Code Red is a Mountain Dew flavor released in stores in May 2001 as a permanent flavor in the United States. During its release, it proved to be massively successful. This introduction alone increased overall Mountain Dew sales by 6% in its first year, eventually leading to the creation of multiple other flavors in the 2000s.
Description
Code Red is a Cherry flavor of Mountain Dew. It's similar to another Dew flavor, which has a similar shade of cherry flavor, Citrus Cherry. Its color, as its name implies, has a red look.
Tagline
Its tagline is "DEW with a Rush of Cherry Flavor." while in Oceania, its catchphrase is "DEW with a Rush of Berry Flavour."
History
In March 2001, Mountain Dew's website held a Code Red online racing game, and the top-scoring winners got sent free merchandise relating to Code Red itself. After the select people won the online racing game, the winners acquired their free merchandise. They were sent a box containing a "you won" letter, following a Code Red shirt, and a six-pack of bottles to be the one of the first to sample. The letter revealed that Code Red is "Coming to a store near you in May," signifying a planned release date May 2001.
Officially, as had been planned, it was released in stores in May 2001 nationwide in the United States as a permanent flavor, and was available in various sizes such as 20-ounce bottles, 24-ounce bottles, 2-liter bottles, 3-liter bottles, 12-packs, 24-packs. It was also available in Slurpee form exclusively for a few years until 2005.
When Code Red was first released in the United States, this introduction alone increased overall Mountain Dew sales by 6% in its first year. The parent company, PepsiCo, was inspired by this introduction, eventually leading to the creation of multiple other flavors such as LiveWire (released in summer 2003) and Baja Blast (a Taco Bell exclusive released in 2004).
Diet Code Red
After a successful first year on shelves, Diet Code Red was put into production in 2002. From this, it is similar to how Caffeine-Free Mountain Dew, Red, and Sport all received Diet versions before Code Red came along.
In early 2019, strangely enough, Diet Code Red, such as other lesser-known flavors, Real Sugar, White Out, Citrus Cherry, Pitch Black, Caffeine-Free Mountain Dew, Caffeine-Free Diet Mountain Dew were pulled from shelves in most regions of the United States due to potentially low sales. As of late 2021, most of these flavors are still getting produced sporadically along the Midwest region from independent Pepsi bottlers for unknown reasons. As for Diet Code Red, it is currently available in two sizes - 12-packs and 20-ounce bottles.
Code Red Zero Sugar
On September 12th, 2021, a render of Code Red Zero Sugar leaked online. This flavor had no release date, but was set to replace Diet Code Red. It was unknown whether it would retain Diet Code Red's region exclusive status.
Throughout October of 2021 different renders had been found online showing more of the design and logo for Code Red Zero Sugar, indicating a release was imminent.
In November 2021, it appeared in a Mountain Dew commercial, showing that it is coming soon.
As of January 2022, it is now available in markets that have Diet Code Red and is planned to release in March 2022 to areas where Diet Code Red has previously been unavailable.
Mountain Dew Energy (Code Red)
- Main article: Mountain Dew Energy (Code Red)
On May 21st, 2022, an extremely trustful Pepsi employee confirmed that there would be a Code Red Energy variant set to release in September 2022, potentially alongside VooDEW (2022) for a limited time.
On June 9th, 2022, in a r/MountainDew Reddit post, a Reddit user named u/Whole_Job2709 revealed that it's coming soon, displaying a 16-ounce can on a wooden floor.
International release
Canada
In 2002, following the American release of Code Red in May 2001, Code Red was getting sold in Canada. This version, known as "Code Red" in English and as "Code Rouge" in French, was sold without caffeine due to laws preventing caffeine from being added to non-dark soft drinks. It was discontinued in 2005 due to potentially low sales.
- Main article: DEWmocracy Canada
In March 2013, a voting promotion called DEWmocracy Canada was announced. The candidates were Voltage, Supernova, Code Red, and White Out. The French name "Code Rogue" was retired from its previous release, making "Code Red" the sole name for both languages. Code Red lost to Voltage in the first round, but there was a second round called Back by Popular DEWmand, in which Code Red won, making it a permanent flavor in Canada.
On May 4th, 2019, the official Canadian Mountain Dew Twitter account announced that Code Red had ceased production due to potentially low sales, presumably referring to its availability in bottles and cans.
In April 2021, it was reported that Code Red was later released in Circle K locations as a Froster Freeze and in June 2021 as a fountain drink, making it potentially an exclusive flavor available only at Circle K locations. This release replaced Berry Twister as the new exclusive flavor in Circle K locations, which was confirmed by the Canadian Mountain Dew's social networking team.
The Philippines
Around the early 2000s, Code Red was sold in The Philippines in bottles for a limited time. There's nothing currently known other than the fact that it was a limited edition release.
In December 2019, the flavor was exclusively released to Filipino 7-Eleven convenience stores for a promotion named Mobile Legends, a mobile game for phones and tablets. Like its predecessor, this was also a limited time release.
Iraq
Around the same time as its release in The Philippines, Code Red was also released Iraq, and was available from around late 2004 until late 2005 in bottles and cans.
South Korea
Code Red was released in South Korea as "마운틴 듀 코드 레드" (Mountain Dew Code Red) on March 24th, 2005, which coincided with a promotion that billed attendees to win products.[1] The drink was sold in 250ml (8-ounce) cans and 500ml (16.9-ounce) bottles.
It was likely released for only a short time, as little is known about it. It is likely that it was discontinued sometime in the Mid-2000s, as it was available when Wild Black was on the shelves in 2006.
New Zealand
Code Red was introduced in New Zealand in 2009, making it the brand's first flavor expansion in the country. Unusually enough, this particular release of Code Red features a different flavor than the usual cherry flavor found in all other countries where it had been released, as this particular release features Berry flavoring instead of Cherry flavoring.
Germany
In 2010, Code Red was released in Germany, and was mainly found in gas station convenience stores in 500ml (16.9-ounce) bottles. After a year, the bottle changed from a clear bottle to a light red bottle. It was quietly discontinued in 2016 due to low sales.
Australia
In 2014, Code Red was released for a limited time in Australia under the Mountain Dew Energised name as part of an X-Men: Days of Future Past promotion. Similar to the New Zealand variant, the flavor used in New Zealand is Berry instead of Cherry. It was available from April and until September of the same year.
Trivia
- One of the most successful flavor variations in Mountain Dew history, Code Red is the first modern release of a recent kind, instantly being one of the most popular flavors. Code Red demonstrated the reason behind Mountain Dew's massive family of flavors. LiveWire in 2003, Baja Blast in 2004, and other multiple notable flavors in the years following.
- The computer worm Code Red was so named because the person who discovered the worm was drinking this flavor of Mountain Dew at the time.
