Coca-Cola

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This article is about the beverage. For its manufacturer, see The Coca-Cola Company. "Coca-Cola Classic" redirects here. For the NCAA football game, see Coca-Cola Classic (college football).

Coca-Cola

Type

Soft drink

Manufacturer

The Coca-Cola Company

Country of origin

United States

Introduced

1886

Color

Caramel E-150d

Flavor

Cola, Cola Cherry, Cola Vanilla, Cola Green Tea, Cola Lemon, Cola Lemon Lime, Cola Lime, Cola Orange and Cola Raspberry.

Variants

See Brand portfolio section below

Related products

Pepsi RC Cola Cola Turka Zam Zam Cola Mecca-Cola

Virgin Cola Parsi Cola Qibla Cola Evoca Cola Corsica Cola Breizh Cola Afri Cola

The Las Vegas Strip World of Coca-Colamuseum in 2003

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries.[1] It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke (a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944). Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century. The company produces concentrate, which is then sold to licensed Coca-Cola bottlers throughout the world. The bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise Coca-Cola to retail stores and vending machines. Such bottlers include Coca-Cola Enterprises, which is the largest single Coca-Cola bottler in North America and western Europe. The CocaCola Company also sells concentrate for soda fountains to major restaurants and food service distributors.

The Coca-Cola Company has, on occasion, introduced other cola drinks under the Coke brand name. The most common of these is Diet Coke, with others including Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola, Diet Coke CaffeineFree, Coca-Cola Cherry, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Vanilla, and special editions with lemon, lime or coffee. In response to consumer insistence on a more natural product, the company is in the process of phasing out E211, or sodium benzoate, the controversial additive used in Diet Coke and linked to DNA damage in yeast cells and hyperactivity in children. The company has stated that it plans to remove E211 from its other products, including Sprite and Oasis, as soon as a satisfactory alternative is found.[2]
Contents
[hide]

1 History

o o

1.1 New Coke 1.2 21st century

2 Use of stimulants in formula

o o

2.1 Coca cocaine 2.2 Kola nuts caffeine

3 Production

o o o

3.1 Ingredients 3.2 Formula of natural flavorings 3.3 Franchised production model

4 Brand portfolio

o o o

4.1 Logo design 4.2 Contour bottle design 4.3 Designer bottles

5 Local competitors 6 Advertising

o o o

6.1 Holiday campaigns 6.2 Sports sponsorship 6.3 In mass media

7 Health effects 8 Criticism 9 Use as political and corporate symbol 10 See also

11 Notes 12 External links

History

Old German Coca-Cola bottle opener

Believed to be the first coupon ever, this ticket for a free glass of Coca-Cola was first distributed in 1888 to help promote the drink. By 1913, the company had redeemed 8.5 million tickets.[3]

This Coca-Cola advertisement from 1943 is still displayed in the small city of Minden,Louisiana.

The prototype Coca-Cola recipe was formulated at the Eagle Drug and Chemical Company, a drugstore inColumbus, Georgia by John Pemberton, originally as a coca wine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca.[4][5][6] He may have been inspired by the formidable success of Vin Mariani, a European coca wine.[7]

