Write your own caption - bicycle delivery

We’ve heard of Coca-Cola being delivered by boat, gondola and even by burro, and we loved this photo of from 1947 showing delivery by bicycle cart!

For this week’s Friday Fun contest, please give us your best caption for this photo from Honolulu, Hawaii.

The game: Submit a funny, clever or “punny” caption for this photo. (Use the “comments” section below this post.)

The prize: We’ll announce a winner next Thursday (November 20). The winner will have the honor of winning and will receive a Coca-Cola prize from Phil Mooney’s “goodie closet.”

We’re excited to see your ideas!

See the winning caption.

We have a winner - Red, White & Blue festoon

For last week’s Friday Fun contest, we asked you to send us a caption for this 1936 Coca-Cola festoon. The festoon has always scared those of us in the Archives, because we feel the ladies’ eyes follow us when we move.

That “fear” became the inspiration for a number of the captions we received:

• aloC-acoC and redrum; they go hand-in-hand!
• The "eyes" have it!
• Looking for a scary Coke sign? I'll keep an "eye" out for it.
• Lydia, don't look now, but you have two left hands! That's OK Rachel, you've got two right hands. All the better to freak out the Archives crew.
• Hey Mabel! Do you realize if we had arms, we could drink the glass of Coke we're holding in our hands?
• Treat yourself from top-to-hat with this refreshing hand potion.
• The observing Red
• Somebody's watching!
• Here's looking at you, Baby
• Delicious or refreshing: what’s your measure?
• Right or left, Coca-Cola always stands for the red white and blue!!
• God Bless America – Coca-Cola is always here for you and we are "watching" over you.

And the winner is: “Lydia, don't look now, but you have two left hands! That's OK Rachel, you've got two right hands. All the better to freak out the Archives crew.” by Rae Lynn. Congratulations!

You’ll receive a prize from Phil Mooney’s Coca-Cola “goodie closet.”

And thanks to everyone who sent in a caption. Please check back tomorrow for the next installment of Friday Fun.

Coke and the U.S. troops

To mark Veterans' Day in the U.S., I wanted to tell you a little bit about Coke and the troops during World War II.

In 1941, longtime Coca-Cola leader Robert Woodruff said that any person in uniform should get a bottle of Coke for 5 cents, wherever he is and whatever it costs the Company.

During WWII, a special group of Coca-Cola employees called Technical Observers were asked to fulfill Woodruff's promise. The "TOs" supervised the shipment and operation of 64 complete bottling plants that distributed over 5 billion bottles of Coca-Cola to servicemen and women.

One hundred forty-eight men served as TOs, compete with Army officer's rank, pay and uniforms that had a unique identification patch. Two TOs were killed in the line of duty.

Providing Coke to troops in remote areas of the South Pacific posed one of the most difficult problems to the TOs. The Brisbane, Australia, bottler offered one solution to the problem when he re-commssioned a portable soda fountain that had been used at drugstore conventions and had it flown into the hills to quench the thirsts of B-26 pilots. It was so successful that the Army requested a hundred more immediately.

Technicians from the Coca-Cola Export Corporation, working with the Liquid Carbonic and Hussman-Ligonier Companies, quickly developed a portable dispensing unit know as a "jungle fountain." Combining a standard Junior Dole Dispenser with an ice-making machine, the unit could be easily transported by truck to any location.

Nearly 1,100 of these units were used in the Pacific. Tragedy struck an early shipment of 150 "jungle fountains" when the transport ship carrying them was torpedoed, but replacements soon reached the troops.

This magazine ad shows a drawing of a jungle dispenser -- painted green for camouflage, of course!

Coca-Cola Sweet-Sour Cabbage recipe

With colder weather coming in my part of the world, I thought I’d share the recipe for this cabbage dish. It sounds like a great warm side dish to serve on a cold night.

Even if cabbage isn’t your favorite, you might want to give this a second look. Adding apples, brown sugar, Coke and bacon drippings to anything has to be good!

Coca-Cola Sweet-Sour Cabbage

About 1.5 lbs red or green cabbage
2 medium apples
1/2 cup Coca-Cola
2 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. bacon drippings
1 tsp. salt
1/2 to 1 tsp. caraway seeds

Coarsely shred or cut cabbage (should measure 3 cups). Core and dice unpeeled apples. In pan, toss together all ingredients. Cover, simmer until cabbage is tender, about 25 minutes; stir occasionally.

Makes 4 (1/2 cup) servings.

I haven’t had a chance to try this recipe yet. If you make this dish, please tell me if you liked it!

See our other recipes.

Write your own caption - Red, White & Blue festoon

Halloween may be over, but we’ve got a scary image for this week’s Friday Fun contest!

This 1936 Coca-Cola festoon is a great collectible piece, and we have it hanging in the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, but it’s always frightened those of us in the Archives.

 

Just like the old horror movies, we feel like the ladies’ eyes are following us when we move. We didn’t even like packing the pieces to go to the World of Coca-Cola because of their eyes!

The game: Give us your best caption (funny, clever or scary) about this Coke piece. (Just use the “comments” function below this post.)

