Paracultural Calendar for Apr 23

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in *1985*, the *Coca-Cola Company* changes its formula and
releases *New Coke*. The response was originally mixed, but soon became
overwhelmingly negative, forcing Coca-Cola to revert to the original
formula in less than 3 months… or did they? Coke’s sudden about-face on New
Coke led to a number of conspiracy theories to help explain how one of the
world’s biggest companies could make such a huge blunder. The three most
popular theories are as follows:

*1.* The company WANTED the new formula to fail, knowing consumers would
cause a storm of controversy and demand the original formula’s return.

*2.* The change provided cover for the removal of coca derivatives from the
product, in order to placate the Drug Enforcement Administration, which was
trying to eradicate the cocaine-producing plant worldwide.

*3.* It was a double-switcheroo, concocted to cover the change from
sugar-sweetened Coke to less expensive high fructose corn syrup.

Seeing as Coke *did* switch to HFCS when the brought back the “original”
recipe, and seeing as the U.S. sugar trade association took out full-page
ads letting consumers know about this switch when it happened, I’d say that
this is one conspiracy theory that we can safely assume to be conspiracy
fact. This, despite the fact that Coke’s CEO at the time replied to these
theories by saying: "We're not that dumb, and we're not that smart.”

***

Speaking of “new formulas”, it was on this day in *1984* that
researcher *Robert
Gallo* of the US National Cancer Institute “found” *HIV*, the retrovirus
that causes *AIDS*. Soon thereafter, researcher *Luc Montagnier* of the
Pasteur Institute in France filed a lawsuit claiming he discovered AIDS
first, and that Gallo had stolen the virus after it was sent to his lab for
study. Anyway, if you’re one of those blinded-by-the-Enlightenment
“skeptics” who refuses to even consider the possibility that the AIDS
epidemic is a man-made bioweapon created for the most sinister of all
imaginable purposes, I suggest you read *this eye-opening editorial
<http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/the-secret-origins-of-aids-facts-fallacies-conspiracy-theories>*…
just for starters, anyway.
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