Look at two cans. One is Coca-Cola. One is Coke Zero. You get about a second to tell which is which.
That’s the situation Coca-Cola created on July 20, when it rolled out a new global look across more than 200 markets. The goal was consistency: every Coke product should look unmistakably like Coke. It worked. Coke Zero now looks so much like Coke that the differences come down to a black ribbon on the can, a black cap on the bottle, and bigger “Zero Sugar” type.
A flight attendant in Melbourne has been posting about what that’s like on a drink cart. She keeps handing passengers the wrong Coke. Turn the new can a few degrees and the black ribbon disappears around the side.
