Diet Coke: The withdrawal is real and here's how Indians are coping with the shortage

Diet Coke has built one of the most bizarre and loyal fan bases across the globe On the Internet Diet Coke drinkers make up a large community And now a scarcity of the zerosugar cola has paglus spiralling because they canrsquot find their beloved ldquofridge cigaretterdquo From Diet Coke nails to inside jokes about the ldquocrisprdquo taste a word fans use with alarming seriousness the culture feeds itselfThe shortage stems from an aluminium can crunch linked to the West Asia conflict But the Internet is full of conspiracy theories that CocaCola is nudging consumers toward Coke Zero Either way the result is the same panic buying and people treating 300 ml cans like limitededition sneakersBut the meltdown has revealed that Diet Coke isnrsquot just a drink itrsquos a club you can belong toViraj Pradhan advertising professional Nidhi Mehta who works with FMCG brands Caleb Johnstone SEO specialist at Paperstack a marketing agency in AustralialsquoItrsquos a personality trait nowrsquoldquoDiet Coke especially among Gen Z is kind of like a personality traitrdquo says Nidhi Mehta who works with FMCG brands ldquoYou want to be conscious about your calories but at the same time you donrsquot want to give up on the tasterdquo she explains ldquoItrsquos a familiar taste without guiltrdquoDiet Coke fits in with a generation hyperaware of both wellness and image ldquoItrsquos similar to why people want an iPhone Itrsquos a good product yes But itrsquos also cool to have You belong to somethingrdquo explains Viraj Pradhan an advertising professional and comic ldquoDiet Coke is a community now and you donrsquot have to spell it out People make art with the cans therersquos unofficial merchandise you see lighters sling bags art prints and Diet Coke can guns And people have made all of this out of their love for the product Therersquos a coolness factor attached to drinking itrdquo he addsTherersquos also the question of taste Mehta says other products have not got the same fandom because ldquothe aftertaste of Coke Zero is very differentrdquo she says ldquoDiet Coke is very crisprdquoFrom product to personalityldquoDiet Coke stopped competing on taste a long time ago It started competing on selfimagerdquo says Caleb Johnstone SEO specialist at Paperstack a marketing agency in AustraliaAccording to Johnstone cult products follow a different rulebook ldquoBuying it stops being about the product itself and starts being about what it says about yourdquo Brands canrsquot manufacture this ldquoFandom forms in the space brands leave openrdquo he says Which is why the most effective thing CocaCola has done might be NothingSince its launch in 1982 Diet Coke has sold a type of person he explains ldquoIndependent selfassured unapologetically specificrdquo Over decades that messaging compounded into identity Coke Zero was launched in 2005 but never quite caught up ldquoCoke Zero tried to appeal broadly to anyone who wanted Coke taste without the sugar which is a much wider audience but a far weaker identity hook Broad appeal and cult status are almost mutually exclusive and Diet Cokersquos narrower original audience is exactly why it developed the kind of attachment Coke Zero never came close to generatingThe celebs love itDua Lipa thinspPop star Dua Lipa loves having Diet Coke with pickle juice thinspEssayist and novelist Joan Didion frequently drank an icecold Diet Coke in the morning and later switched to regular CocaCola for lunch thinspDesigner Karl Lagerfeld used to drink it all day longEnter The Diet Coke communityPerhaps the strangest and most telling outcome of this moment is how quickly the internet has organised itself around the drinkViraj Pradhan says he has around 10 cans saved in his fridge And keeps checking quickcommerce apps in every neighbourhood he happens to be in to try and buy moreIn Bengaluru Sona Agarwal founder of UnClub Experiences is hosting a Diet Coke meetup that has already outgrown its initial capacity ldquoWe planned for 30 wersquore now looking at 70ndash80 peoplerdquo she says adding that they have had to change venues For the event she and her team have stocked up 150 cans but are hoping to reach 250Why ldquoItrsquos an easy thing to connect on You see someone with a Diet Coke and you feel like they are part of your thingrdquoUnlike expensive status symbols think Stanley cups Labubu or luxury bags Diet Coke is accessible ldquoIt gives that lsquoI fit inrsquo vibe without being expensiverdquo she says ldquoItrsquos like being part of a clubrdquoAt the event there will be blind taste tests Diet Cokethemed games even special prizes for participants who win at a blind taste test between Coke Coke Zero and Diet CokeIt all sounds ridiculous to someone who isnrsquot a Diet Coke paglu until you realise itrsquos also how subcultures work ldquoIt just makes things more humanrdquo Agarwal saysDiet Coke has found itself becoming a big part of pop culture thanks to it becoming a lifestyle choiceScarcity makes the heart grow fonderIf Diet Coke already had a loyal base the shortage has made that even stronger But is this real demand or scarcity amplifying desire or a marketing gimmickCaleb Johnstone says ldquoActually all three things are happening at once and theyrsquore feeding each other in a way that makes them nearly impossible to separate Real demand exists because Diet Coke has a genuinely devoted consumer base that buys it consistently and heavily But demand alone doesnrsquot produce panic buying and people stockpiling cans Scarcity is the accelerant not the fire itselfrdquo