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Coca-Cola
The History of Coca-Cola
John Pemberton
was the inventor of Coca-Cola
by
Mary Bellis
In May 1886, Coca-Cola was invented by Doctor John Pemberton, a
pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia.
According to the Coca-Cola Company, Pemberton developed the syrup for the famed
beverage, which was sampled at the local Jacob's Pharmacy and deemed to be
"excellent."
The syrup was combined with carbonated water to create a new
"Delicious and Refreshing" drink.
Pemberton concocted the famed Coca-Cola formula in a
three-legged brass kettle in his backyard.
Birth of Coca-Cola
The name of Coca-Cola was a suggestion given by Pemberton's
bookkeeper Frank Robinson.
As the recipe for the syrup called for coca leaf extract
and caffeine from
the kola nut, the name Coca Kola was easy to come up with.
However, Robinson, who was known for having excellent
penmanship, thought that using two Cs in the name would look striking in
advertising.
As such kola became cola, and the brand name was born.
Robinson can also be credited with creating the first scripted
"Coca-Cola"
using the flowing letters that serve as the famous logo of today.
The soft drink was
first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta on
May 8, 1886.
About nine servings of the soft drink were sold each day.
Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50.
The first year of business wasn't much of a success, though, as
it cost Pemberton over $70 in expenses to create the drink, resulting in a loss.
Asa Candler
In 1887, another Atlanta pharmacist and businessman, Asa
Candler, bought the formula for Coca-Cola from Pemberton for $2,300.
Unfortunately, Pemberton died just a few years later.
By the late 1890s, Coca-Cola was one of America's most popular
fountain drinks, largely due to Candler's aggressive marketing of the product.
With Candler now at the helm, the Coca-Cola Company increased
syrup sales by over 4,000 percent between 1890 and 1900.
While the Coca-Cola Company denies this claim, historical
evidence shows that it is likely that, until 1905, the soft drink, which was
marketed as a tonic, contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine-rich
kola nut.
While cocaine wasn't considered illegal until 1914, according
to Live Science, Candler began removing cocaine from the
recipe in the early 1900s, and traces of cocaine may have been present in the
famous beverage until 1929 when scientists were able to perfect the
removal of all psychoactive elements from the coca-leaf extract.
Advertising was an important factor in the successful sales of
Coca-Cola, and by the turn of the century, the drink was sold across the United
States and Canada.
Around the same time, the company began selling syrup to
independent bottling companies licensed to sell the drink.
Even today, the U.S. soft drink industry is organized on this
principle.
Death of the Soda Fountain;
Rise of the Bottling Industry
Until the 1960s, both small-town and big-city dwellers enjoyed
carbonated beverages at the local soda fountain or
ice cream saloon.
Often housed in the drugstore, the soda fountain counter served
as a meeting place for people of all ages.
Often combined with lunch counters, the soda fountain declined
in popularity as commercial ice cream, bottled soft drinks, and fast-food
restaurants became popular.
The Birth and Death of New Coke
On April 23, 1985, the trade secret "New Coke" formula
was launched in response to declining sales thanks to an increasingly
competitive cola market.
However, the new recipe was considered a failure.
Coca-Cola fans had a negative, some say hostile, reaction to the
new recipe, and within three months, the original cola that captured the hearts
and tastebuds of the public returned.
The return of the original cola taste came with new branding of
Coca-Cola Classic.
New Coke remained on the shelves, and in 1992 was rebranded Coke
II, before finally being discontinued in 2002.
As of 2017, Coca-Cola is a publicly-traded Fortune 500 company
with more than $41.3 billion in annual revenue.
The company has a workforce of 146,200 employees, and its
products are consumed at a rate of more than one billion drinks per day.
Advertising Efforts: "I'd
Like to Buy the World a Coke"
In 1969, The Coca-Cola
Company and its advertising agency, McCann-Erickson, ended their popular "Things
Go Better With Coke" campaign, replacing it with a campaign that
centered on the slogan "It's the Real Thing."
Beginning with a hit song, the new campaign featured what proved
to be one of the most popular ads ever created.
The song "I'd
Like to Buy the World a Coke" was the brainchild of Bill Backer, the
creative director on the Coca-Cola As he explained to songwriters Billy Davis
and Roger Cook, "I could see and hear a song that treated the whole
world as if it were a person — a person the singer would like to help and get
to know. I'm not sure how the lyric should start, but I know the last
line."
With that he pulled out
the paper napkin on which he had scribbled the line, "I'd like to buy
the world a Coke and keep it company."
On February 12, 1971, "I'd
Like to Buy the World a Coke" was shipped to radio stations throughout
the United States.
It promptly flopped. The Coca-Cola bottlers hated the ad and
most refused to buy airtime for it.
The few times the ad was played, the public paid no attention.
Backer persuaded McCann to convince Coca-Cola executives that the
ad was still viable but needed a visual
dimension.
The company eventually approved more than $250,000 for filming,
at the time one of the largest budgets ever devoted to a television commercial.
A Commercial Success
The television ad "I'd
Like to Buy the World a Coke" was released in the United States in
July 1971 and the response was immediate and dramatic.
By November of that year, Coca-Cola and its bottlers had
received more than 100,000 letters about the ad.
Demand for the song was so great, many people called radio
stations and asked deejays to play the commercial.
"I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" made a
lasting connection with the viewing public.
Advertising surveys consistently identify it as one of the best
commercials of all time, and the sheet music continues to sell more than
30 years after the song was written.
A tribute to the success of the campaign, the commercial
resurfaced over 40 years after it first launched, making an appearance in the
finale of the hit TV show "Mad Men" in 2015.
Mary Bellis
New
York-based film producer and director
Singled
out by Forbes magazine for her writing on inventors.
Known in
art and independent film circles by the name CalmX
Creator
of computer-generated art
Experience
Mary
Bellis was a former writer for ThoughtCo, where she covered inventors for 18
years. She was a freelance writer, film producer, and director. In addition,
Forbes Best of the Web credited her for creating the number one online
destination for information about inventors and inventions. Her writing
has been reprinted and referenced in numerous educational books and articles.
She was known for her short independent films and documentaries,
including one on Alexander Graham Bell. She specialized in making and
exhibiting computer-generated art, while working as an animator, journalist and
an independent video game developer. She died on March 28, 2015.
Education
Mary
Bellis held a Master of Fine Arts in film and animation from the San
Francisco Art Institute.
ThoughtCo
and Dotdash
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https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-coca-cola-1991477
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