[tbrownaw]

> Disclamer - I owned a restaurant that gave Pepsi products to customers who explicitly ask for a Coke.

I have in fact heard "coke" used as a generic before. Just like google, kleenex, champaign, cheddar, ...

[pests]

This example was doomed from the start because of this fact.

A lot of the US south uses the generic "coke."* It is not uncommon for this conversation to play out: "Can I get a coke?" "Sure, which kind?" "A Coke" (or a pepsi, or fanta)

In my neck of the woods we call it "pop" which always sounded strange to me in isolation.

* As famously depicted in the 2003 Harvard Dialect Survey.

[CobrastanJorji]

That's what makes it work as a metaphor, I think. Our former Microsoft friend above says that when people ask for "google search," what they mean is "any search engine," just as people in Georgia say "coke" when they mean "a soda." You say the right response is "sure, what kind," but the Microsoft solution is to serve them a Pepsi that they disguised to resemble a Coca-Cola at first glance.

[lesuorac]

To avoid the whole question of if they carry pepsi or coke I usually just ask for a pepsi-coke and I've yet to run into any problems.

[ziml77]

But at the very least they need to say "No Coke. Pepsi."