How Pittsburghers Are Pitching in to Bring Back a Discontinued Pop

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

There’s a nationwide push to bring back TaB, a diet soda the Coca-Cola Company discontinued on Oct. 16, 2020 after 57 years of fizz.

The prospect of the “Pink Pioneer’s” return makes Cranberry resident Knut Simonson feel downright bubbly.

In 1970, while working as a graphic artist for Chicago-based Dickens Design Group, he helped reimagine the brand, giving TaB its signature pink hue and repeating “Sugar Free!” script. Now, he’s donating all of the hand-built prototypes to Coca-Cola Archives in Atlanta.

“It’s energized my retirement,” he says, pointing to a line-up of vintage steel cans displayed on his coffee table. “This stuff has been in boxes in my basement for 50 years and now there’s finally a home for it.”

Despite his direct connection to the cola, Simonson admits he didn’t keep tabs on TaB until recently, when Adam Burbach contacted him from Lincoln, Neb.

The 44-year–old spearheaded the Save TaB Soda campaign shortly after the beverage disappeared from store shelves during the pandemic.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNY BOYTNER

He grew up drinking the beverage with a citrus-edged bite, and watched it become a “pop” culture phenomenon in movies and TV shows such as “Jaws,” “Taxi Driver,” “Airplane!,” “Ghostbusters,” “Seinfeld,” “The Simpsons” and “Stranger Things.”

Although TaB is still available in fountain form at Atlanta’s World of Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Store locations in Orlando and Las Vegas, a few sips of nostalgia just isn’t enough for Burbach.

Six years ago, upon news of a production halt, there was a mad grab on TaB, so he bought pallets of pop as if stockpiling for the apocalypse. He now has eight cans left in his fridge and a hallway filled with TaB bric-a-brac.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADAM BURBACH

“There’s nothing else that tastes like it; not Coke Zero, Diet Coke or Diept Pepsi,” Burbach says. “There’s also something about that branding. Tab’s got sass!” he says. “It resonated with a lot of people. It wasn’t just a soda that they drank, it was their soda.”

Since 2021, the nonprofit Save TaB Soda has collected more than 9,500 signatures, attended shareholder meetings, released a TaB video game, distributed magnets and bumper stickers, coordinated call-in days to Coca-Cola’s customer service line, sponsored a racecar, erected three pro-TaB billboards outside of Coke headquarters and hand-delivered hundreds of greeting cards to the site in honor of TaB’s 60th anniversary.

TaB debuted in 1963 to compete with Royal Crown Company’s Diet Rite cola. The marketing research department used an IBM 1401 computer to generate a list of more than 185,000 name suggestions, making TaB one of the first AI-generated brands.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNY BOYTNER

Over the years, a variety of flavors were released and different artificial sweeteners found their way into the formula, including cyclamate, which was banned by the Food & Drug Administration in 1969 due to its link to cancer. Sales waned after Coca-Cola launched Diet Coke in 1982, but it still maintained a cult following.

Finding TaB in the wild became like a treasure hunt. Devotees from across the globe are now members of the Save TaB Soda committee, which convenes online every other week to discuss action plans.

They’re hoping Coke’s new CEO Henrique Braun will listen to their pleas for more pop.

“There are no casual TaB drinkers, that’s just your identity,” says committee member Jenny Boyter, an East Liberty native who’s lived in Atlanta for three decades.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNY BOYTNER

When Coke discontinued TaB, friends and family reached out to her to offer their condolences. Boyter finds comfort in her TaB memorabilia, including T-shirts, water bottles and a pink Christmas tree that says up year-round. She even stayed overnight at the retro TWA Hotel at New York’s JFK Airport, which held a Toast to TaB retirement party in 2020.

Like Boyter and Simonson, Burbach would be tickled pink if TaB was reborn.

“I think there’s a real opportunity here,” he says. “There are so many people who love it. I know from surveys we’ve done on social media that it would sell out. I want Coke to take another look at TaB.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNY BOYTNER

At Grandpa Joe’s Candy Shop, a Pittsburgh-based chain that carries more than 350 varieties of glass-bottled pop, TaB and other sentimental sips such as Tom Tucker Mint Ginger Ale and Cherikee Red Cherry Soda are still on customers’ minds — and in their hearts.

Christopher Beers, founder and CEO of the company, says there’s hope for the TaB faithful:

“Years ago, when Coca-Cola discontinued the citrus-flavored soda, devoted fans rallied together and created a movement to bring it back,” he explains in an email. “Their campaign gained so much momentum that they even purchased a billboard near Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta.

“Eventually, Coca-Cola brought SURGE back as an Amazon exclusive, and its popularity led to a broader national rollout. Unfortunately, it was discontinued once again a few years ago. That story perfectly illustrates just how powerful nostalgia can be. People don’t simply remember the flavor of a favorite soda or candy bar. They remember where they were, who they were with, and the memories associated with enjoying it.”