In 1886, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a non-alcoholic version of French Wine Coca.[8] The first sales were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886.[9] It was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents[10] a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time due to the belief that carbonated water was good for the health.[11] Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured many diseases, including morphineaddiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence. Pemberton ran the first advertisement for the beverage on May 29 of the same year in the Atlanta Journal.[12] By 1888, three versions of Coca-Cola sold by three separate businesses were on the market. Asa Griggs Candler acquired a stake in Pemberton's company in 1887 and incorporated it as the Coca Cola Company in 1888.[13] The same year, while suffering from an ongoing addiction to morphine,[14]Pemberton sold the rights a second time to four more businessmen: J.C. Mayfield, A.O. Murphey, C.O. Mullahy and E.H. Bloodworth. Meanwhile, Pemberton's alcoholic[15] son Charley Pemberton began selling his own version of the product.[16] John Pemberton declared that the name "Coca-Cola" belonged to Charley, but the other two manufacturers could continue to use the formula. So, in the summer of 1888, Candler sold his beverage under the names Yum Yum and Koke. After both failed to catch on, Candler set out to establish a legal claim to Coca-Cola in late 1888, in order to force his two competitors out of the business. Candler purchased exclusive rights to the formula from John Pemberton, Margaret Dozier and Woolfolk Walker. However, in 1914, Dozier came forward to claim her signature on the bill of sale had been forged, and subsequent analysis has indicated John Pemberton's signature was most likely a forgery as well.[17] In 1892 Candler incorporated a second company, The Coca-Cola Company (the current corporation), and in 1910 Candler had the earliest records of the company burned, further obscuring its legal origins. By the time of its 50th anniversary, the drink had reached the status of a national icon in the USA. In 1935, it was certified kosher by Rabbi Tobias Geffen, after the company made minor changes in the sourcing of some ingredients.[18] Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894. The first outdoor wall advertisement was painted in the same year as well in Cartersville, Georgia.[19] Cans of Coke first appeared in 1955.[20] The first bottling of Coca-Cola occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the Biedenharn Candy Company in 1891. Its proprietor was Joseph A. Biedenharn. The original bottles were Biedenharn bottles, very different from the much later hobble-skirt design that is now so familiar. Asa Candler was tentative about bottling the drink, but two entrepreneurs from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead, proposed the idea and were so persuasive that Candler signed a contract giving them control of the procedure for only one dollar. Candler never collected his dollar, but in 1899 Chattanooga became the site of the first Coca-Cola bottling company.[21] The loosely termed contract proved to be problematic for the company for decades to

come. Legal matters were not helped by the decision of the bottlers to subcontract to other companies, effectively becoming parent bottlers.[22] Coke concentrate, or Coke syrup, was and is sold separately at pharmacies in small quantities, as an over-thecounter remedy for nausea or mildly upset stomach.

New Coke
Main article: New Coke

Advertising promoting flavor change

On April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola, amid much publicity, 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.

21st century
On February 7, 2005, the Coca-Cola Company announced that in the second quarter of 2005 they planned to launch a Diet Coke product sweetened with theartificial sweetener sucralose, the same sweetener currently used in Pepsi One.[23][24] On March 21, 2005, it announced another diet product, Coca-Cola Zero, sweetened partly with a blend of aspartame and acesulfame potassium.[25] In 2007, Coca-Cola began to sell a new "healthy soda": Diet Coke with vitamins B6, B12, magnesium, niacin, and zinc, marketed as "Diet Coke Plus." On July 5, 2005, it was revealed that Coca-Cola would resume operations in Iraq for the first time since the Arab League boycotted the company in 1968.[26]

In April 2007, in Canada, the name "Coca-Cola Classic" was changed back to "Coca-Cola." The word "Classic" was truncated because "New Coke" was no longer in production, eliminating the need to differentiate between the two.[27] The formula remained unchanged. In January 2009, Coca-Cola stopped printing the word "Classic" on the labels of 16-US-fluid-ounce (470 ml) bottles sold in parts of the southeastern United States.[28] The change is part of a larger strategy to rejuvenate the product's image.[28] In November 2009, due to a dispute over wholesale prices of Coca-Cola products, Costco stopped restocking its shelves with Coke and Diet Coke, However, some Costco locaations (like the ones in Tucson, Arizona sell imported Coca Cola from Mexico. [29]

Use of stimulants in formula

When launched Coca-Cola's two key ingredients were cocaine (benzoylmethyl ecgonine) and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut, leading to the name Coca-Cola (the "K" in Kola was replaced with a "C" for marketing purposes).[30][31]

Coca cocaine
Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose; in 1891, Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton's original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Coca-Cola did once contain an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass, but in 1903 it was removed.[32] Coca-Cola still contains coca flavoring. After 1904, instead of using fresh leaves, Coca-Cola started using "spent" leaves the leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process with cocaine trace levels left over at a molecular level.[33] To this day, Coca-Cola uses as an ingredient a cocaine-free coca leaf extract prepared at a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey. In the United States, the Stepan Company is the only manufacturing plant authorized by the Federal Government to import and process the coca plant,[34] which it obtains mainly from Peru and, to a lesser extent, Bolivia. Besides producing the coca flavoring agent for Coca-Cola, the Stepan Company extracts cocaine from the coca leaves, which it sells to Mallinckrodt, a St. Louis, Missouripharmaceutical manufacturer that is the only company in the United States licensed to purify cocaine for medicinal use.[35]

Kola nuts caffeine

Kola nuts act as a flavoring and the source of caffeine in Coca-Cola. In Britain, for example, the ingredient label states "Flavourings (Including Caffeine)."[36] Kola nuts contain about 2 percent to 3.5 percent caffeine, are of bitter flavor and are commonly used in cola soft drinks. In 1911, the U.S. government initiated United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola, hoping to force Coca-Cola to remove caffeine from its formula.

