Coca-Cola’s Surge To Reemerge On Shelves

The company is bringing back one of its iconic ’90s soft drinks and fans of The SURGE Movement couldn’t be happier.

Back by popular demand, Coca-Cola is returning Surge to select stores throughout the Midwest, South, upper Great Plains states and on the East Coast, CNN Money reported Tuesday (Sept. 8).

The citrus-flavored soda was introduced back in 1996 to compete with Pepsi’s Mountain Dew and had a good run until it was eventually discontinued in the early 2000s.

But Surge’s cult-like following continued to grow — even in its absence.

The product’s vocal fans pleaded with Coca-Cola to bring the soda back, even banning together through a social media campaign in 2013 to purchase a billboard near Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters that read “Dear Coke, we couldn’t buy Surge so we bought this billboard instead,” WSB-TV reported.

In 2014, Coke executives must have gotten the message, because Surge was made available in limited quantities via Amazon Prime Pantry at a price of $14 for a 12-pack of 16-ounce cans. The re-launch was the first time the company returned a discontinued brand to the market.

Back when Surge was first made available on Amazon, Coca-Cola said the comeback was due in part to the “passionate and persistent community of brand loyalists who have been lobbying The Coca-Cola Company to bring back their favorite drink over the last few years.”

“If expectations are met, this may be only the first of a variety of efforts we explore to launch niche products through eCommerce relationships,” Wendy Clark, president of sparkling and strategic marketing, Coca-Cola North America, said in a press release last year. “This will be a great learning experience for us and a refreshing opportunity for fans.”

Fans can track the availability of Surge through social media by following the #SURGEcomeback hashtag or the soda’s official website.

We’re working to get you a #SURGEcomeback convenience store map ASAP. In the meantime, share where you find it! pic.twitter.com/rRJujaYQf5

— SURGE (@SURGE) September 9, 2015

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