IGA And Coca-Cola

I had a great time making a presentation to IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance) on the Coca-Cola Conversations blog.  Founded in 1926, IGA has a rich heritage and our brands have been linked througout the years.  During the course of our conversation today, they shared several interesting photographs of stores with great Coca-Cola signage.  The photo to the right has a great 1941 tin sign that would is valued between $ 600 and $ 800 today depending on the condition.  I always love to see how our marketing material was used in the stores and can not wait to explore the IGA photo collection.

Eisenhower Cable

While I have blogged about it before, On this date, June 29th 1943, a military cable was sent from General Eisenhower's field headquarters in North Africa which requested 3 million filled bottles of Coca-Cola along with 10 bottling lines and sufficient syrup and caps for 6 million refills.  This launched our efforts to supply ever GI a Coca-Cola for a nickle.  By the end of the war, we have supplied over 5 billions bottles of Coke to GIs around the globe.

One interesting note is the cable itself was classified as confidential and was not declassified until 1966.

Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake From Carver's Country Kitchen

Several weeks ago we posted our video of the interview we did with Sharon Carver at Carver's Country Kitchen and we promised to give you her famous chocolate cake recipe.  As you can see from the video below, she does it old school with a hand held mixer and lots of love.  I can't wait to try it. Download Carver¹s Country Kitchen Coca-Cola Cake Recipe

Take Your Dog To Work Day!

June 25th is "Take Your Dog to Work Day" so I thought I would share one of my favorite dog images we used in our advertising.  While we do not know for certain because the artwork does not have a signature, this 1950 painting is attributed to Haddon Sundblom.

Columbia Pictures

On this date, June 22, in 1982 The Coca-Cola Company entered the entertainment industry by completing its acquisition of Columbia Pictures.  The press release issued said "the entertainment industry is poised for significant growth in the years ahead, and Columbia Pictures is one of the creative and financial stars of the entertainment industry."  This purchase means that I have some pretty interesting artifacts in our collection including the Oscar for the movie Gandhi which is on display at the World of Coca-Cola. Our appetite for the entertainment industry and its growth was tempered when the movie Ishtar bombed and we sold Columbia Pictures to Sony in 1989.

Happy Summer Solstice!

June 21st is the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere so we will be enjoying our longest day of the year.  Here in Atlanta, we are looking at over 14 hours 24 minutes of sunlight today.  That should be enough time to get everything done!

World Cup At The World Of Coke

With the first week of the FIFA World Cup in full swing I am getting excited by all the action and the vuvuzelas. If you want to experience some of the excitement here in Atlanta, the World of Coca-Cola now has a special 3-D film airing that was shown during the World Cup Trophy Tour.  It is an exciting new addition that will only be there until July 5th.

If you miss that but still want to see some World Cup items, check out the Milestones of Refreshment gallery and keep one the lookout for a miniature version of the trophy.

Beer Can Chicken With A Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce

We have not posted any recipes in a while so while we finish editing our video where Sharon Carver shows us how to make her famous Coca-Cola cake, here is BBQ recipe.  A friend recently sent me this Beer Can Chicken recipe from the Food Network website and I can't wait to try it.  The recipe was developed by grilling legend Steve Raichlen and was featured on the Food Network program BBQ with Bobby Flay.  It looks delicious and the comments on the recipe all point out how good the sauce is.

Winner Of The Coca-Cola 600 Vending Machine

I posted a blog a few weeks ago about the vending machine the winner of the Coca-Cola 600 would win.  I just received a photograph from victory lane after the race showing Kurt Busch with the trophy and the vending machine.  I wonder which he was happier to receive? 

Thanks to Kurt Busch and his team for letting us use the photograph.

Boy Scouts of America

While the Boy Scouts of America were founded in 1910 and are celebrating a century of "Being Prepared" this year, they were not officially incorporated until President Woodrow Wilson signed their incorporation papers on this date in 1916. 

The Coca-Cola Company and the Boy Scouts have been partners for decades and we have quite a bit of Scout material in our Archives including artwork, Jamboree material and numerous ads from Boys Life magazine.  Many of our local bottlers were also partners for their local Boy Scout Troops.  We recently acquired several calendars featuring Boy Scout artwork by artist Norman Rockwell which advertised for bottlers across the country.  The image to the right is from the 1946 calendar produced for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Enid, Oklahoma.  If you look closely, one can note the first Scout Law printed at the bottom of the page.  Each month had additional Scouting information printed.  A calendar like this in good condition with all the pages are generally worth $ 400 to $ 500.

We have too many images to post to the blog, so I have created a facebook photo album with more photos of the Scout calendars.