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RIP Tab

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by The Big Ragu, Oct 16, 2020.

  1. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Tab was pink because it was being marketed to women. Part of the first great wave of "diet" foods and drinks.

    The problem wasn't saccharin so much as it was cyclamates, which the FDA later banned as a carcinogen.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  2. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    Not until I moved to Texas did I realize that certain places ONLY carry RC Cola products. It was... fine. Diet Pepsi takes kind of weird to me, so I'll always go for a Diet Coke or Coke Zero instead, but soda has to be really bargain basement for me to give much of a crap.
     
  3. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    I drank TAB for a few months in 1978-79 when I was working at Happy Jack's Greasy Gas, it was the only diet pop we carried, and I decided I had to cut down my intake of about 10 sugar Cokes per day. Gaaaaaackk!!
     
  4. Scout

    Scout Well-Known Member

    Diet Sprite or Diet 7-Up are really good, but no caffeine.
     
  5. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    The story I always remembered was that Coca-Cola wanted to develop a diet drink in the early Sixties to target the female market (or males wanting to dump weight), and mainly beat back Diet Rite Cola, which was chewing into the soft drink market. Not particularly threatening the reign of King Coke, but dribbling off a couple percent.
    The working title was "The Alternative Beverage," or TAB for short.
    They got close to launching it in 1963 I believe, and they tried it on some test marketing groups, and the consensus was, "it tastes like absolute shit, but it's low calorie."
    They had been planning on calling it "Diet Coke," but the focus group feedback was so negative they decided they didn't want to tarnish the name of their platinum flagship brand, and nobody came up with any better ideas, so they just used the test-version name of TAB.
    Of course it would be 1983 or so before they came up with a "Diet Coke" they felt was worthy of the name, although that didn't really taste much like Coke, either. (Until some bright boy came up with the idea of the New Coke reboot -- essentially revamping their iconic main brand as Diet Coke Plus Sugar. And we all know how that worked out.)
    And still it wasn't until 2005 or whenever it was, they finally got it right with Coke Zero, so it only took them 40 years to make a diet drink that actually tasted like Coke.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2020
  6. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    "16 ounces and JUST 1 calorie!"

    Straight outta '78.

     
    Deskgrunt50 likes this.
  7. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    This ad would never get canceled today.

    All your shape are belong to us.

     
    Deskgrunt50 likes this.
  8. Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.

    Corky Ramirez up on 94th St. Well-Known Member

    And yet Moxie continues to live ...

    I recall that my mother drank Tab in the late 70s/early 80s, only because I was not able to drink soda at that age. Haven’t seen Tab since then, probably.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  9. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Lose the weight after the baby, tubby!

    That commercial is absolutely insane: Drink Tab, Stay skinny for the husband, and you get to go to clubs with him.
     
  10. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    I used to tell people that the diet drink that actually tasted most like Coke was ... Diet Pepsi.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  11. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    "Why don't you keep your shape in shape?"

     
  12. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Dammit. I love Tab. There's a Winn-Dixie near me that always carries it. Time to stock up.
     
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