Oh dear lord it's the OK SODA THREAD

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

George Gossett name-dropped it in the Stereolab Margerine Eclipse thread and I am wondering if anyone here besides me was somehow convinced to drink copious amounts of it. Minnesota was a test market for it, I was young, it was high school, I thought "orange Coke" was an interesting concept. Forgive me.

S: Weird telephone hotline, can design by Dan Clowes (creator of "Needledick the Bugfucker")
D: the taste, which is only palatable if you are a hyperactive teenager who likes to concoct 1/4 Dew 1/4 Coke 1/4 Fanta 1/4 A&W beverage monstrosities at the fountain at Burger King.

"...the people who whom this product is directed want to sort of be rocked and they really don't care how it tastes..." Haha you fool!

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

OH THOSE SWINGING '90S!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

(actually I never tasted the stuff myself)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Me neither. But I did call their hotline 1-800-I-FEEL-OK a number of times.

― Prude (Prude), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

A few years ago The Baffler ran a Josh Glenn-written advertising-as-consumer-religion yadda yadda yadda about OK Soda not too long ago, which surprised me a little because I thought the "making fun of OK Soda" meme ran aground by the late-nineties (but I'm not technically an academic so I'm hardly the authority on such matters).

Orange-flavored Coke has to be miles less vile than vanilla-flavored Coke. While this is not the same, before my heart exploded I used to drink 1/2 Pepsi and 1/2 orange juice and boy, I liked that.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

(Jesus God I have to edit my posts.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"OK" seems like a halfway-convoluted stand-in for an overarching media/corporate anti-grunge pre-emptive strike, but the rest of the article is eerily prescient. (Who knew there were so many books touting the "neoconservative" philosophy before Clinton's second term?)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I still have an empty bottle in my room, partly because a girl I liked brought it over in her luggage and partly because it still seems a strange thing to have a major soft drink company produce something designed by Dan Clowes (also Charles Burns?). And partly because despite being one of the first products shamelessly marketed at my generation, it was very well marketed, and I still find the anti-manifesto on the bottle to be cool.

http://home.pacifier.com/~ntierney/oksoda.jpg

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:02 (twenty-two years ago)

There were lots of them, Nate. The big-name ones were fussing over things like political correctness or the death of Western Civ in our colleges.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

FYI, orange Coke is big in Germany, where you have Spezi (cola and orange juice) and Mezzo Mix (Coke and orange Fanta). They're big on mixing things there. Like, there's Radler, which is beer and lemon soda. I asked a German colleague of mine to explain why the hell this beverage exists, and she said that it's what you drink if you want beer but don't want to get buzzed ("it's what beer drinkers drink when they're not drinking beer," heh). "Rad" in German means "bicycle," so Radler is "beer for bicyclers" (who apparently want to maintain a certain level of sobriety when cycling about). Then she said that it's popular among gay people.

Uh, what were we talking about?

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Can we turn this into a thread about gay bicycling?

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I once wanted to write an essay on minimalist, monochromatic design of the 90s, using as examples OK Soda, McSweeney's, and Philosophy-brand bath products (like below):

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/9b/fa/beatBathBodyPhilosophy_Soul_Owner.gif

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:48 (twenty-two years ago)

"bath products"? What else do you call a brand that makes lotions, shampoos, creams, and the like?

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

But see, Dr. Bronner's soap cornered that market in the sixties and all has been pale imitation since. Though I'll let Absolut off with a warning.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

what's the difference between OK & Jones Soda? who owns either?

― Kingfishee (Kingfish), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:56 (twenty-two years ago)

the difference between ok soda and jones soda is that jones soda doesn't taste like silver polish.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:00 (twenty-two years ago)

ts: ok soda vs. smart drinks

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:00 (twenty-two years ago)

taste like silver polish

Some things are better left unasked

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

and yet and yet...

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Detritus and Centington cover Hall and Oates.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

break out the mustache wax

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Sunday, 11 January 2004 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

seventeen years pass...

I once told Charles Burns I really liked his OK Cola can designs and he justifiably looked like he wanted to kill me.
— chris person (@Papapishu) January 8, 2022

― mh, Sunday, 9 January 2022 01:29 (four years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.