Coca Cola throughout is history has had it fair share of crises and controversy. In the mid eighties, the company experienced the "New Coke' fiasco. Then the company replaced their original Coke brand with a newer version, in an effort to defeat their archrival Pepsi. The Pepsi brand was gradually eroding Coke's market share with their famous "Pepsi Taste Challenge'. Executives in the Atlanta based Coke thought that a new formulation of Coke was required. After extensive product and taste testing, New Coke was launched with much fanfare. However the executives could never have imagined the cult following of die hard Coke fans, who were outraged with the demise of their beloved brand. National boycotts and protests were organised, forcing Coke to rescind their new strategy. "Coke Classic' was put back on the shelves. In the nineties, in Belgium, a carcinogenic scare erupted in 1998, when a number of people became sick from drinking contaminated Coke.