A cold Diet Coke—sometimes paired with a shot of espresso—has become one of social media’s favorite afternoon rituals. Gen Z even gave it a nickname: the “fridge cigarette.” That’s why it was so strange when Coca-Cola introduced a new font that eerily resembled an iconic one straight out of the cigarette world.
“Coke and Marlboro had a baby—and it’s a font!,” one X user wrote after seeing the company’s updated typography. Others echoed the comparison, saying Coca-Cola’s refreshed typography looked strikingly similar to Marlboros, in a case of reality imitating memes. Still others wondered whether the company had unintentionally leaned into the internet’s “fridge cigarette” joke.
“Is Coca Cola rebranding like that because we all started calling ‘em fridge cigarettes???,” another fan questioned.
Coca-Cola said the refresh was designed to create “one iconic look” across more than 200 markets by updating its packaging and typography.
“This refresh is about being clearer and more consistent in how we show up, wherever people experience our brand,” Arnab Roy, president of Coca-Cola Global Category, said in a statement on Monday. “By building on the things people already know and love, we’re creating a stronger foundation for growth while staying unmistakably Coca-Cola.”
The “fridge cigarette” nickname dates back to the summer of 2025, when TikTok creator Rachel Renocalled her cold Diet Coke a “crispy ciggy.” The joke quickly spread across social media, becoming one of the internet’s most recognizable Diet Coke memes.
Craig Heyne, VP of performance marketing at Bloom Nutrition, said that the phenomenon is “almost synonymous with the ‘sweet treat’” trend that had spread across social media.
“It’s having this little moment to yourself, this little pick-me-up, this little thing that you get to own amidst whatever your day may look like,” Heyne told Fortune. As remote and hybrid work have become more common, he said, people have had more opportunities to carve out those moments throughout the day, making the ritual especially relatable.
By the time Coca-Cola refreshed its branding, the “fridge cigarette” meme had already become part of internet culture. To many consumers, the updated typography seemed to complete the joke, linking the internet’s “fridge cigarette” nickname with one of the world’s most recognizable cigarette brands.
The reaction may also point to a broader shift in branding. Rather than simply receiving a company’s marketing message, Gen Z increasingly reinterprets it through memes, inside jokes and online culture—sometimes becoming as influential as the campaign itself.
Allen Adamson, cofounder of brand strategy firm Metaforce, those kinds of reactions are part of what comes with managing an iconic brand.
Adamson previously worked at Landor, the design firm behind Coca-Cola’s landmark global redesign in the late 1980s, where the agency developed the identity system that introduced the brand’s signature Dynamic Ribbon.
“Things need to stay current, to stay relevant,” Adamson told Fortune. Consumers may not consciously notice when a brand begins to feel slightly dated, he said, but they can still perceive it as less powerful, strong and current.
“A font isn’t a brand,” he told Fortune. While consumers may fixate on individual design elements, he said, a brand’s identity is built from a much broader system of visual assets and associations.
For global brands, the work is never finished, Adamson said. Companies are constantly reassessing whether their visual identity communicates the brand they want consumers to see consistently across packaging, retail environments and digital experiences worldwide.
“No one would argue about a redesign of a brand they didn’t care about,” said Adamson.
The post Coke on its rebrand accidentally nailing Gen Z’s ‘fridge cigarette’ joke: ‘building on on the things people already know and love’ appeared first on Fortune.
