History
Tab was introduced as a diet drink in 1963. Coca-Cola's marketing research department used its IBM 1401 computer to generate a list of over 250,000 four-letter words with one vowel, adding names suggested by the company's own staff; the list was stripped of any words deemed unpronounceable or too similar to existing trademarks. From a final list of about twenty names, "Tabb" was chosen, influenced by the possible play on words, and shortened to "Tab" during development, and designer Sid Dickens gave the name the capitalisation pattern ("TaB") used in the logo.
Tab has been reformulated several times. It was initially sweetened with cyclamate. After the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a ban on cyclamate in 1969, saccharin was used. In 1977, the FDA moved to ban saccharin. The ban proposal was rejected by the U.S. Congress, but it did require that all products containing saccharin carry a warning label that saccharin may cause bladder cancer (a regulation eliminated in 2000). Further studies find no evidence that saccharin has yet caused an increase in bladder cancer.
At the height of its popularity, the Tab name was briefly extended to other diet soft drinks, including Tab Lemon-Lime, Tab Root Beer and Tab Orange.
Tab's popularity began to decline in 1982, with the introduction of Diet Coke. A formula revision in 1984 blended saccharin with a small amount of aspartame; this is the formula that is currently marketed in North America.
Caffeine Free Tab was introduced in the 1980s to little fanfare and disappeared soon afterward.
In 1993, Coca-Cola released Tab Clear in the U.S., Australia and UK. It was withdrawn after less than a year.
Tab Energy is an energy drink released in early 2006. Though sharing the brand name, Tab Energy does not share the same taste.
Tab sales have been dwarfed by those of Diet Coke, though enough people still prefer Tab to result in a production of about 3 million cases in 2008.
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