Every second over 7,000 Coca-Cola products are consumed.
"
Coca-Cola" is the world's most recognized
trademark...recognized by 94% of the world's population.
Before I continue with this rather exhaustive timeline, let that sink in. 94% of the entire world, knows the
Coca Cola Trademark. Less than that percentage of Americans in most public education polls know the name of the President of the
United States of America. One need only watch a few old episodes of Jay Leno to find out that even fewer people are able to identify such icons as The
Eiffel Tower,
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the
Mona Lisa, and that is in America, a first-world nation, where education is granted for free. Whether you are a
Coke lover,
Pepsi lover, or detest soft drinks and all they stand for, one must admit that this is a powerful statement.
Coca-Cola has had an amazing effect on the world, but I would like to simply concentrate on it's affect upon
America, since it is the country I am most initmately familiar with. These have been verified to the best of my ability, and cross referenced. Some common web-page claims have had to be corrected. So if you find a discrepency, please feel free to msg me and I will correct it, provided a biographical reference can be offered.
- 1901 - Coca-Cola's advertising budget is $100,000.
- 1905 - Coca-Cola has already produced calendars, stationary, booklets, logo decorated ceramic syrup urns, post cards, coupons, bookmarks, trays, a plethora of signs, advertising clocks, fans, napkins, banners, posters, novelties, and the once familiar Coca-Cola flare glass. They were the first company to spread out their marketing strategy to include common household items that sported the brand proudly.
- 1928 - Amsterdam The Coca-Cola Company’s support for the Olympics begins when a freighter carrying the U.S. Team also delivers 1,000 cases of Coca-Cola.
- 1929 - Coca-Cola produces the bell shaped fountain glass is introduced and quickly becomes the standard for fountain drinks.
- 27 Dec 1930 - Santa Claus made an appearance in Coca-Cola's advertising. Artist Fred Mizen painted a department store Santa in a crowd drinking a bottle of Coke®. The ad featured the world's largest soda fountain, which was located in the department store of Famous Barr Co. in St. Louis, Missouri. Mizen's painting was used in print ads that Christmas season, appearing in The Saturday Evening Post. This is the very first image that resembles the modern day idea of American Santa Claus.
- 1931 - The Coca-Cola Company commissioned Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop advertising images using Santa Claus. For inspiration, Sundblom turned to Clement Clark Moore's 1822 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas." Moore's description of the man as "chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf" led to an image of Santa that was warm, friendly and human. For the next 35 years, Sundblom painted portraits of Santa that helped to create the modern image of Santa -- an interpretation that today lives on in the minds of children of all ages all over the world. Sundblom gets the credit, though Mizen had created the original red white-fur outlined outfit with a black belt (for Coca-Cola, mind you) that Sundblom used.
- 1937 - in Kansas City, Missouri, The Vendo Company creates the first succesful upright coin-op vending machine for the Coca-Cola Company, nicknamed "The Red Top". The Red Top moved the delivery opening to the next bottle in the chest, rather than moving bottles through the ice. This innovation eliminated the jamming problem and made the machine simple and practical. It virtually created a major market and changed the world of beverage retailing.
- Dec 1941 - after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Vendo was authorized to produce 5,000 "Red Tops" for military training camps and war plants.
- 29 June 1943 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower sends a telegram requesting 10 "Coca-Cola" bottling plants for the troops overseas.
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At the beginning of the war, Robert W. Woodruff, president of The Coca-Cola Company, issued an order to "see to it that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents wherever he is and whatever it costs the Company."
- At the outbreak of World War II, "Coca-Cola" was bottled in 44 countries. At the close of the war, 64 additional bottling plants had been shipped abroad to be as close as possible to combat areas in Europe and the Pacific.
- The presence of "Coca-Cola" did more than lift the morale of the troops. In many areas, it gave local people in those countries their first taste of "Coke" and paved the way for unprecedented worldwide growth for "Coca-Cola" after the war.
- More than five billion bottles of "Coca-Cola" were consumed by military personnel during World War II.
- When WWII began, The Coca-Cola Company's use of sugar in the manufacturing of syrup for civilian consumption was restricted to 50% of its prewar average due to rationing. The rationing ended in August, 1947.
May 15, 1950 - The cover page of the issue of Time Magazine features a "Coca-Cola" advertisement. It was the first time that a consumer product was featured on the cover of Time Magazine.
1984 - Los Angeles, California, During the year, Coca-Cola implements a series of programs, including a national Olympic Youth Soccer Competition, an Olympic educational program for schools and Olympic Youth Jamborees, which provided underprivileged children a chance to experience the Olympic Spirit.
23 April 1985 - New Coke was introduced. Before they'd tasted a sip of it, millions of Americans had decided they hated New Coke. In blind taste tests people had consistently said they liked the new formula better. However, Coke had spent more than a hundred years convincing America that its product was an integral part of their lives, their very identities. Taste be damned: to do away with Coca-Cola was to rip something vital from the American soul. Americans (never ones to peaceably go along with anything perceived as violating their identity) weren't going to stand for it, and they weren't shy about saying so.
11 July 1985 - two Coca-Cola executives announced the return of the original formula. "We have heard you," said Roberto Goizueta, then Chairman of Coca-Cola. Donald Keough (then the company's President and Chief Operating Officer) said:
"There is a twist to this story which will please every humanist and will probably keep Harvard professors puzzled for years. The simple fact is that all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coca-Cola could not measure or reveal the deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-Cola felt by so many people . . .
The passion for original Coca-Cola -- and that is the word for it, passion -- was something that caught us by surprise . . . It is a wonderful American mystery, a lovely American enigma, and you cannot measure it any more than you can measure love, pride, or patriotism."
31 July 1985, - "Coca-Cola" became the first soft drink to be enjoyed in outer space on the Space Shuttle Challenger. A special Company-developed space can was used. One wonders if it might have been Pepsi instead had New Coke remained the only choice.
Olympics 1992 - Albertville For the first time, radio disc jockeys from major U.S. markets use the Coca-Cola Radio Network’s state-of-the-art technology to deliver live reports from the Pin Trading Center.
Olympics 1992 - Barcelona - The International Olympic Torchbearers Program, presented by Coca-Cola, brings together 150 runners from 50 nations to participate in the Olympic Torch Relay in Spain. The torchbearers are selected through unique local and national promotions staged by the Coca-Cola System. It is the first time people from other countries participate in the host country’s Torch Relay.
2001 - in China, Coca-Cola's marketers staged the largest Webcast in that nation's history, attracting some 10,000 people for live chat, a poll and an opportunity to "pose" for an online photo with pop star Cecilia Cheung. The photo op alone attracted 58,000 hits.
There are probably hundreds more areas that I have missed, but I am only one person. If you have a verifiable way, and date, in which Coke has changed or shaped America or other bits of the World, please feel free to let me know and I will add it.