How do you say "Happiness" in 57 languages?

A while back, we shared the international logos of Coca-Cola with you. I just came across a video from the 75th Anniversary of Coca-Cola yesterday that has cartoon characters taking you on a tour of the world and reminding you that Coca-Cola is enjoyed at work, at play, and at home, the world over. This clip from the 1961 film descibes the tag line in a small number of the 57 different languages it was sold in at the time. Enjoy!

The film, entitled "Community of The World", shows clips of Coca-Cola in Germany, Italy, Egypt, India, Singapore, The Philippines, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, The Netherlands, Peru, Uraguay, Colombia, Austria, Lenanon, New Zealand, Denmark, Chile and others.

 

It's a boat... It's a plane... No, It's a Coke!

The beaches of Dubai have seen vision of large, ice-cold refreshment floating by over the last month. The scene is a monstrosity of Coke happiness that makes you thirsty just looking at it. The 14 meter iceberg is part of summer promotions in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I wonder if Coke Collectors would have room to store this in their garages?

 

 
 

Celebrate Harry Potter with a Coke!

Earlier in the week, I was combing through the archives, looking for commemorative bottles to include in an exhibit we're helping to put together for the Ghent Museum of Design in Belgium.  We have lots of interesting bottles, but this one in particular caught my eye.  It's a commemorative bottle made in 2002 for the release of the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  How fortunate of a find, seeing as today is the opening day of the final movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part Two -- or HP7P2 to all you fellow Potterheads out there.

Whether, like me, you grew up with HP, read the books to your children, or became a child at heart again through them, I know you won't want to miss seeing the final film in theatres.  So let you imagination free this weekend and enjoy two of your favorites: Harry Potter and ice cold Coca-Cola.  I know I will.

The Supremes and Coca-Cola

Despite having little to no musical talent of my own, I have always had a deep love for music.  It's funny to flip through my cd collection and see the listening trends of my past: pop albums from middle school days, the weird mixture of emo and classic rock albums from high school,           post-rock and indie albums throughout college, and a bit of British techno pop after a study abroad program.  Like I said, it's a pretty eclectic mix.  However, there has been only one constant in my music enjoyment over the years: Motown. 

So, obviously, I was really excited when I was asked to research the jingles that The Supremes did in the 1960s.  I had no idea they did Coca-Cola ads!  So let me just say thank you to the music producers looking to put together a Supremes Greatest Hits album for such a fun afternoon!!

From 1965 to 1969, jingles by The Supremes were played on the radio as a part of the "Things Go Better With Coke" campaign.  Within the archives, I discovered that The Supremes adapted their hit songs "Baby Love" and "When the Love Light Starts Shining Through His Eyes" to advertise Coca-Cola.  I also found two other jingles that I couldn't match up with one of their songs.  All four jingles have multiple variations, ranging from 30 to 90 seconds long. 

The Supremes weren't the only artists who contributed to the campaign.  Popular artists like The Coasters, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Sue Thompson, Otis Redding, Roy Orbison, Petula Clark, The Moody Blues, and The Fortunes also released jingles composed in their own styles.  These commercials became so popular that listeners bombarded radio stations with requests to play their favorites.  60,000 special Swing the Jingle records were produced and distributed by Coca-Cola bottlers in response to their popularity.

Blog By The Numbers

We hit a milestone this week as our Coca-Cola Conversations blog received our 1,000,000th visitor.  This blog has been a great way for the Archives team to share stories about Coca-Cola history, pop culture and collectibles. 

In looking through the blog stats, I wanted to share some of the other stats about our social media outlets.  Over the three plus years we have maintained the blog, we have written 687 post and have received over 5,200 comments on those posts.  We now have almost 2,700 followers on our @Coke_Archives twitter feed and 2,200 fans of Coca-Cola Archives on facebook.  Our YouTube Channel has 69 videos which have been viewed more that 750,000 times.  This year we also worked with our Spanish office to create a virtural guided tour of the Archives storage space.  The response to that site has been overwhelming with nearly 100,000 page views and nearly 800 photographs uploaded by visitors to the site since it was launched in April.

We hope that you have enjoyed the content on our sites and we look forward to the next 1,000,000 visitors who want to learn a little more about the heritage of Coca-Cola.

Happy Birthday Hilltop!

40 years ago today, July 7th 1971, the famous Hilltop commercial featuring the jingle, "I'd Like to buy the World a Coke" first aired in the U.S.  The jingle had been released as a radio spot in February of that year and the television version released in England in late June.  The release of the ad in the U.S. caused an immediate and dramatic response as consumers wrote the Company begging to see it again.  The complete history of the ad is available at this Library of Congress site.  I conducted a video oral history with two of the members of the New Seekers who recorded the song, and I hope to share a recap video in a few weeks, but in the meanwhile, enjoy this color corrected and restored version of the ad from our YouTube Channel. 

 

Shug Jordan Loved Coke and Golden Flake Potato Chips

We acquired a fun item for the collection at The Coca-Cola Collectors Club silent auction during their recent Annual Convention held here in Atlanta. 

This easel back cardboard piece from 1962 featured Auburn University head coach Shugg Jordan saying "What A Team" for the 1962 squad.  The poster featured Coca-Cola and Alabama based Golden Flake Potato Chips.

The poster also has the complete schedule for the season when the War Eagles took on teams like Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Florida, Clemson, Georgia and finished the season with the "Iron Bowl" with Alabama.  It was interesting to note that the in addition to the "Iron Bowl" the games vs. Tech and Tennessee were also played in Birmingham rather than Auburn.  The Tigers went 6 - 3 - 1 with a loss in the Iron Bowl and a tie to Florida State.  The team reached its highest ranking (10th) after beating Ga. Tech to get to 4 - 0. 

Legendary Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant also had a sponsorship relationship with both Coca-Cola and Golden Flake Potato Chips.