The case was decided in favor of Coca-Cola. Subsequently, in 1912 the U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act was amended, adding caffeine to the list of "habit-forming" and "deleterious" substances which must be listed on a product's label. Coca-Cola contains 46 mg of caffeine per 12 fluid ounces (12.9 mg per 100 ml).[37]

Production

Coca-Cola 375 mL cans - 24 pack (AU)

Ingredients
     
Carbonated water Sugar (sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup depending on country of origin) Caffeine Phosphoric acid Caramel color (E150d) Natural flavorings[38]

A can of Coke (12 fl ounces/355 ml) has 39 grams of carbohydrates (all from sugar, approximately 10 teaspoons),[39] 50 mg of sodium, 0 grams fat, 0 grams potassium, and 140 calories.[40]

Formula of natural flavorings

Main article: Coca-Cola formula The exact formula of Coca-Cola's natural flavorings (but not its other ingredients which are listed on the side of the bottle or can) is a trade secret. The original copy of the formula is held in SunTrust Bank's main vault in

Atlanta. Its predecessor, the Trust Company, was the underwriter for the Coca-Cola Company'sinitial public offering in 1919. A popular myth states that only two executives have access to the formula, with each executive having only half the formula.[41]The truth is that while Coca-Cola does have a rule restricting access to only two executives, each knows the entire formula and others, in addition to the prescribed duo, have known the formulation process.[42] On February 11, 2011 Ira Glass revealed on his PRI radio show, This American Life, that the secret formula to Coca-Cola had been uncovered in a 1979 newspaper. The formula found basically matched the formula found in Pemberton's diary.[43][44][45][46]

Franchised production model

The actual production and distribution of Coca-Cola follows a franchising model. The Coca-Cola Company only produces a syrup concentrate, which it sells to bottlers throughout the world, who hold Coca-Cola franchises for one or more geographical areas. The bottlers produce the final drink by mixing the syrup with filtered water and sweeteners, and then carbonate it before putting it in cans and bottles, which the bottlers then sell and distribute to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors.[47] The Coca-Cola Company owns minority shares in some of its largest franchises, like Coca-Cola Enterprises, Coca-Cola Amatil, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (CCHBC) and Coca-Cola FEMSA, but fully independent bottlers produce almost half of the volume sold in the world. Independent bottlers are allowed to sweeten the drink according to local tastes.[48] The bottling plant in Skopje, Macedonia, received the 2009 award for "Best Bottling Company".[49]

Brand portfolio
Name Launched Discontinued Notes Picture

Coca-Cola

1886

The original version of Coca-Cola.

CaffeineFree CocaCola

1983

The caffeine free version of Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola Cherry

1985

Was available in Canada starting in 1996. Called "Cherry Coca-Cola (Cherry Coke)" in North America until 2006. Zero-calorie variant (Coca-Cola Cherry Zero) also currently available.

New Coke/"CocaCola II"

1985

2002

Still available in Yap and American Samoa

Still available in: American Samoa, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Coca-Cola with Lemon Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong,Iceland, 2001 2005 Korea, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Runion, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States, and West Bank-Gaza Still available in: Austria, Australia, China, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand (600 mL only) Malaysia, Sweden (Imported). Was called "Vanilla Coca-Cola (Vanilla Coke)" during initial U.S. availability. It was reintroduced in June 2007 by popular demand

2002 Coca-Cola Vanilla 2007

2005

Coca-Cola C2

2003

2007

Was only available in Japan, Canada, and the United States.

Coca-Cola with Lime

2005

Available in Belgium, Netherlands, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Coca-Cola Raspberry

Was only available in New Zealand. Currently available June 2005 End of 2005 in the United States in Coca-Cola Freestyle fountain since 2009.

