Turner Sky Field Commemorative Bottle

Built in 1997 in the home of the Atlanta Braves, the famous and gigantic Coca-Cola contour bottle has witnessed its fair share of victories at Turner Field. As part of Coca-Cola’s Sky Field, the iconic, curvy bottle has welcomed in countless baseball fans from around the world with the same message: we might root for different teams, but we can all enjoy an ice-cold Coca-Cola. After 12 years of loyally celebrating each Braves homer with a fireworks celebration, the beloved bottle is throwing in the towel.

July 2 is the last chance fans will have to visit the bottle and have their photo taken with it.  To celebrate the 12 plus years (and over 1,900 games) with the bottle, the first 15,000 fans to enter the stadium on July 2 will receive a voucher which will allow them to later claim a commemorative 8-ounce bottle.

Fans should join the Turner Field Coca-Cola Bottle Facebook fan page to post their pictures and join other fans in reminiscing about their memories with the bottle.

Spotlight on The World of Coca-Cola: Artist Steve Kaufman

The New Art Exhibit in The Pop Culture Gallery at the World of Coke is entitled "Celebrating An Icon: The Coca-Cola Bottle in Contemporary Art". From time to time we will be featuring a few videos of the artists who have works in this exhibit. First up is Los Angeles artist Steve Kaufman. As a student in 1981, Steve met Andy Warhol and became his assistant at the Factory. Warhol continued to be a source of inspiration for Steve’s art work throughout the years. During his time in New York, Steve created graphics for NBC’s Saturday Night Live and participated in group show at Club 57 with Keith Haring on his way to being named Underground Artist of the Year. He moved to Los Angeles in 1993, where he became heavily involved in philanthropy, lending support to over 170 individual charities a year. Other highlights of his career include painting a limited edition Campbell's Soup can to mark its 100th Anniversary, and being commissioned to create a Muhammad Ali portrait for the 1996 Olympics. Please enjoy this video!

Happy 4th Birthday Coke Zero

Coca-Cola Zero turned 4 today and there was a celebration for employees here at Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta.  This morning we were greeted with a birthday message recorded by Coca-Cola Racing Family Driver Elliott Sadler.

At lunch time, with delicious food provided by some of our customers and a huge birthday cake, there was plenty to eat.

There were also special events and games for employees to try - including having your picture made with the official Coca-Cola Zero race car and a race simulator game.

Recycle Week in Great Britain

Inspired by a 1949 poster from the Archives, Coca-Cola Great Britain commissioned a team of artists to design and create the world's largest recycled piece of artwork. More than 200,000 aluminum cans, extending over 100 meters in length, were used in the development of the artwork that was installed on top of the chalk cliffs of the Sussex coastline. It required a week to complete and can only be fully viewed from the air. At the end of Recycle Week, each of the 200,000 cans will be recyled saving enough energy to keep a television running for seventy years.Shown below is the 1949 poster that inspired this project and a photo of the completed artwork called Precious Metal.

 

Spotlight on the World of Coca-Cola: Red Sox World Series Ring

Readers of the blog will know that I grew up in the Boston area and that I am a big Red Sox fan.  I remember watching Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice (new Hall of Fame inductee) and other Sox greats at Fenway.  With our local Atlanta Braves in Boston this weekend, I thought I would highlight a special artifact on display at the World of Coke.

  The Red Sox and Coca-Cola have a special relationship as one of the longest partnerships in sports.  In addition to serving Coke products at Fenway Park since they began playing there, Coca-Cola has been an active partner with activities ranging from featuring the Red Sox in a series of films in the 1950s (which are great collectibles if you can find them) to adorning the light poles over the Green Monster with our classic contour bottle.

 Visitors will need to look closely when they tour the Milestones of Refreshment gallery because in the section featuring our history with sports and entertainment, we have a Red Sox World Series ring from their 2004 Championship season.  When the Sox won the series, they had a special ring with the Coca-Cola and Red Sox logos made to commemorate this special partnership. 

