Diet Coke

As the cola war exploded again this week, Pepsi announced that international pop star and actress Madonna will be its newest celebrity spokesperson, following a tradition started by superstar Michael Jackson five years ago. Pepsi officials said Wednesday that Madonna's one-year contract calls for her to star in a series of Pepsi commercials and perform in a worldwide concert tour. In March, Madonna will debut the title song from her new album in a Pepsi commercial broadcast worldwide.

Massachusetts Consumer Affairs Secretary Paula Gold on Thursday issued a challenge to world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, or at least to the makers of the diet cola product he endorses. Gold asked the Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola companies to substantiate advertisements now being run that tout taste tests results showing Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi are both No. 1.

Boxer Mike Tyson is at the center of a new battle between two soft-drink heavyweights, with Coca-Cola claiming that Diet Pepsi's ads featuring the champion are misleading. Coca-Cola Co. has asked all three television networks to pull a 30-second commercial showing Tyson telling reporters there was no question who was going to win the big fight, meaning Diet Pepsi beating Diet Coke.

Ever since they made a marketing blunder of Edsel magnitude, it hasn't been easy for the makers of Coca-Cola. Now, as if the company didn't already have enough problems with the ill-fated new formula for its flagship soft drink, researchers at no less than Harvard Medical School find New Coke fails in yet another respect--sperm-killing ability when used (foolishly) as a contraceptive douche.

U.S. District Judge Murray Schwartz of Wilmington, Del., agreed with a group of 40 small Coca-Cola bottlers that the company should divulge the formulas for Coke and other products. The bottlers are suing Coca-Cola over its pricing policies. Coca-Cola vowed that it would not disclose the 99-year-old recipe. The bottlers said they need the formulas to prove that Diet Coke is the same product as Coca-Cola.

Before a group of Coca-Cola aficionados known as the Cola Clan agreed to hold their 1978 convention at the Town & Country Hotel, the hotel's manager had to pull the plugs on soft drink machines that dispensed anything other than The Real Thing. That's how adamant Coke lovers like National City resident Bud West get about the world's most popular soft drink.

The Atlanta beverage maker confirmed that it will sweeten the taste of its 99-year-old flagship cola and also Diet Coke. Coke said it will start shipping the new product to stores about May 8. The new cola will come in slightly redesigned cans accented by a silver stripe with the exclamation NEW at the top of the can. The new products will be backed by an advertising campaign that will de-emphasize Coke's marketing strategy of berating Pepsi for being too sweet.