New Coke

Coca-Cola Co. said veteran beverage executive Brian Dyson, who headed Coke's U.S. operations when the company reformulated its flagship soft drink 16 years ago only to hurriedly return to the original flavor, will rejoin the beverage giant as vice chairman and chief operating officer. Dyson, 65, will be the No. 2 executive behind Chairman and Chief Executive Doug Daft. Dyson, a native of Buenos Aires, has been a consultant for Coke in recent years.

A Fluor Daniel unit and a subsidiary of utility Nipsco Industries Inc. said they'll build a $90-million co-generation energy plant at Inland Steel Industries Inc.'s Indiana Harbor facility and pursue other projects together. Fluor Daniel, a unit of Fluor Corp., will design and construct the plant under contract to Primary Energy, a Nipsco unit. The 95-megawatt plant will use waste heat from a new coke-producing facility that Inland will build at the site in East Chicago, Ind.

Coca-Cola U.S.A., Atlanta, said Wednesday that its senior vice president for marketing, Sergio Zyman, who was involved in the highly successful "Coke Is It" campaign and the controversial introduction of New Coke, has resigned. John C. Reid, currently vice president for marketing in the fountain department, will take over Zyman's position Aug. 1, Coca-Cola said. The company said Zyman plans to lead a Mexican private investment group. He joined Coca-Cola U.S.A.

Add Samuel Adams to the growing list of beers available in cans. The Boston Beer Co. said it will start selling its popular Samuel Adams Boston Lager in cans for the first time this summer, the Associated Press reports. The move will allow beer fans to take the popular lager places where glass bottles may not be allowed, such as pools, parks, beaches and sporting events. Once considered to impair the taste of fine beers, cans are now used by more than 180 craft breweries, according to the website ontaponline.com.

Patricia Kenyon, a Coke drinker for more than 40 years, was bubbling with anger. "It's like tearing down the Statue of Liberty!" said the distraught Anaheim woman. She was reacting to the news that the giant Coca-Cola Co. is dumping its 99-year-old formula for a sweeter-tasting drink. "As far as I'm concerned, Coke is an American institution, and I don't like our institutions being tampered with." Kenyon made it clear that she is not alone, adding, "My cleaning lady also objects."

Remember Billy Beer? Toaster pizza? Quadraphonic stereo? The Edsel? It may be too early to tell whether Coca-Cola Co.'s 3-month-old reformulated cola will join those products in oblivion, but Coke's recent experience with unhappy consumers reaffirms a marketing axiom: You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time.

Nostalgia prevailed Wednesday. Coca-Cola Co., stung by grassroots consumer resistance to its new, sweeter taste, said that it will resurrect the old one. Under the name Coca-Cola Classic, the old-formula drink will join the new one within the next few weeks. "Thousands of dedicated Coca-Cola consumers have told us they still want the original taste as an option," Coke spokesman Bob Cohn said. "We have listened, and we are taking action to satisfy their request."