The Project

Elisabetta Recher 04.05.12 CS 110-4, Professor Scaramastra

Index:Index: History .....................................................................3

Mission .....................................................................5

curiosities .................................................................6

Logo Design .............................................................8

Bottle Design ...........................................................9

Advertizing, Mass Media and Sport ..........................12

Health Effects ...........................................................14

Key Dates .................................................................15

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HistoryCoca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink

sold in almost all the countries of the

world. Coca-Cola is manufactured by

“The Coca-Cola Company” and is often

referred to as Coke. Coke is one of the

most recognizable brands in the world.

Coca-Cola was invented by John Smith

Pemberton in Covington, Georgia in May 1886. The beverage was initially

a coca wine and was called Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. After Atlanta

and Fulton County passed Prohibition legislation, Pemberton made a

carbonated, non-alcoholic version of French Wine Cola and called it Coca-

Cola. Coca leaves from South America were added as a stimulant to the

beverage along with kola nuts, which were added to give flavor to the

drink. Due to them the name Coca-Cola was given to the beverage. Coca-

Cola also contained nine milligrams of cocaine per glass till 1904, when

they started using “spent” leaves instead of fresh leaves. The spent leaves

were the leftovers of cocaine-extraction process and contained just traces

of cocaine. But cocaine is still present in the drink as it is one of the

alkaloids present in the drink. Even today the flavoring is done with kola

nuts and “spent” coca leaf.

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Asa Candler, who was also a pharmacist of Atlanta, bought the formula of

Coca-Cola in 1887 from John Pemberton for $2,300.

Coca-Cola was first sold as a patent medicine. In fact, Pemberton claimed

that it was good for health and cured many diseases such as headache,

impotence, morphine addiction. The first sale of Coca-Cola was made at

Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta and on the first advertisement for the

beverage appeared in Atlanta Journal on May 29.

Asa Candler bought the formula from Pemberton in 1887 and incorporated

the company as the Coca-Cola Company in 1888. In 1888, Pemberton sold

the rights of the company a second time to four businessmen: J. C.

Mayfield, A.O. Murphey, C. O. Mullahy and E. H. Bloodworth; but, later,

Candler purchased exclusive rights to the formula.

On March 12, 1984 Coca-Cola was sold for the first time in bottles and was

sold in cans in 1955. The first bottling of Coca-Cola was done at Vicksburg,

Mississippi in 1891 by the Biedenharn Candy Company. The first bottles

were not of the design that we are familiar with.

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Mission4

The mission of Coca-Cola Company is “to strive to refresh the world,

inspire moments of optimism and happiness, create value and make a

difference”. It often tops the list of being the world’s most recognizable

brand. Its iconic Coca Cola drink, also known

as Coke, is today one of the biggest selling

products on the planet. Its beverages are sold

in over 200 countries. It sells 1.6 billion drinks

a day and employs close to 100,000 people.

One secret to the company's phenomenal

success is what it calls the 'Coca-Cola

system' - the more than 300 worldwide

bottling partners that work together to distribute its products. Another is

its catchy advertising slogans, such as “Coke Is It”.

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Curiosities New Coke

On April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola, attempted to change the formula of

the drink with "New Coke". Follow-up taste tests revealed that most

consumers preferred the taste of New Coke to both Coke and Pepsi,

but Coca-Cola management was unprepared for the public's

nostalgia for the old drink, leading to a backlash. The company gave

in to protests and returned to a variation of the old formula, under

the name Coca-Cola Classic on July 10, 1985.

Coca-Cola's first bottling plant in Europe

opened in France in 1919.

The Coca-Cola six-pack carton was introduced

in 1923, an innovation at the time.

It took Coca-Cola 70 years to expand into new

flavors: Fanta, originally developed in the

1940s, was introduced in the 1950s; Sprite followed in 1961, with

TAB in 1963 and Fresca in 1966. In 1960, The Coca-Cola Company

acquired The Minute Maid Company, adding an entirely new line of

business – juices. The company now has an astounding portfolio of

500 brands and ’3,300 beverages’.

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Coca-Cola advertising came into its own with the, now famous, 1971

commercial featuring young people from around the world gathered on a

hilltop singing "I'd like to buy the world a Coke".

The hierarchy of Coca Cola Company is as follows:

Chairman

Board of governorsVice chairman and chief operating

officer

Executive Vice President

Senior Vice President

Vice President

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Logo Design The famous Coca-Cola logo was created by John Pemberton's bookkeeper,

Frank Mason Robinson, in 1885. Robinson came up with the name and

chose the logo's distinctive cursive script. The typeface used, known as

Spencerian script, was developed in the mid 19th century and was the

dominant form of formal

handwriting in the United States

during that period.

Robinson also played a significant

role in early Coca-Cola

advertising. His promotional

suggestions to Pemberton

included giving away thousands of free

drink coupons and plastering the city of Atlanta with publicity banners and

streetcar signs.

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Bottle DesignThe famous Coca-Cola bottle, called the "contour bottle" within the

company, but known to some as the "hobble skirt" bottle, was created by

bottle designer Earl R. Dean. In 1915, the Coca-Cola Company launched a

competition among its bottle suppliers to create a new bottle for their

beverage that would distinguish it from other beverage bottles, "a bottle

which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so

shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was.

