Talk:Virgin Cola

Still Available at ASDA

This is still very much available in ASDA stores in the south, I get it every week! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.141.147.8 (talk) 13:46, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Dubious information

Some of this information is highly dubious. 50% market share in a few months is unbelievably unlikely, and should be very easy to collaborate if it were true. I can imagine a corporation creating a "taskforce" to deal with a competitor, but never a "SWAT team." And the head of this SWAT team is apparently important, but un-named. I would further comment that this information doesn't seem NPOV, but since I don't think it's TRUE, that shouldn't be an issue. Can anyone find evidence of any part of the "history" section of this article? (I have found a note about the April Fool's Prank, its number 99 on this list: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/ But nowhere does that say that Pepsi changed their can colors in response to Virgin Cola's threat) -- Skylark 20:15, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

The 50% think might well be true, if you parse it out. It says "50% market share in the outlets that sold it." - note that's 50% share in a given outlet, not a given market. Given that virgin cola was (and I think still is) sold only in limited locations, that claim (while willfully misleading) isn't necessarily false. The SWAT thing is another matter - don't worry about the names (corporations call internal teams all kinds of silly things) but the rest of the paragraph makes factual assertions of serious misconduct (or at the very least sharp practice). I'm going to remove it to the talk page until sources can be cited. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:32, July 30, 2005 (UTC)

Removed content

Per the above discussion, I removed the following content from the article:

Initially, Coca-Cola didn't take Virgin Cola as a real threat, but later on, a SWAT team was set-up in England to try and stamp out the competition Virign Cola presented to Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola resorted to "dirty tricks" similar to the ones that British Airways used against Virgin Atlantic Airways. These methods included giving very tempting offers to retailers in order for them to sell Coca-Cola over Virgin Cola, and threatened smaller retailers with withdrawing their vending machines and fridges if they sold Virgin Cola. Ironically, the same woman who headed this SWAT team now holds a senior position at one of Virgin's main clearing banks.

They should have just given out free samples of Virgin Cola. 194.80.32.8 04:46, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I wonder if the internal use of the phrase 'SWAT team' is also a play on SWOT. 128.232.228.174 (talk) 09:23, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

All information on Wikipedia must pass the test of verifiability, and for this reason sources must be cited. This is particularly true of contended or contentious information, such as the above paragraph. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:36, July 30, 2005 (UTC)

That information is taken from Richard Branson's autobiography, while that would give a biased view, it is still fact.

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BetacommandBot 20:50, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Don't think it still exists.

I think the reference of Virgin Drink Ltd is rather dubious as according to Richard Branson on twitter see [1] he says in a Q&A; "@jezwelshmon: whatever happened to virgin cola? @richardbranson: @Virgin got screwed – by guess who!?" of course that doesn't prove defiantly that it doest exist any more but I doubt this company(?) or website is linked to the Virgin Group.

I think the reference and use of the present tense should be removed unless a reliable source can be found. --wintonian ^talk 22:07, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

More Dubious Information 4/3/2015

'Virgin Cola is still sold in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Malta, Nigeria, PR China, Switzerland, Tunisia, and Philippines.[12]' - but the source gives a 404 error (from Virgin's website). Any reliable sources, or does Virgin Cola just not exist anywhere anymore?

External links modified

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Decline - mainly sourced to quotes from Richard Branson

Many links in this section are sourced to quotes from Richard Branson. Do these count as WP:SELFSOURCE? If so, they are making claims about a third party (Coca-Cola) and may not be reliable:

• Inc.com - an interview with Richard Branson
• Yahoo Sports - a republishing of an article from the Motley Fool - quotes Branson a lot. Makes claim to Coca-Cola sending a "SWAT team", which reads as hyperbole.
• Losing my Virginity - Richard Branson's autobiography.
• CNBC article - quotes Branson extensively.
• Graham Bensinger - interview with Richard Branson.

Autarch (talk) 15:46, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

I don't see a problem with this, but I get where you're coming from. Clearly phrases like "SWAT" teams etc should be removed as that's Branson trying to beef up the story for the interview. Branson has no real reason to lie here, admitting that Coke humiliated them and that the product was a failure and only available in Bangladesh.

If it was a paragraph about how Virgin Cola had managed to pull one over on Coke I would agree, but he is telling an embarrassing story here so I think it is fine, plus we are declaring at the start anyway that it's Branson's version of events. Icaldonta (talk) 00:09, 10 February 2024 (UTC)