An industry revolutionized: The Minute Maid Company discovers secret for capturing fresh, ripe orange flavor.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 1996--

Company Triples Advertising, Consumer Promotion Budgets

to Support Intro of New Minute Maid Chilled Orange Juice

Just one month after taking the name of its flagship brand, The Minute Maid Company is revolutionizing the industry it created 50 years ago with the introduction of the first 100 percent pure ready-to-drink orange juice that delivers the taste sensation of eating a fresh, ripe orange.

"We've done what no one else has done," said Jay Gould, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, The Minute Maid Company. "We've captured the soul of the orange -- the fragrant aroma and bursting flavor previously lost in the processing of the oranges."

All Minute Maid ready-to-drink juice and juice drink products are pasteurized for wholesomeness and purity.

"We've created a completely new taste in ready-to-drink orange juice," said Gould, "and along with it, we've created a new architecture for the orange juice category -- an architecture based on taste, not process. And this is the taste we are taking to the world."

The new, proprietary taste of Minute Maid 100 percent pure ready-to-drink orange juice is the big payoff of the most expensive new product development program in the history of the company, covering more than three years of research and involving 30,000 consumer opinions. "The goal of the research was to discover, in very specific terms, just what consumers like and dislike in orange juice," said Gould.

"We combined that knowledge with our 50 years of expertise to create a totally new taste in ready-to-drink orange juice that delivers exactly what consumers told us they want in orange juice -- the taste sensation of eating a fresh, ripe orange, every time."

The largest advertising and consumer promotion budget in the history of the company -- three times 1996 spending levels -- will be unveiled Jan. 1 to carry the new Minute Maid taste sensation message to 98 percent of all U.S. households an average of nearly 50 times during the year.

The taste sensation journey for the new Minute Maid Premium ready-to-drink orange juice actually began several months ago when the product traveled incognito to Atlanta -- and the Centennial Olympic Games. "The reaction was phenomenal," said Gould. "People kept approaching us, asking what we'd done to our orange juice, why it tasted so good. They had no idea they were giving us some important informal feedback."

The Minute Maid Company created the modern orange juice industry in 1946 with the first shipments of Minute Maid frozen concentrated orange juice.

"With a half-century of experience and expertise, Minute Maid has shown its ongoing commitment to the consumer," said Gould. "Now we've created an even higher standard in orange juice." -0-

"Minute Maid" is a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company. The Minute Maid Company is a Division of The Coca-Cola Company and the world's leading marketer of premium fruit juices and drinks.

CONTACT: The Minute Maid Company

Chris Bozman, 713/888-5020

or

Edelman Worldwide

Julie Ketay, 312/240-2711