Coca-Cola Zero

2005

Coca-Cola M5 Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla Coca-Cola Bl k Coca-Cola Citra Coca-Cola Light Sango Coca-Cola Orange

2005

Only available in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Brazil Middle of 2007

2006

Was replaced by Vanilla Coke in June 2007

2006 2006 2006

Only available in the United States, France, Canada, Beginning of Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Federation of Bosnia 2008 and Herzegovina, Bulgaria andLithuania Only available in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, New Zealand and Japan. Only available in France and Belgium. Only available in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland it's sold unter the label Mezzo Mix. Currently available in Coca-Cola Freestyle fountain outlets in the United States since 2009.

2007

Logo design

Detail on Elmira Coca-Cola Bottling Plant, Elmira, NY.

The famous Coca-Cola logo was created by John Pemberton's bookkeeper, Frank Mason Robinson, in 1885.[50] 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.[51]

Contour bottle design

Earl R. Dean's original 1915 concept drawing of the contour Coca-Cola bottle.

The prototype never made it to production since its middle diameter was larger than its base, making it unstable on conveyor belts.

Designer label for 2 litre Coca-Cola bottle

The equally 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 the 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."[52] 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 coca or kola. Instead, Dean was inspired by a picture of the gourd-shapedcocoa 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.[52] Faced with the upcoming scheduled maintenance of the mold-making machinery, over the next 24 hours Dean sketched out a concept drawing which was approved by Root the next morning. Dean then proceeded to create a bottle mold and produced a small number of bottles before the glass-molding machinery was turned off.[53] Chapman Root approved the prototype bottle and a design patent was issued on the bottle in November, 1915. The prototype never made it to production since its middle diameter was larger than its base, making it

unstable on conveyor belts. Dean resolved this issue by decreasing the bottle's middle diameter. During the 1916 bottler's convention, Dean's contour bottle was chosen over other entries and was on the market the same year. By 1920, the contour bottle became the standard for the Coca-Cola Company. Today, the contour Coca-Cola bottle is one of the most recognized packages on the planet..."even in the dark!".[54] As a reward for his efforts, Dean was offered a choice between a $500 bonus or a lifetime job at the Root Glass Company. He chose the lifetime job and kept it until the Owens-Illinois Glass Company bought out the Root Glass Company in the mid-1930s. Dean went on to work in other Midwestern glass factories. Although endorsed by some[who?], this version of events is not considered authoritative by many[who?] who consider it implausible. One alternative depiction has Raymond Loewy as the inventor of the unique design, but, while Loewy did serve as a designer of Coke cans and bottles in later years, he was in the French Army the year the bottle was invented and did not emigrate to the United States until 1919. Others have attributed inspiration for the design not to the cocoa pod, but to a Victorian hooped dress.[55] In 1944, Associate Justice Roger J. Traynor of the Supreme Court of California took advantage of a case involving a waitress injured by an exploding Coca-Cola bottle to articulate the doctrine of strict liability for defective products. Traynor's concurring opinion in Escola v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. is widely recognized as a landmark case in U.S. law today.[56] In 1997, Coca-Cola also introduced a "contour can," similar in shape to its famous bottle, on a few test markets, including Terre Haute, Indiana.[57] The new can has never been widely released. A new slim and tall can began to appear in Australia as of December 20, 2006; it cost AU$1.95. The cans have a distinct resemblance toenergy drink cans. The cans were commissioned by Domino's Pizza and are available exclusively at their restaurants. In January 2007, Coca-Cola Canada changed "Coca-Cola Classic" labeling, removing the "Classic" designation, leaving only "Coca-Cola." Coca-Cola stated this is merely a name change and the product remains the same. The cans still bear the "Classic" logo in the United States. In 2007, Coca-Cola introduced an aluminum can designed to look like the original glass Coca-Cola bottles. In 2007, the company's logo on cans and bottles changed. The cans and bottles retained the red color and familiar typeface, but the design was simplified, leaving only the logo and a plain white swirl (the "dynamic ribbon"). In 2008, in some parts of the world, the plastic bottles for all Coke varieties (including the larger 1.5- and 2-liter bottles) was changed to include a new plastic screw cap and a slightly taller contoured bottle shape, designed to evoke the old glass bottles.[58]

