Good day SURGE fans and welcome to the 61st edition of SaveSURGE News! It's the only place on the web that's fully-loaded with soda activists.

Sightings Report
There was 1 new SURGE Sighting reported since the last edition of SaveSURGE News. It's in Kent, WA.

Sadly, there was one deletion in Macon, GA.

Currently, there are 163 SURGE Sightings listed. Thanks to all of you who look for that gorgeous green label on very fountain you visit!

September is National SaveSURGE Month
As we announced in the last edition of SaveSURGE News, we have declared September to be National SaveSURGE Month! The decision for a month-long campaign came from many productive conversations between fans over on the SaveSURGE.org Bulletin Board. You spoke and we listened.

Here's what we're asking each of you to do:

• Every Friday: We're asking EVERY SURGE FAN to contact Coca-Cola, its Bottlers and local businesses in your area that serve Coke products in their fountain. Request that SURGE be brought back IMMEDIATELY. Tell them how much SURGE means to you!
  
  
• Every Day of the Month: Spread the word about SURGE and SaveSURGE.org any way you can. Wear your SURGE gear, tell your friends, pass out our flyer, sign our petition, start your own local petition and let everyone know that WE WANT OUR SURGE BACK!

SURGE fans, we need your help now more than ever before. To participate, you seriously need as little as five minutes a week. How easy is that? It's as simple as writing a letter, making a phone call or sending an e-mail. Do one of these things once a week and you've made us happy. Do all of them once a week and you make us really happy. Do all of them repeatedly each week in September and we may just run through the streets screaming "SSSSSSUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGGEEEEE!" We're even providing a list of virtually every Coke facility in the country and a list of national/regional businesses that either: serve SURGE, at one time carried SURGE or serve Coke products in their fountains. All the info you need will be right there on SaveSURGE.org starting Saturday, August 23.

The bottom line is that all of us working together can bring SURGE back! They can ignore one of us, but they can't risk ignoring thousands of us. Let's flood their call centers, stuff their mailboxes (both e-mail and snail mail) and let's make sure they know how much SURGE is missed. Just as important, let's be polite and show Coca-Cola and these other businesses how awesome and intelligent SURGE fans are. We deserve nothing less than to have our drink back. We've worked hard and it's time we show them what we can do when we all come together.

Should we expect Coca-Cola to bring SURGE back immediately after September is over? Probably not. What we're looking to do here is give them something to seriously think about. The possibility is there for them to respond quickly, but it's more likely that we may not see the results of our hard work right away. Planning to re-launch a soda, or even deciding to re-launch a soda isn't done overnight. Our patience will be another key in our campaign to bring SURGE back.

So let's rest up until the calendar turns to September 1 and then make it a month to remember!!!

Shepard's SURGE Commercials
Back in his college days at Temple U, SaveSURGE.org Hall of Famer Shepard Ritzen created two, 60 second commercials for his beloved SURGE as a class project. He recently got the film transferred over to DVD and was kind enough to send us a copy for posting on the site.

Shepard's commercials do a wonderful job of capturing the true essence of SURGE. Good times with friends, delicious citrus taste and an unstoppable energy for life. It's what SURGE is all about and it's what Shepard was able to put on film for all of us to enjoy! Using a soundtrack that includes Ned's Atomic Dustbin & Lighting Seeds, the commercials are so well made and produced that you wonder why Coke never marketed SURGE in this way.

Be sure to check out Shepard's SURGE Commercials in our For the Love of SURGE section. Thanks Shepard!

Note: To view the commercials, you need the latest version of the RealOne Player, available at www.real.com

RMJ Wants One More SURGE
We had a great week for SURGE-related multimedia! First, Shepard's excellent commercials and next we received a hip-hop masterpiece from RMJ who's straight outta Macon, GA. RMJ (or The Raptor, as they call him) wanted to do something special for the soda he loves. He put his incredible creativity, some great beats, some tight lyrics and a whole lot of love into creating "One More SURGE", an anthem for the fully-loaded generation!

The song comes in at 7:26, but RMJ tells us that he had so much to say about our beloved SURGE that "the song would've been longer...I just had so much to talk about". It never ceases to amaze us just how SURGE fans can mesh their creativity with their dedication and come up with great results each time. We've had a few songs about SURGE come our way since going online last year and it's time we give them their own section. That's why we're going to be unveiling a new page in For the Love of SURGE, dedicated to the multimedia contributions of SURGE fans.

So, from now on the For the Love of SURGE section will have a drop-down menu placed on it, splitting up the love into four sections: Stories and Photos, SURGE Multimedia, Recipes and SURGE Merchandise. It will no doubt create a lot better organization and make it easier to find what you're looking for.

Thanks to RMJ for making us all crave One More SURGE!!!!

Note: To listen to RMJ's song, you need the latest version of the RealOne Player, available at www.real.com

Petition Reaches 3,500
The Save Surge! Online Petition created by Hall of Famer Timb the Enchanter hit the 3,500 signature mark this week. Let's continue to get everyone we know to sign this puppy and make it just too big and too strong for Coke to ignore!

Poll Results - Silence tells us nothing
The latest SURGE Poll asked you: Do you think Coca-Cola is listening to SURGE fans?

The majority of voters are clearly confused by Coke's lack of public comment on the state of SURGE. Letters we write are responded to with generic non-answers and we at SaveSURGE.org have no idea whether or not they like the site. C'mon guys, could a little show of public support for your biggest fans be such a bad thing? I, for one, do believe their listening. They're just showing us their poker face for now. Stay strong SURGE fans, we are making a difference!

That's all the time we have for this week. Until next time, let's bring it back!

Sincerely,

Eric Karkovack
Co-Webmaster
www.savesurge.org