Diet Coke gets total makeover with four new flavors

Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Coca-Cola on Wednesday relaunched its Diet Coke brand after years of sales declines, and a consumer movement away from artificially sweetened sodas.

Sales of the zero-calorie Diet Coke, which began in 1982, fell 4.3 percent last year -- but remains the third-best selling soft drink in the United States, Bloomberg News reported, citing statistics from Beverage Digest.

At a time when soda consumption has declined significantly and consumers are turning away from artificially sweetened drinks, Coca-Cola announced a new advertising campaign for Diet Coke.

The brand now includes five versions of the drink -- ginger lime, feisty cherry, twisted mango and zesty blood orange have been added beside the original version -- in tall, narrow 12-ounce cans. The new designs will go on sale later this month. It is sweetened with aspartame.

"We're modernizing what has made Diet Coke so special for a new generation," said Rafael Acevedo, Coca-Cola's North American Diet Coke director in a statement Wednesday. "The same unapologetic confidence still comes through and the same great Diet Coke taste people love is here to stay, but we're making the brand more relatable and more authentic."