Spotlight on The World of Coca-Cola - Alabama Crimson Tide

I enjoyed watching the BCS Championship game last night and want to congratulate the Alabama Crimson Tide for winning their eighth College Football Championship and first since 1992. 

We have a bit of Alabama football heritage that is on display at the World of Coke.  Next time you visit, make sure to check our the Collectors Corner in the Pop Culture Gallery.  We have a number of commemorative bottles on display including the Bear Bryant bottle.  This bottle celebrates the "Winningest Coach" and has the slogan, "Coke and the Bear, a winning pair."  Roll Tide.

National Park Sprite Bottles

I recently received a reference request asking about a Sprite bottle which had the name of a national park embossed on the bottom of the bottle.  There is an interesting story to these bottles that I wanted to share with you.

The names of 36 national parks and monuments were featured on the bottom of Sprite bottles in 1966.  Our documentation indicates that The Coca-Cola Company was going to do a promotion with Sprite involving national parks and monuments and that several of our bottlers had the bottles created.  However, the promotion fell through.  With the bottles already created, the Company used them to highlight the importance of national parks to the US public.  While the bottles are interesting, they do not have much value in the collectibles market.

Click to  Download 1966 Refresher National Park Article which gives more details on the bottles and the parks covered.

St. Paul Winter Carnival

One of the outstanding Winter events in the United States is the St. Paul Winter Carnival which will run from January 21-31 this year. The Carnival was established in 1886, the same year that Coca-Cola was invented.

Last year, a lady named Kathleen Hanson Nickelson sent me a photograph and letter from the 1941 Carnival. The photo shows the Royal Court from that year helping to open the  brand new Coca-Cola Bottling Plant on South Wabasha Street. King Boreas, standing at the center-front of the photo, threw the switch that started the first bottle of Coca-Cola moving down the bottling line. According to a contemporary report, the plant had air conditioning throughout the building, fluorescent lighting, and a garage capable of housing 90 trucks. Ms. Nickelson, 22 at that time, was Queen of the Carnival that year. She is the second lady from the right side of the photo.

Even in the midst of Winter, Coca-Cola was providing refreshment to Carnival attendees.

 
 

Happy New Year - 1950s Philippines Ads

Happy New Year to all of our friends and patrons, as the 1953 print ad from the Philippines on the left says. Coke was introduced in the Philippines in 1927, and I thought today we'd share two Happy New Year ads from our Philippines collection. The ad with fireworks is from 1950 and the line at the bottom in Filipino is translated: "Listen to the program "The Pause that Refreshes on the Air", Tuesday and Sunday, 8:00 - 8:30.