Bacardi and Coke - Always A Great Combination

One of the interesting things about my job is the opportunity to meet and share information with other corporate Archivist.  I received an e-mail this week from Pepin Argamasilla, Bacardi Historian/Archivist and 6th generation Bacardi family member,that I wanted to share with you.  He sent me a photograph of an early Coca-Cola sign they found in their collection.  The following is from his e-mail.

The attached image is of the Edificio Bacardi de la Habana or Bacardi Building in Havana, Cuba. Construction started in 1924 and completion was in 1930 at a cost of $1.4 million. Therefore this image should date at around 1928-1929. The building still stands and is located on Havana's Calle Monserrate corner of San Juan De Dios.

Its design was the result of a closed competition between the most important Cuban architects of the time; the project was awarded to Esteban Rodríguez Castells, Rafael Fernández Ruenes, and José Menendéz. While the original project featured facades with Renaissance details, what happened next underlines both the desire for modernity and the importance of international influences.

After the contest, the architects traveled to Paris, where they were astounded by the new architecture they found there. After returning to Havana, they completely changed the ornamentation of the building, while retaining its original scale. Using terra cotta ornamentation on the facade and creating an opulent splendor for the interior, which has its own exhibition hall and mezzanine bar decorated with gilded palm trees, they crowned the edifice with a giant bat on its highest finial.

Behind the missing area were two nymphs by American illustrator Maxfield Parrish whose unique style set him apart and earned himiconic status during his lifetime. He mastered the mysterious effects of light and iridescent colors through a difficult glazing technique, enhanced by the invention of his luminous "Maxfield Parrish blue." The Edificio remains as one of the first truly great buildings of Havana.

Old Photo is: Courtesy Bacardi Heritage Foundation
Contemporary Photo is: Photo by Kenneth Triester and courtesy Bacardi
International Limited

Coke's 90 years in Europe

2009 marks an important milestone for us -- 90 years since Coca-Cola was first bottled in Europe.

The first Coca-Cola bottling plants in Europe opened in 1919 in Paris and Bordeaux, France.

This photo is from France in 1930 and gives a nice view of one of our delivery trucks from the time!

And in case you’re keeping track, Coca-Cola bottling had already begun internationally before 1919. The first three countries outside the United States to bottle Coca-Cola were Canada, Cuba and Panama, all in 1906.

Something Old, Something New. Something Green, Something Blue.

One of the cool parts of my job is working with the history of the many brands we have. If you've seen the new Sprite cans and bottles in the store recently, you may have experienced a little bit of nostalgia. The new Sprite packaging puts a modern, updated spin on its signature look. The new logo connects to the "spark" shape seen in the 1966 can on the left. It also borrows from the other Sprite logos in the images below from 1985 and 1997, respectively. Can you identify any other resemblances to the older cans??

Spotlight on the World of Coca-Cola

I hope that you will enjoy this new feature which will focus on the artifacts, artwork, bottles, products and videos at the World of Coca-Cola.

For our first entry, I wanted to return to the summer of 1971. This was the year when the classic Coca-Cola commercial"I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" was introduced that summer.  While not as classic, that was also the summer which saw the introduction of Beach Pants!

For only $ 2.98 and six proof of purchase, you too could own these stylish pants.  They were very popular with the younger generation and were advertised in younger magazines like Boy's Life, Seventeen and Letterman.

We have two Beach Pants stories for the World of Coca-Cola.  First, you can see a pair of the pants in all their 70s splendor in one of the cases in the Loft area.  And second, on our opening day, one of our visitors came wearing not only the Beach Pants but also the matching floppy hat.

Fountain Glasses

In doing research on fountain glasses our Company has used over the years, I ran across this dealer aid price list from 1924 offering glassware for sale.  This document is interesting for a number of reasons.  First, even though it is a Company document, it consistently left out the "The" in The Coca-Cola Company.  Second, the prices are very in-expensive.  I researched glass prices today and these 1924 prices do not look too bad.

The glasses being sold would have been the "flare" glass, the bell shaped Coca-Cola glass was not introduced until 1929.