Stranger Things will give new generations the chance to drink New Coke

If the inhabitants of Hawkins, Indiana have to try New Coke, then so too do the fans of Stranger Things, or at least that’s the idea.

New Coke sometimes feels like a myth to those born after or too young to remember its arrival in 1985. You may know what it is in passing, but you’ve never had its apparently super-strange taste on your tongue. Enter Stranger Things and Netflix, which now have so much cachet together that they can convince Coca-Cola to bring back New Coke and may market it together and presumably all laugh-cry into their piles of money.

(That’s how it works when there are two massive companies involved, right?)

Yes, this is an actual thing that is happening, according to Variety.

There’s even a cute teaser, putting the iconic Coca-Cola logo in a very Stranger Things style font and sending Steve to the movies with Dustin as the third wheel.

Presumably everyone will be drinking Coke all summer to quench the thirst caused by Billy walking around going full Baywatch at the pool as its new lifeguard:

Note that Mrs. Wheeler is sipping on New Coke, and that you can see the can pretty prominently multiple times. Way to tease the partnership ahead of time, Netflix! According to Variety, that’s all part of the plan.

Sales appear to be kicking off on Thursday, May 23 at Coke’s online store. Additionally, Variety notes that there will be Stranger Things-style packaging for regular Coke if you don’t want to take the risk of offending your tastebuds with New Coke.

One question here is how subtle the New Coke mentions will be in Stranger Things 3. Judging by the clip, “not very” could very well be the answer. To be fair, it appears that New Coke was going to appear before this tie-in campaign started.

This is just the latest Stranger Things merch campaign, though, as the series also has a LEGO set coming out as well as a new collection over at H&M.

Will you try and acquire some New Coke in pursuit of all things Stranger Things 3 before it drops on July 4?