Fruitopia is a fruit-flavored drink introduced by the Coca-Cola Company's Minute Maid brand in 1994 and targeted at teens and young adults. According to New York Times business reports, it was invented as part of a push by Minute Maid to capitalize on the success of Snapple and other flavored tea drinks. The brand gained substantial hype in the mid-1990s before enduring lagging sales by the decade's end. In 2003, Fruitopia was phased out in most of the United States, where it had struggled for several years.[1] However, select flavors have since been revamped under Minute Maid. Use of the Fruitopia brand name continues through various beverages in numerous countries, including some McDonald's restaurant locations in the United States and Canada, which carry the drink to this day.
History
Fruitopia was a pet project of Coke's former marketing chief, Sergio Zyman. The company spent an initial marketing budget of $30 million, allowing Fruitopia to quickly gain hype in the mid-1990s. Time magazine named Fruitopia one of the Top 10 New Products of 1994,[2]