200 mL "stubby" bottle available throughout China

Designer bottles
Karl Lagerfeld is the latest designer to have created a collection of aluminum bottles for Coca-Cola. Lagerfeld is not the first fashion designer to create a special version of the famous Coca-Cola Contour bottle. A number of other limited edition bottles by fashion designers for Coca Cola Light soda have been created in the last few years. 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.[59]

Local competitors
Pepsi is usually second to Coke in sales, but outsells Coca-Cola in some markets. Around the world, some local brands compete with Coke. In South and Central America Kola Real, known as Big Cola in Mexico, is a fast-growing competitor to Coca-Cola.[60] On the French island of Corsica, Corsica Cola, made by brewers of the local Pietra beer, is a growing competitor to Coca-Cola. In the French region of Brittany, Breizh Cola is available. In Peru, Inca Kola outsells Coca-Cola, which led The Coca-Cola Company to purchase the brand in 1999. In Sweden, Julmust outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas season.[61] In Scotland, the locally produced Irn-Bruwas more popular than Coca-Cola until 2005, when Coca-Cola and Diet Coke began to outpace its sales.[62] In India, Coca-Cola ranked third behind the leader, Pepsi-Cola, and local drink Thums Up. The Coca-Cola Company purchased Thums Up in 1993.[63] As of 2004, Coca-Cola held a 60.9% marketshare in India.[64] Tropicola, a domestic drink, is served in Cuba instead of Coca-Cola, due to a United States embargo. French brand Mecca Cola and British brand Qibla Cola, popular in the Middle East, are competitors

to Coca-Cola. In Turkey, Cola Turka is a major competitor to Coca-Cola. In Iran and many countries of Middle East, Zam Zam Cola and Parsi Colaare major competitors to Coca-Cola. In some parts of China Future cola is a competitor. In Slovenia, the locally produced Cockta is a major competitor to Coca-Cola, as is the inexpensive Mercator Cola, which is sold only in the country's biggest supermarket chain, Mercator. In Israel, RC Cola is an inexpensive competitor. Classiko Cola, made by Tiko Group, the largest manufacturing company in Madagascar, is a serious competitor to Coca-Cola in many regions. Laranjada is the top-selling soft drink on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Coca-Cola has stated that Pepsi was not its main rival in the UK, but rather Robinsons drinks.[citation needed]

Advertising
See also: Coca-Cola slogans 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.[65][66] 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 sellmineral water in 1915.[67][68] 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.

An 1890s advertisement showing modelHilda Clark in formal 19th century attire. The ad is titled Drink Coca-Cola 5. (US)

1941 saw the first use of the nickname "Coke" as an official trademark for the product, with a series of advertisements informing consumers that "Coke means Coca-Cola".[69] 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 sales booth on the Cape Verde island of Fogo in 2004.

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. This is especially true in southern areas of the United States, such as Atlanta, where Coke was born.

Coca-Cola signboard in Lahore, Pakistan.

Some of the memorable Coca-Cola television commercials between 1960 through 1986 were written and produced by former Atlanta radio veteran Don Naylor(WGST 19361950, WAGA 19511959) during his career as a producer for the McCann Erickson advertising agency. Many of these early television commercials for Coca-Cola featured movie stars, sports heroes and popular singers.

Coca-Cola ghost sign in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Note older Coca-Cola ghosts behind Borax and telephone ads.

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 were quick to point out the problematic nature of a 50/50 result: most likely, all the taste tests really showed was that in blind tests, most people simply 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. Selena was a spokesperson for Coca-Cola from 1989 till the time of her death. She filmed three commercials for the company. In 1994, to commemorate her five years with the company, Coca-Cola issued special Selena coke bottles.[70] The Coca-Cola Company purchased Columbia Pictures in 1982, and began inserting Coke-product images in many of its films. After a few early successes during Coca-Cola's ownership, Columbia began to underperform, and the studio was sold to Sony in 1989. Coca-Cola has gone through a number of different advertising slogans in its long history, including "The pause that refreshes," "I'd like to buy the world a Coke," and "Coke is it" (see Coca-Cola slogans). In 2006, Coca-Cola introduced My Coke Rewards, a customer loyalty campaign where consumers earn points by entering codes from specially marked packages of Coca-Cola products into a website. These points can be redeemed for various prizes or sweepstakes entries.[71]

Holiday campaigns

Coca-Cola Christmas truck in Dresden, Germany.