"Chapman J. Root, president of the Root

Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana,

turned the project over to members of

his supervisory staff, including company

auditor T. Clyde Edwards, plant

superintendent Alexander Samuelsson,

and Earl R. Dean, bottle designer and

supervisor of the bottle molding room. Root

and his subordinates decided to base the bottle's design on one of the

soda's two ingredients, the coca leaf or the kola nut, but were unaware of

what either ingredient looked like. Dean and Edwards went to the Emeline

Fairbanks Memorial Library and were unable to find any information about

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coca or kola. Instead, Dean was inspired by a picture of the gourd-shaped

cocoa pod in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Dean made a rough sketch of the pod and returned to

the plant to show Root. He

explained to Root how he

could transform the shape of the pod into

a bottle. Root gave Dean his approval, and a

design patent was issued on the bottle in

November, 1915.

Today, the contour Coca-Cola bottle is one of the

most recognized packages on the planet..."even in the dark!".

In 2009, in Italy, Coca-Cola Light had a Tribute to Fashion to celebrate 100

years of the recognizable contour bottle. Well known Italian designers

Alberta Ferretti, Blumarine, Etro, Fendi, Marni, Missoni, Moschino, and

Versace each designed limited edition bottles. Karl Lagerfeld is the latest

designer to have created a collection of aluminum bottles for Coca-Cola.

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Advertizing, Mass Media and Sport

AdvertisingAdvertising Mass MediaMass Media Sport &Sport & SponsorshipSponsorship

Coca-Cola's advertising has significantly affected American culture, and it is frequently credited with inventing the modern image of Santa Claus as an old man in a red-and-white suit. Although the company did start using the red-and-white Santa image in the 1930s, with its winter advertising campaigns illustrated by Haddon Sundblom, the motif was already common. Coca-Cola was not even the first soft drink company to use the modern image of Santa Claus in its advertising: White Rock Beverages used Santa in advertisements for its ginger ale in 1923, after first using him to sell mineral water in 1915. Before Santa Claus, Coca-Cola relied on images of smartly dressed young women to sell its beverages. Coca-Cola's first such advertisement appeared in 1895, featuring the young Bostonian actress Hilda Clark as its spokeswoman. In 1971 a song from a

Coca-Cola commercial called "I’d like to teach the world to sing", produced by Billy Davis, became a hit single.

Coca-Cola has been prominently featured in countless films and television programs. Since its creation, it remains as one of the most important elements of the popular culture. It has been also featured in music, in The Beatles' song, "Come Together", the lyrics said, "He shoot Coca-Cola, he say...". The Beach Boys also referenced Coca-Cola in their 1964 song "All Summer Long" (i.e. 'Member when you spilled Coke all over your blouse?)

Also, the best selling artist of all time and worldwide cultural icon, Elvis Presley, promoted Coca-Cola during his last tour of 1977. The Coca-Cola Company used the Elvis' image to promote the product. Other artists that promoted Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola was the first commercial sponsor of the Olympic games, at the 1928 games in Amsterdam, and has been an Olympics sponsor ever since. This corporate sponsorship included the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta, which allowed Coca-Cola to spotlight its hometown.

Since 1978, Coca-Cola has sponsored the FIFA World Cup, and other competitions organized by FIFA.

Coca-Cola has a long history of sports marketing relationships, which over the years have included Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League.

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Coke's advertising is pervasive, as one of Woodruff's stated goals was to ensure that everyone on Earth drank Coca-Cola as their preferred beverage.

During the 1980s, Pepsi-Cola ran a series of television advertisements showing people participating in taste tests demonstrating that, according to the commercials, "fifty percent of the participants who said they preferred Coke actually chose the Pepsi." Statisticians pointed out the problematic nature of a 50/50 result: most likely, the taste tests showed that in blind tests, most people cannot tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke. Coca-Cola ran ads to combat Pepsi's ads in an incident sometimes referred to as the cola wars; one of Coke's ads compared the so-called Pepsi challenge to two chimpanzees deciding which tennis ball was furrier. Thereafter, Coca-Cola regained its leadership in the market.

include The Beatles, David Bowie, George Michael, Elton John and Whitney Houston, who appeared in the Diet Coca-Cola commercial, among many others.

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Health Effects

Since studies indicate "soda and sweetened drinks are the main source of

calories in [the] American diet", most nutritionists advise that Coca-Cola

and other soft drinks can be harmful if consumed excessively, particularly

to young children whose soft drink consumption competes with, rather

than complements, a balanced diet. Studies have shown that regular soft

drink users have a lower intake of calcium, magnesium, ascorbic acid,

riboflavin, and vitamin A. The drink has also aroused criticism for its use

of caffeine, which can cause physical dependence. A link has been shown

between long-term regular cola intake and osteoporosis in older women

(but not men). This was thought to be due to the presence of phosphoric

acid, and the risk was found to be same for caffeinated and non-

caffeinated colas, as well as the same for diet and sugared colas.

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Key Dates1886: Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton concocts Coca-Cola, a mixture

of sugar, water, caffeine, and extracts of the coca leaf and the kola nut.

1891: Asa G. Candler, a druggist, gains complete control of Pemberton's

enterprise.

1899: The first bottling franchise is established.

1905: Coca-Cola syrup is completely free of cocaine.

1916: The unique, contour-shaped Coke bottle is introduced.

1919: Ernest Woodruff and an investor group buy the company for $25

million; the company goes public at $40 per share.

1961: Sprite makes its debut.

1982: Columbia Pictures is acquired for $750 million; Diet Coke is

introduced to the market.

1990: Sales surpass the $10 billion mark for the first time.

1999: Company acquires the rights to sell Schweppes, Canada Dry, Dr

Pepper, and Crush brands in 157 countries, not including the United

States, Canada, Mexico, and most of Europe.

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