Just anecdotal or course, a sample of one and all that. :)
In Mantikas v. Kellogg Co. (2018) [1], the 2nd Circuit allowed a false-advertising class-action suit to proceed against Cheez-Its labeled 'Made with Whole Grain' that only had 8g of whole grain in a 29g serving, whose primary ingredient was white flour.
The opinion explicitly rejects the situation you describe:
> Such a rule would permit Defendant to lead consumers to believe its Cheez-Its were made of whole grain so long as the crackers contained an iota of whole grain, along with 99.999% white flour. Such a rule would validate highly deceptive marketing.
If Coke (or Coke Vanilla even) would cobtain real vanilla, they'd advertise it for sure. I don't remember anything like that
Two thins: Its up to the local bottler whether to use Cane Sugar or beet sugar or Vanilla or Vanillin. Mexican coke uses both Cane sugar and Vanilla.
A bar coke from a canister usually had the syrup a bit heavy so you can taste the difference much easier.
That's what was trying to say by using the "average" qualifier though.
I doubt there's much economic incentive to use real vanilla in 99% of the world / Coca-Cola's market.
With the different types of sugar, it's easier for me to imagine a company doing this for economic reasons.
There are some very old articles on the web from when Vanilla Coke was introduced, that they had been draining European markets for vanilla pods, ostensively. Sounds like astroturfing to me honestly. There's also a clas action lawsuit about missing real vanilla :D