Podcast Summary

Brain Driven Brands

Host: Sarah Levinger
Episode: The OK Soda Story: How One Brand Died Before It Began
Date: October 9, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Sarah Levinger dives into one of the oddest chapters in Coca-Cola’s history: the short-lived launch and rapid demise of OK Soda in the early 1990s. The show examines why OK Soda—aimed squarely at cynical Gen Xers—failed, and uses its story to tease out powerful lessons about neuromarketing, emotion-driven branding, and the dangers of choosing the wrong mood to anchor your brand. With comparisons to contemporary brands like Liquid Death, Sarah unpacks why some emotional strategies resonate while others flop.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: The OK Soda Experiment

• [00:43] Introduction to OK Soda: Coca-Cola launched OK Soda in the early 1990s as a bold experiment: Could they create a soda targeted at the highly cynical, skeptical Gen X demographic?
• Targeted emotion: apathy, skepticism, and cynicism—unlike any mass-market soft drink before.
• [02:14] The audience: “Gen Xer. No offense, if you're a Gen Xer out there...”

2. The Marketing Strategy: Selling Apathy

• [02:32] Emotional Positioning: The campaign was designed to "sell an emotion"—specifically, skepticism—by leaning into anti-marketing rhetoric, ironic messaging, and cryptic manifestos.
  • “You got to pick an emotion that you're selling and then double, triple down on it everywhere in your marketing.” – Sarah [02:32]
• [04:04] Visuals & Tone: The design played into weird, unsettling aesthetics.
  • “The cans look like they had, like, police sketches of serial killing suspects.” – Co-host [04:24]
  • Campaigns made consumers feel “seen in their disbelief in marketing.”
• [04:31] Gen X engagement: The target market initially seemed to love the ads.

3. The Collapse: Great Ads, No Sales

• [05:41] OK Soda failed to meet Coca-Cola’s modest 4% internal sales target and was discontinued within a year.
  • “Even though their ads were well received...conversions never hit. They essentially tried to sell apathy as an emotion, cynicism as the emotional flavor... and customers heard 'we’re okay' and they just never purchased.” – Sarah [05:44]
• [06:09] Discussion on why selling "apathy" was a fundamental misstep.
  • “It's so funny to try to market to the one emotion that is the most indifferent and least intense.” – Co-host
• [06:28] Comparison to brands like Liquid Death—brands that channel much more active, intense emotions (e.g., “rage against the machine”) with huge success.

4. The Crucial Difference: Active vs. Passive Emotions

• [08:13] “Go after an active emotion, not a passive one.” – Sarah
• [08:56] Coke’s core brand is happiness and nostalgia, not apathy. The OK Soda experiment clashed with their own emotional legacy.
  • “You got to give people an out. An actual physical entity that will resolve the negative emotion...” – Sarah [09:13]

5. Category Violations: Don’t Rebel Against Yourself

• [09:55] Parallels are drawn with modern “anti-agency agency” branding—brands and agencies rebelling against their own category, which confuses consumers and undermines social proof.
  • “You are literally fighting your own entity. The brain can't come to terms with what you're trying to say.” – Sarah [09:55]
• [11:10] General lesson: Avoid being “in the middle”—either embrace intensity or get forgotten.

6. Lessons on Identity, Aspiration, and Emotional Targeting

• [12:23] Sell to who people want to be—not necessarily to who they currently are.
  • “You don't always want to sell to who people are. You want to sell to who they want to be.” – Co-host [14:23]
• [15:14] Discussion of “ideal self,” “actual self,” and “ought self” in emotional marketing:
  • “Go after the person they want to be... but you got to figure out which version do they want to be: ideal, actual, or ought self.” – Sarah [15:14]
• [13:00] Not everyone is looking to embrace “apathy” as a core identity—most people want products that affirm or improve their self-image, even if passively.

7. Tactical Takeaways for Marketers

• [16:42] Final takeaway:
  • “Market to the more intense emotion. Active.” – Co-host [16:42], Sarah [16:47]
• [16:51] It's a mistake to assume customers are always preoccupied by a problem; for a brand to work, the issue and the emotion around it must be strong and actionable.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Be careful which emotion you choose and be careful which emotion you lean into.” – Sarah [05:27]
• “Life sucks, get used to it.” – Sarah imitating the failed OK Soda message [09:30]
• “There's nothing to gain from being in the middle in anything.” – Co-host [11:10]
• “Pick a struggle, pick an enemy. And you need to go as hard at that enemy as you possibly can.” – Sarah [11:57]
• “People don't feel apathetic every day. That's not their identity.” – Co-host [13:18]
• “You gotta understand, ideal self is usually the one that marketers go after... But ideal self sometimes comes across as a little, like preachy.” – Sarah [15:14]

Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Description | Timestamp | |---------|-------------|-----------| | Introduction & Setting the Scene | OK Soda’s background, target market | 00:00 – 02:14 | | Emotional Branding Strategy | Selling skepticism & apathy | 02:14 – 05:05 | | The Aesthetic & Reaction | Can design, Gen X response | 04:04 – 05:41 | | The Demise | Ads loved, sales failed, why? | 05:41 – 06:43 | | Liquid Death Comparison | Why active emotions win | 06:43 – 08:28 | | Category Lessons | Anti-agency/anti-category branding pitfalls | 08:28 – 11:10 | | The Danger of the Middle | Importance of picking a lane | 11:10 – 12:58 | | Identity & Aspiration | Marketing to who people want to be | 12:58 – 14:52 | | The Self Model in Branding | Ideal/actual/ought self & messaging | 14:52 – 16:08 | | Main Takeaways | Practical lessons for marketers | 16:42 – 17:25 |

Tone & Style

The episode maintains a conversational, witty, and irreverent tone, blending sharp marketing insights with self-deprecating Gen X jokes and lively banter. Sarah and her co-host use humor and real-world contemporary analogies (like Liquid Death and “anti-agency” branding) to keep the discussion practical and highly engaging.

Actionable Takeaways for Marketers

• Always sell an active emotion—apathy and indifference don’t convert, even if the ad campaign is clever or popular.
• Don’t define your brand by opposition to your own category (“anti-agency agency,” etc.), as it confuses customers and breaks social proof.
• Target the identity your customer aspires to, not necessarily who they are today.
• Differentiate with intensity, clear emotional lanes, and a definite ‘enemy’ or stance. Middle-of-the-road brands become forgettable.
• Offer a way out or a resolution—if you channel negative sentiment, also provide a hopeful or empowering alternative.

For Further Exploration

Listeners are invited to suggest more obscure marketing history topics for future episodes via Twitter, with the promise of “30 back-to-back” if even one person responds positively!