Once, Diet Coke’s image was about calorie counting, breaks and well-defined abs. Today, it’s the rocket fuel of machismo America’s working habits.
President Donald Trump is a superfan, drinking up to 12 cans a day and installing a red button in his White House office to summon a top-up. His political ally Elon Musk has called the inventor of Diet Coke “a genius” and once accompanied a post about his “drinking problem” with a photo of his bedside table strewn with empty soda cans. Geddit? His reply-guy acolytes certainly did.
What the two have in common beyond a soda habit and nationalistic politics is the valorisation of punishing white-collar grind. Diet Coke’s deployment as a caffeination strategy chimes with Trump’s repeated claims that no president has ever worked as hard as he does. Meanwhile, Musk likes to boast that his commitment means that he pulls 120-hour weeks when needed and once missed his own birthday. Following his purchase of Twitter in 2022, he declared plans to impose a “hardcore” work culture. When ads seeking applicants for engineering were posted, one employee wrote: “Plus: there’s a ton of Diet Coke.”
The pair’s plan for government overhaul endorses the same work ethic. Musk wrote online that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency “is working 120 hour[s] a week. Our bureaucratic opponents optimistically work 40 hours a week. That is why they are losing so fast.”
Coca-Cola has shown appreciation for the president’s approval. Last month, James Quincey, chief executive and chair of Coca-Cola Company, presented Trump with a bottle of Diet Coke commemorating the inauguration.
Diet Coke’s reputation for promoting productivity predates the US president, of course. Financier Bob Diamond, the former CEO of Barclays, was said to have dedicated fridges of Diet Coke in his office. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates once said: “I think if I stopped drinking it I’d have a little bit of withdrawal.”
This is all rather different from Coca-Cola’s own choice of branding. The company has traditionally set its sights on female consumers, recruiting the supermodel Kate Moss (who once said, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”) and creating tie-ups with the fictional and hapless Bridget Jones. In the 1990s, television ads featured women ogling a succession of handsome men taking “Diet Coke breaks” from their physically demanding jobs, removing their tops to reveal sculpted chests glistening with beads of sweat.
In Musk’s world, of course, there is no such thing as downtime.
Coca-Cola does not split out Diet Coke sales. But Stephanie Mattucci, director of food science at Mintel, says the company leads the diet carbonated soft market, and those who drink it tend to get hooked. “Of the 37 per cent of US consumers who drink diet cola, 29 per cent drink diet cola once a day or more than once a day and 27 per cent drink diet cola a few times a week.”
Some regard Diet Coke as not just a diet drink but an alternative to alcohol, she adds. “These products are typically more affordable than other beverages or alcohol alternatives. This is an important part as 48 per cent of consumers who are drinking less alcohol are doing so to save money.”
The drink’s tenacity is still surprising given the volume of health warnings it has attracted and the variety of alternative options that are available.
Eve Turow-Paul, author of Hungry: Avocado Toast, Instagram Influencers, and Our Search for Connection and Meaning, says concerns over ultra-processed foods and changing tastes triggered by GLP-1 drugs for weight loss should be making Diet Coke obsolescent.
“Coca-Cola has tried for years to build on health and wellness trends, by infusing Coke products with ‘better for you’ ingredients. That never lands well because people know that soda is an indulgence.”
Perhaps this means that the drink’s fans accept those indulgences in exchange for a boost. (Or even, in some cases to signal their vice.) “No one picks up a Diet Coke thinking they’re doing something great for their health” says Turow-Paul. “They’re drinking something that provides comfort and a kick of caffeine.”
emma.jacobs@ft.com
