The Coca-Cola Company introduced Diet Coke to great fanfare in 1982, following another low-calorie cola called Tab that was produced in 1963. Although Tab was successful in the growing weight and calorie-conscious market (its name referred to “keeping a tab on your weight”), the company’s field tests and research on consumer attitudes indicated that sales were limited by its lack of the Coca-Cola trademark. The company began developing a different diet cola to replace Tab beginning in 1975, which would have a renewed brand image and respond to the demand for a diet drink with better taste. Company technicians managed to develop a new, smoother flavor with less phosphoric acid under the slogan, “Just for the taste of it, Diet Coke!”

The use of artificial sweeteners as a cheaper substitute for cane sugar saved the company around $100 million a year. In 1983 the company began using aspartame as the artificial sweetener for Diet Coke, initially blending it with saccharin. Although aspartame had just been approved by the FDA in 1981 and its effects on human health and beverage shelf-life were still contested, Coca-Cola soon began using it as the primary sweetener due to its better taste. Moving away from the sugar market allowed the company to establish Diet Coke as a new product that called for new bottling contracts, which allowed Coca-Cola to gain control over syrup prices. After a legal battle with bottlers ended in 1989, Diet Coke was named as a new brand, with new ingredients and new contracts. Sales grew, aided by the design decision to make the label silver and making the product more visible on the shelves, and by 1993 it had become the largest-selling soft drink in the U.S.