To everything there is a season, and with the return of ’90s fashion comes the return of the discontinued ’90s soda that isn’t Crystal Pepsi. Surge, the official soft drink of X-Gamers, candy ravers, and other assorted ’90s types, is coming back, complete with whatever “carbos” are. (Surge was launched in 1996 and pulled from shelves in the early 2000s.) The return of the totally extreme neon-green beverage marks the first time parent company Coca-Cola has brought back a discontinued brand. Surge will be sold exclusively on Amazon in 12-pack form while Coke gauges demand for the product, which is apparently strong enough to muster levels of youth activism unheard of in most social-justice circles.
The return of Surge is a triumph for members of the so-called SURGE Movement, a Facebook group over 133,000 strong that has been barraging Coca-Cola with four-hour call-a-thons demanding the return of their beloved Surge, presumably fueled by the secretive, shameful consumption of Surge’s mortal enemy, Mountain Dew Code Red. The group also raised nearly $4,000 to erect a billboard near Coke’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta calling for the fatcats at Coke to listen to the people’s anguished cry for sugary justice, lest they face a bunch of kids in ironic JNCO jeans talking trash about them on the Internet. Their efforts seem to have paid off, and Coke unveiled the newly revitalized Surge for a crowd of screaming InSURGEents (that one’s free) in a ceremony SURGE Movement admin “Matt” described as “like being in a dream.”
[via Grubstreet]