Soft drink commercials often rely on nostalgia to keep customers coming back by linking the crisp, refreshing taste of a soda to our childhood memories. Sometimes, however, our memories of legendary sodas of the past are connected to beverages that have been discontinued. It was a sad, sad day when you couldn’t find your favorite carbonated beverage at the corner store and learned that you would never taste the unique flavor again. If any of these 16 iconic sodas ever get a reboot, we’d totally hoard them.
#1: Crystal Pepsi
Pepsi launched its clear – yet still caffeinated – Crystal Pepsi in 1992 and marketed it as being “less acidic” and with “20 fewer calories” than regular Pepsi. This new product, however, was the target of what has been called a “kamikaze” attack by rival Coca-Cola. To torpedo Crystal Pepsi, Coke introduced Tab Clear and aggressively promoted it as a sugar-free drink in hopes of confusing consumers into assuming that Crystal Pepsi was also sugar free. It worked. Sales of Crystal Pepsi plummeted, and the soda was discontinued in 1994.
