Rather than me type out the 'New Coke' story - of which I only know a fraction of it - here is the Wikipedia collection of opinion and facts on the topic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_coke

Bottom Line: Coca-Cola decided to 'mess with success' and had a huge flop.

Garth decided to ditch his friends in low places and all of a sudden go alt-rock. Big mistake.