Dive Brief:
- Vitaminwater's new formula isn't going over well with many consumers. Social media sites are filled with demands that the brand go back to its former recipe.
- At issue is Vitaminwater's recent move to a mix of stevia and sugar in its full-calorie version. The drinks were previously made with crystalline fructose and sugar.
- The formulation change, which lowered the amount of sugar in the drinks, followed a class-action lawsuit against the company alleging false advertising for selling a sugary drink and suggesting it was healthy.
Dive Insight:
This is obviously bad news for Vitaminwater and its parent company, Coca-Cola. These sorts of problems didn't used to become major public-relations disasters. But in the age of social-media, that has changed.
The stevia problem is a particularly big one for Coke and comes at a particularly bad time for the soft-drink giant. Coke has just announced plans to roll out the stevia-sweetened Coca-Cola Life in England.