The "Holidays are coming!" advertisement features a train of red delivery trucks, emblazoned with the CocaCola name and decorated with Christmas lights, driving through a snowy landscape and causing everything that they pass to light up and people to watch as they pass through.[72] The advertisement fell into disuse in 2001, as the Coca-Cola company restructured its advertising campaigns so that advertising around the world was produced locally in each country, rather than centrally in the company's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.[73] However, in 2007, the company brought back the campaign after, according to the company, many consumers telephoned its information center saying that they considered it to mark the beginning of Christmas.[72] The advertisement was created by U.S. advertising agency Doner, and has been part of the company's global advertising campaign for many years.[74] Keith Law, a producer and writer of commercials for Belfast CityBeat, was not convinced by Coca-Cola's reintroduction of the advertisement in 2007, saying that "I don't think there's anything Christmassy about HGVs and the commercial is too generic."[75] In 2001, singer Melanie Thornton recorded the campaign's advertising jingle as a single, Wonderful Dream (Holidays are Coming), which entered the pop-music charts in Germany at no. 9.[76][77] In 2005, Coca-Cola expanded the advertising campaign to radio, employing several variations of the jingle.[78]

Sports sponsorship
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.[79]This corporate sponsorship included the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta, which allowed Coca-Cola to spotlight its hometown. Most recently, Coca-Cola has released localized commercials for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver; one Canadian commercial referred to Canada's hockey heritage and was modified after Canada won the gold medal game on February 28, 2010 by changing the ending line of the commercial to say "Now they know whose game they're playing".[80] Since 1978, Coca-Cola has sponsored each FIFA World Cup, and other competitions organised by FIFA. In fact, one FIFA tournament trophy, the FIFA World Youth Championship from Tunisia in 1977 to Malaysia in 1997, was called "FIFA Coca Cola Cup".[81] In addition, Coca-Cola sponsors the annual Coca-Cola 600 and Coke Zero 400 for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida. Coca-Cola has a long history of sports marketing relationships, which over the years have included Major League Baseball, the National Football League, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, as well as with many teams within those leagues. Coca-Cola is the official soft drink of many collegiate football teams throughout the nation. Coca-Cola was one of the official sponsors of the 1996 Cricket World Cup held on the Indian subcontinent. Coca Cola is also one of the associate sponsor of Delhi Daredevils in Indian Premier League.

In England, Coca-Cola is the main sponsor of The Football League, a name given to the three professional divisions below the Premier League in football (soccer). It is also responsible for the renaming of these divisions until the advent of Coca-Cola sponsorship, they were referred to as Divisions One, Two and Three. Since 2004, the divisions have been known as The Championship (equiv. of Division 1), League One (equiv. of Div. 2) and League 2 (equiv. of Division 3). This renaming has caused unrest amongst some fans, who see it as farcical that the third tier of English Football is now called "League One." In 2005, Coca-Cola launched a competition for the 72 clubs of the football league it was called "Win a Player". This allowed fans to place 1 vote per day for their beloved club, with 1 entry being chosen at random earning 250,000 for the club; this was repeated in 2006. The "Win A Player" competition was very controversial, as at the end of the 2 competitions, Leeds United AFC had the most votes by more than double, yet they did not win any money to spend on a new player for the club. In 2007, the competition changed to "Buy a Player". This competition allowed fans to buy a bottle of Coca-Cola Zero or Coca-Cola and submit the code on the wrapper on the CocaCola website {www.coca-colafootball.co.uk}. This code could then earn anything from 50p to 100,000 for a club of their choice. This competition was favored over the old "Win A Player" competition, as it allowed all clubs to win some money.

Special aluminum bottle designs, designed exclusively for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Torch Relay. Available in Canada.

Introduced March 1, 2010, in Canada, to celebrate the 2010 Olympics, Coca Cola will sell gold colored cans in packs of 12 355 mL each, in select stores.[82]

In mass media

Coca-Cola has been prominently featured in countless films and television programs. It was a major plot element in films such as One, Two, Three, The Coca-Cola Kid, and The Gods Must Be Crazy. It provides a setting for comical corporate shenanigans in the novel Syrup by Maxx Barry. And in music, in the Beatles' song, "Come Together", the lyrics said, "He shoot Coca-Cola, he say...".

