Surge
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- For other uses, see Surge (disambiguation).Missing image
Urge.pngNorwegian label
Surge is the name of a citrus soft drink first introduced in Norway under the name Urge by the Coca-Cola Company in 1996 to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew. It became very popular in Norway so the next year Coca-Cola decided to start making it in USA under the name Surge, and in Denmark and Sweden as Urge. In the USA, the product did very well for the first few years, but eventually started to slip in sales. This may be the result of a fairly widespread rumour among school-age boys claiming that the yellow dye in Surge could shrink testicles.
The Coca-Cola company has since ceased production of this beverage in USA; Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are the only countries where you can still buy this soft drink. Surge was widely associated with the extreme sports lifestyle, with television commercials similar to those currently used by Mountain Dew. Expired cans and bottles of Surge now sell on eBay for high dollar amounts, including a reported $160.08 for a 12-pack sold in April 2005. The beginning of 2005 saw a campaign to bring SURGE back to the shelves of Wal-Mart, but despite a great effort and even contact between Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola, the campaign was unsuccessful in bringing Surge back.
There are a few myths about Surge; chief among them is that Surge contains more caffeine than other soft drinks. While Surge does contain more caffeine than some soft drinks, it contains about the same amount as its closest analogue, Mountain Dew.
Coca-Cola is currently testing a new drink, Vault, with either the same or a very similar recipe to Surge.
The fictional drink Slurm from the Futurama cartoon series bears some resemblance to Surge.
External links
- Save Surge (http://www.savesurge.org/) - a website dedicated to bringing back surge to the masses since 2002