This article is part of our Cocktail Chatter series, where we dive into the wild, weird, and wondrous corners of history to share over a cocktail and impress your friends.
It’s no secret that the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo have a long-standing feud. Launched in 1886, Coca-Cola was marketed as a carbonated cure-all for myriad ailments. It was an immediate hit with consumers. Inspired by the success of the syrupy soda, fellow pharmacist Caleb Bradham launched his own “temperance drink” called Brad’s Drink in 1893 before renaming it Pepsi-Cola five years later. After being adapted into the soft drink we know today, Coca-Cola remained the preferred choice for most consumers. But in 1975, Pepsi-Cola launched “the Pepsi Challenge,” which revealed that during a blind tasting, most people actually preferred Pepsi over Coca-Cola.
In an attempt to gain back its lost market share, the Coca-Cola Company introduced low-calorie Diet Coke in 1982; the eventual flop that was the needlessly reformulated New Coke in 1985; and a marketing campaign that would last a meager three weeks: the MagiCan.
Debuted on May 7, 1990, the MagiCan contest was intended to be a multi-million-dollar giveaway and an integral part of Coca-Cola’s “Magic Summer ‘90” promotion and sponsorship of the New Kids on the Block’s Magic Summer Tour. Each MagiCan was designed to look and feel like a standard Coke can, but rather than being filled with soda, the cans were loaded with hidden prizes such as rolled-up bills or vouchers for heftier prize money.