Health effects
Since studies indicate "soda and sweetened drinks are the main source of calories in [the] American diet",[83] 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.[84] The drink has also aroused criticism for its use of caffeine, which can cause physical dependence.[85] A link has been shown between long-term regular cola intake and osteoporosis in older women (but not men).[86] This was thought to be due to the presence of phosphoric acid, and the risk was found to be same for caffeinated and noncaffeinated colas, as well as the same for diet and sugared colas. A common criticism of Coke based on its allegedly toxic acidity levels has been found to be baseless by researchers; lawsuits based on these notions have been dismissed by several American courts for this reason. Although numerous court cases have been filed against The Coca-Cola Company since the 1920s, alleging that the acidity of the drink is dangerous, no evidence corroborating this claim has been found. Under normal conditions, scientific evidence indicates Coca-Cola's acidity causes no immediate harm.[87] Since 1980 in the U.S., Coke has been made with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as an ingredient. Originally it was used in combination with more expensive cane-sugar, but by late 1984 the formulation was sweetened entirely with HFCS. Some nutritionists caution against consumption of HFCS because it may aggravate obesity and type-2 diabetes more than cane sugar.[88] Also, a 2009 study found that almost half of tested samples of commercial HFCS contained mercury, a toxic substance.[89] In India, there is a major controversy whether there are pesticides and other harmful chemicals in bottled products, including Coca-Cola. In 2003 the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-governmental organization in New Delhi, said aerated waters produced by soft drinks manufacturers in India, including multinational giants PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, contained toxins including lindane,DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos pesticides that can contribute to cancer and a breakdown of the immune system. CSE found that the Indian produced Pepsi's soft drink products had 36 times the level of pesticide residues permitted under European Union regulations; Coca-Cola's soft drink was found to have 30 times the permitted amount. CSE said it had tested the same products sold in the U.S. and found no such residues.[90] After the pesticide allegations were made in 2003, Coca-Cola sales in India declined by 15 percent. In 2004 an Indian parliamentary committee backed up CSE's findings and a government-appointed committee

was tasked with developing the world's first pesticide standards for soft drinks. The Coca-Cola Company has responded that its plants filter water to remove potential contaminants and that its products are tested for pesticides and must meet minimum health standards before they are distributed.[91] In the Indian state of Kerala sale and production of Coca-Cola, along with other soft drinks, was initially banned after the allegations, until the High Court in Kerala overturned ruled that only the federal government can ban food products. Coca-Cola has also been accused of excessive water usage in India.[92] The 2008 Ig Nobel Prize (a parody of the Nobel Prizes) in Chemistry was awarded to Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill, and Deborah Anderson, for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide,[93]and to C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang for proving it is not.[94][95]

Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Coca-Cola Coca-Cola has been criticized for alleged adverse health effects, its aggressive marketing to children, exploitative labor practices, high levels of pesticides in its products, building plants in Nazi Germany which employed slave labor, environmental destruction, monopolistic business practices, and hiring paramilitary units to murder trade union leaders. In October 2009, in an effort to improve their image, Coca-Cola partnered with the American Academy of Family Physicians, providing a $500,000 grant to help promote healthy-lifestyle education; the partnership spawned sharp criticism of both Coca-Cola and the AAFP by physicians and nutritionists.[96]

Use as political and corporate symbol

Coca-Cola advertising in High Atlas mountains of Morocco

Coke dispenser flown aboard the Space Shuttle in 1996 (US)

The Coca-Cola drink has a high degree of identification with the United States, being considered by some an "American Brand" or as an item representing America. The identification with the spread of American culture has led to the pun "Coca-Colanization".[66][97] The drink is also often a metonym for the Coca-Cola Company. There are some consumer boycotts of Coca-Cola in Arab countries due to Coke's early investment in Israel during the Arab League boycott of Israel (its competitor Pepsi stayed out of Israel).[98] Mecca Cola and Pepsi have been successful alternatives in the Middle East. A Coca-Cola fountain dispenser (officially a Fluids Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus-2 or FGBA-2) was developed for use on theSpace Shuttle as a test bed to determine if carbonated beverages can be produced from separately stored carbon dioxide, water and flavored syrups and determine if the resulting fluids can be made available for consumption without bubble nucleation and resulting foam formation. The unit flew in 1996 aboard STS-77 and held 1.65 liters each of Coca-Cola and Diet Coke.[99]