--- description: Diet Coke drinkers are going the way of the dinosaur and BlackBerry users, according to Coca-Cola's earnings report out Wednesday. title: Hug a Diet Coke Drinker, Because They're Going Extinct image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Retail](/tag/retail/) ## Retail Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Hug a Diet Coke Drinker, Because They're Going Extinct  by [Alex Fitzpatrick](/author/alex-fitzpatrick/)  ## Alex Fitzpatrick Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 22, 2015 4:21 PM CUT  by [Alex Fitzpatrick](/author/alex-fitzpatrick/)  ## Alex Fitzpatrick Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 22, 2015 4:21 PM CUT Diet Coke drinkers are going the way of the dinosaur and BlackBerry users, according to Coca-Cola’s earnings report out Wednesday. The Atlanta, Georgia-based company [said](http://assets.coca-colacompany.com/78/48/37a050b54b17a6b7a5866166ee28/coca-cola-second-quarter-2015-results.1%29%20FINAL.pdf "undefined") the Diet Coke brand declined 7% over the last three months. That continues a trend of negative Diet Coke growth the company’s been seeing for a decade, TIME [reported](http://time.com/3701211/coke-pepsi-charts/ "undefined") in February: But soda drinkers aren’t giving up on the sweet stuff entirely. Coke’s low-calorie Coca-Cola Zero brand is up 6%, almost entirely making up for Diet Coke’s plunge. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s driving the Diet Coke to Coke Zero shift. Some diet sodas have suffered from speculation over the health consequences of artificial sweeteners like aspartame, causing PepsiCo to [remove](http://time.com/3834685/diet-pepsi-aspartame/ "undefined") that ingredient from Diet Pepsi. But aspartame is found in Coke Zero as well as Diet Coke. It could be simply a matter of taste: While Diet Coke has a distinguishable flavor, Coke Zero is intended to taste exactly like regular Coke. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3967776/diet-coke/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3967776/diet-coke/"},"headline":"Hug a Diet Coke Drinker, Because They're Going Extinct","datePublished":"2015-07-22T16:21:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:28:55.123Z","description":"Diet Coke drinking is down 7%","url":"https://time.com/3967776/diet-coke/","keywords":["Retail","coke","Soda","beverages","pubdesk"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Fitzpatrick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-fitzpatrick/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/retail/","name":"Retail"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3967776/diet-coke/","name":"Hug a Diet Coke Drinker, Because They're Going Extinct"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Should I Drink Seltzer Water?","description":"Seltzer -- also known as bubbly water, carbonated water, soda water and sparkling water -- comes with as many health myths as it does names. Luckily, seltzer is one of the rare instances where something you love drinking isn’t bad for you.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SSdTN2EQ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-04T22:52:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SSdTN2EQ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3967776/diet-coke/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3967776/diet-coke/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```