1936 China Paper Poster at the World of Coke

You have probably heard that the Expo 2010 in Shanghai is opening tomorrow. In honor of the opening, I'd like to spotlight an interesting China related poster on display at the World of Coke. This 1936 poster features a fashionable woman holding a glass of Coke, right under a Chinese Coca-Cola logo. The interesting thing about this piece is that while it clearly appears to be a piece of foreign advertising, it was actually produced for use in American Chinatowns. For this reason, it is often referred to in collectors' circles as "Chinatown." This can be found in the Milestones of Refreshment case in the section highlighting fashion.

 

The Man Behind The Secret Formula

On this date in 1923, Robert Woodruff was elected President of The Coca-Cola Company. More impressive than that, he began what would be a career of leadership with the Company that lasted more than six decades. Under his leadership, the six pack, the standardized cooler and the automatic fountain dispenser were all introduced. He also spurred the growth of Coca-Cola as an internationally loved beverage, and he is the man responsible for creating the allure of the Secret Formula. I sat down and spoke with award-winning reporter and author Frederick Allen, author of Secret Formula, about Robert Woodruff and what he learned about him in his research.

Filming In The Archives Again

Our marketing team is filming some segments in the Archives today.  It is fun to watch, but the countless takes can make it a bit slow.  I can't wait to see the finished films.

 

What Shakespeare said about Coke

Along with being the 25th Anniversary of New Coke, last Friday was also the observed birthday of William Shakespeare some 446 years ago. And in this month some 82 years ago, we ran a series of ads called "What Shakespeare said about Coca-Cola." In April of 1928, we ran this deliberately different series around the literary great specifically in Life magazine, even as we had other advertising running in other national publications. The letter that was sent out from our Advertising Department regarding these ads read as follows: "In Life we are running a series of unusual advertisements, each under the caption, "What Shakespeare said about Coca-Cola." There are ten advertisements in the series. These same advertisements are also appearing in college papers all over the country. These have a snap and humor particularly appealing to young people of college age." Check out the below ads from Julius Caesar and Hamlet.

CNN Story On New Coke

In planning our exhibit to mark the 25th Anniversary of New Coke, we felt that the event might get some media attention and boy were we right.  I did an interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution which ran in both the on-line and paper editions. 

Additionally, CNN did a long story on New Coke in front of the World of Coca-Cola with Ted Ryan from our staff.  It is a story that everyone is still fascinated with and is still considered the ultimate example of how a Company can make a major mistake and then recover. 

25th Anniversary Of New Coke

The leadership of The Coca-Cola Company gathered at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York's Lincoln Center at11:00 am on April 23rd, 1985 for an important announcement.  In the words of Chairman Roberto Goizueta, "The best has been made even better."  The 99 year old secret formula for Coca-Cola was being replaced by New Coke.

Most of the readers of the blog know the rest of the story: the protest, the countless calls the 800-GET-COKE number, the lawsuits and the eventual admission of a mistake by The Coca-Cola Company 79 days later when Coca-Cola was returned to the market as "Classic" Coke. 

For the first time in the 25 years that have passed since that momentous meeting we are unveiling some new documents for display at The World of Coca-Cola.  These items will be added to the New Coke case in the Pop Culture Gallery and include Roberto Goizueta's hand annotated speech from the Lincoln Center event where he crossed out several remarks about the secrecy of the launch.  We also included one of the binders form the lawsuit from the Old Cola Drinkers of America and the briefing document for Project Kansas (New Coke internal codename.)  I hope that if you are in Atlanta, you will be able to visit the World of Coke to see the new display.

The key learning for The Coca-Cola Company was that we proved the brand does not belong to us... it belongs to our consumers, when we took it away, we sparked a call to action.  We heard the message then and still live by it now.

I would like to share a video of a speech made by the then President of the Coca-Cola Company, Donald R. Keough.  These remarks, made at the press conference for the return of Coke Classic, were called the greatest performance by an American businessmen by a key marketer at the time.  I think they do a great job in summarizing what we learned about our brand.

Happy Earth Day!

We are celebrating 40 years of Earth Day here in the US, and Coke has been along for the green ride since the beginning. I told you all last year about the Ecology Kit called Man In His Environment that Coke put out in 1970 as a way to teach about environmental issues and the impact of everyday decisions on the environment. We had a few readers comment that they actually remember playing the game, so I thought this video from the Archives might ring a bell for those of you familiar with it, and be a good overview for those who had not heard of it. 

Coke and Recycling in the 1970s

You may have heard about the combination of the Coke contour bottle and the famous Navy Chair by leading furniture manufacturer Emeco to create a new chair made from at least 111 recycled plastic bottles in the news recently. With this being the week of Earth Day, I thought I'd share another highlight from our history involving packaging innovation. Coke introduced lightweight plastic bottles in 1975 with the “Easy-Goer” Lightweight Plastic Bottle after more than ten years of testing.

Six of the easy to carry, recyclable bottles were lighter than one glass bottle of comparable size, and one of the bottles even weighed less than marshmellows! The bottles also used less energy than glass bottles in the entire manufacturing and transporting cycle. The slogan for the bottle was “Lift It...You’ll Love it.” The same amount of Coke was packaged in the smaller “Easy-Goer” bottles as the larger glass bottles due to the thinner, stronger plastic walls, and this package was easily recycled. A recycling program was developed that extended the useful life of the bottle’s material utilizing local recycling centers for collection of the “Easy-Goer” containers for subsequent reprocessing into new bottles. Some of you collectors probably have a few of these bottles in your collection.

A Touch Of Mexico At The World Of Coke

We received quite a bit of feedback on our post the week about the commemorative bottles being produced in Mexico so I decided so share some of the Mexican items on display for our Friday Spotlight on the World of Coca-Cola.

Each of the galleries in the Milestones of Refreshment exhibit represent a significant innovation or event in our history.  Milestone Eight represents the growth of our international business since our first bottling efforts in Cuba, Panama and Canada in 1906.  We tried to offer examples from as many countries as we could, but given the strong heritage of Coca-Cola in Mexico, it should not be surprising that there are quite a few items from that country in the case.

I have included photographs of some of my favorites.  The most valuable is likely the 1928 calendar which is worth between $ 1,500 to $ 2,000 depending on condition.  One of the more unusual it the napkin dispenser, which as you can see from the photograph, has been touched up a bit.  I also love the color and vibrant message of the two trays, they are so different from what was produced in the US.  The slogan on the round one - "Chispa de la Vida" was an important one in Mexico and loosely translates to "the spark of life."

Happy Tax Day!

Our US readers know the significance of April 15th - all Income Taxes have to be filed and paid.  In 1965, the Company poked a little fun at the ritual amount of work and worry in preparing the tax statements.  I hope our American readers enjoy their "simple deduction" as the ad indicates.