The Coca-Cola Product With Cosmic Horror And Satire Roots

Do you all remember Coke Heartthrob by any chance? It was a Coke flavor that tasted sweet of rosewater and amaretto. It was released in the 1980s. This is not the right place for you if you are a Coca-Cola enthusiast or a veteran collector.

Coca-Cola has released many flavors over the years. Some of these flavors were huge hits and went on to be immensely popular, like Cherry Coke's 1985 release. Others however did not sell as well as they were expected. Look no further than New Coke's historic failure. Customers flooded the company with complaints and threats. History even reported that customers organized mass protests demanding the return of the classic Coke. Coca-Cola is an American icon, a symbol of corporate power, American refreshment and even controversy.

What is Coke Heartthrob, you ask? It is unlikely that such a flavor has ever been sold. Reddit users have fond memories of the romantically-themed product and some even own memorabilia.

Coke Heartthrob, however, is complete fiction. It's actually a small piece of an enormous online project that mixes satire about greed, corporate hubris, product placement, and corporate greed with a horror story about... what else? A giant underground monster that lives beneath West Texas.

Trevor Roberts, an online artist, is the creator, author, and illustrator of Mystery Flesh Pit National Park. The project is designed as an online museum and traces the history of the national park that was created around the subterranean monster, which was discovered in Texas by oilmen in the 1970s. Roberts plays the role of curator and displays memorabilia from Pit's glory days, as well as products made from materials taken from the "Permian Basin Superorganism" after the park was destroyed in a terrible disaster in 2007. One exhibit notes that Coke Heartthrob is made from a highly concentrated fluid taken from the creature's glands, and then sold as a tasty sugary soda.