in convenience stores in the first quarter of 2003 as compared to the same period last year.

These numbers show that virtually every new soda will eventually show a decline in sales after the public has had a few months to try it out. I'm no business expert, but to me this suggests that Coke and Pepsi should focus on making their secondary brands (i.e. SURGE and Citra) available to the loyal fans they've built over the years. It's obvious that the new sodas they develop while, successful initially, fade over time and never live up to the outrageous expectations placed upon them. In the end, one brand does not end up outselling the others by a wide margin and so perhaps the soda companies would be best advised to offer consumers a wider variety of products instead of just retiring new brands after a couple of years. But, that's just my 2 cents!

Poll Results - Cans Rule!
The latest SURGE Poll asked you, What form of SURGE do you enjoy most?

39% - Can
35.3% - 20oz. Bottle
15% - 2 Liter Bottle
9.7% - Fountain

Total Votes - 133

I always thought it tasted better in a can!

That's all the time we have for this week. Thanks to all of you for your support!

Sincerely,

Eric Karkovack
Co-Webmaster
www.savesurge.org