The prize: We’ll announce the winner next Thursday (November 13) and send the winner a Coca-Cola prize.

Remember: We’ll be watching!

See the winning caption.

We have a winner - Happy Halloween!

In last week’s Friday Fun caption contest, Phil asked you to celebrate Halloween and send in captions for this 1954 U.S. poster.

We received some great entries:

• Margaret runs for her life as the costume-clad, pitchfork-wielding neighborhood kids find out she is giving out Coca-Cola to her Trick-or-Treaters.
• After realizing she forgot to buy extra Coca-Cola for "treats", the magician’s wife hoped she remembered how to do the Coke up the sleeve "trick."
• After you've carved the gourd,
  and gave out candy to the horde,
  you deserve a nice reward;
  treat yourself to a delicious and
  refreshing ice cold Coca-Cola,
  the drink you can still afford.
  Still only 5¢
• "The Trick is to keep all the Coca-Cola Treats for yourself" - AHA HA HA HA HA!
• Fear not!! Lighten up and have a Coke, Pun'kin.
• Coca-Cola - It's always a treat!
• Trick or Treat, smell my feet, May I have a Ice Cold Coca-Cola Please?

And the winner is: “Margaret runs for her life as the costume-clad, pitchfork-wielding neighborhood kids find out she is giving out Coca-Cola to her Trick-or-Treaters,” sent in by Rae Lynn.

Congratulations! You’ll receive a Coca-Cola prize from Phil’s “goodie closet.”

And thanks to everyone for playing!

Please check back tomorrow for a new Friday Fun contest. Pumpkins are not involved!

A very personal WWII display

One of the most personal pieces we have in the World of Coca-Cola is an item from a Coca-Cola collector who has become a friend of our department.

In the World of Coca-Cola we have an exhibit on the role Coke played with U.S. soldiers during World War II. (The Company rather famously promised that every man in uniform would get a Coke for a nickel, whatever it cost the Company, and we served Coke all over the world during the war -- even sending 64 portable bottling lines overseas to do it.)

In that exhibit for WWII, we have a few of the many letters soldiers wrote home, talking about how drinking was a reminder of home and what they were missing. One of the letters we have on display is from the father of a collector -- Spencer Combs, father of Bill Combs.

This video was filmed with Bill at the World of Coca-Cola in March.

Bill let us put this letter and his dad’s photo in the display. It’s a great example of the connection between Coke and the people who love it.

Who sings that song in the Coke ad?

If you're like me, you may hear a song in a commercial while watching TV and wonder who the singer is. I know many of you have wondered about some of our Coca-Cola ads, because you've asked me about them!

In the more than 50 years of Coca-Cola commercials, we've had a very wide variety of singers, groups and celebrities sing Coke jingles. Our list of entertainers grows even longer when you add in songs that appear in our ads but aren't Coca-Cola songs.

In the past few months the singers in two of our commercials – one for Coke and one for diet Coke – have been "hot topics."

The diet Coke commercial shows a woman roller skating, drinking a diet Coke, with the song "Starry Eyed Surprise" by Paul Oakenfold.

A Coca-Cola ad that aired during the Beijing Games showed animated birds making their own "Bird's Nest" stadium out of straws. One version had a song that told the story of the birds, sung by Morgan Visconti. (Many thought it was Lou Reed!)

Here are just some of the other artists with songs featured in our ads:

• Paula Abdul (for diet Coke)
• Ashford and Simpson (for Coca-Cola)
• The Band (for diet Coke)
• The Bee Gees (for Coca-Cola)
• Blondie (for Coca-Cola)
• Michael Bolton (for Coca-Cola light)
• Brothers Four (for Coca-Cola)
• Ray Charles (for Coca-Cola)
• Earth, Wind and Fire (for Coca-Cola and for Dasani)
• The Fifth Dimension (for Coca-Cola)
• Aretha Franklin (for Coca-Cola)
• The Gap Band (for Dasani)
• Heavy D And The Boyz (for Sprite)
• Whitney Houston (for diet Coke)
• Etta James (for diet Coke)
• Elton John (for diet Coke)
• Manhattan Transfer (for diet Coke)
• The McGuire Sisters (for Coca-Cola)
• Ray Parker, Jr. (for Coca-Cola and for diet Coke)
• The Pointer Sisters (for diet Coke)
• The Rolling Stones (for Coca-Cola C2)
• Selena (for Coca-Cola)
• Randy Travis (for Coca-Cola)
• Dottie West (for Coca-Cola)

Do you have a favorite?

Happy Sandwich Day from Coke!

Today is Sandwich Day in the U.S., and you know I couldn’t skip this monumental holiday!

In fact, sandwiches -- and lunch in general -- were very important to the growth of the Coca-Cola business. Pairing Coke and food was a huge step in our business. In addition to advertising like this 1933 piece showing Coke and a sandwich, Coca-Cola provided plates and cutlery as promotional items.

The idea was that having the Coca-Cola trademark on China (plates and cups and saucers) would help remind people of the connection between Coke and food. The plates can be quite valuable, with some from the 1930s worth from $400 to $1,000 today!