Fabulous Facts about Coca-Cola

Company History:

On May 8, 1886, pharmacist John Stith Pemberton stirred up a fragrant caramel-colored syrup in a three-legged brass kettle. He carried a jug of this new formulation down the street to Jacob's Pharmacy, Atlanta's largest drugstore at the time. That same day, the new product made its debut as a soda fountain drink for five cents a glass. At some point, by accident or by design, carbonated water was mixed with the syrup to create what would become the world's favorite soft drink.

Thinking "the two Cs would look well in advertising," Pemberton's partner and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the same "Coca-Cola" and penned the now-famous trademark in his unique, flowing script. Sales that first year averaged nine drinks per day.

An Atlanta druggist and businessman, Asa Candler, recognized the great potential in Coca-Cola and acquired complete control of the young company by 1891 for a total investment of $2,300. In 1892, Candler and his brother, John S. Candler, along with Frank Robinson and two other associates, formed a Georgia corporation and named it "The Coca-Cola Company."

In January 31, 1893, the trademark "Coca-Cola" was registered in the United States Patent Office.

Large-scale bottling was made possible in 1899 when two men from Chattanooga, Tennessee, secured from Asa Candler the exclusive rights to bottle and sell Coca-Cola in practically the entire United States. Their efforts laid the groundwork for today's worldwide network of bottling companies.

In 1919, Atlanta banker Ernest Woodruff and a group of investors he organized purchased The Coca-Cola Company from the Candler interests for $25 million. The business was re-incorporated as a Delaware corporation, and four years later, Ernest Woodruff's 33-year-old-son, Robert Winship Woodruff, was elected president of The Coca-Cola Company.

Trademark/Signage:

Coca-Cola is one of the world's most recognizable trademarks -- recognized in countries that account for 98 percent of the world's population.

Studies have shown that the trademark Coca-Cola is among the most-admired and best-known trademarks in the world. In fact, Richard S. Tedlow wrote in his book New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America: "Coca-Cola stands today as the second most widely understood term in world, after okay."

The world's largest spherical Coca-Cola sign is located in Nagoya, Japan, atop the Dai-Nagoya building in front of the Nagoya railway station. It is a double sphere constructed from more than 46 tons of steel, more than 940 meters of neon tubing, and more than 1,870 light bulbs. The outer sphere features the Coca-Cola logo and the contour bottle, while the inner sphere portrays a cosmic scene with twinkling planets and stars.

One of the world's largest signs for Coca-Cola is located on a hill called "Hacha," in Arica, Chile. It is 400 feet wide and 131 feet high and is made from 70,000 26-ounce bottles.

The World of Coca-Cola Atlanta has a large Coca-Cola sign made of 1,407 bulbs and 1,906 linear feet of neon tubing. It is 30 feet high and 26 feet wide, weighing 12.5 tons. The outer globe rotates of a 22-degree axis, the same as the earth.

The first outdoor painted sign for Coca-Cola still exists. It was painted in 1894 in Cartersville, Georgia.

In San Jose, Costa Rica, a large market and bus stop are named after Coca-Cola, where the area's first Coca-Cola bottler was originally established. The market terminal is so well known that, should someone take a taxi and ask the driver to take him or her to "Coca-Cola," he or she will most likely end up at the market instead of the Coca-Cola bottling plant.

In 1989, Coca-Cola became the first trademark ever to be permanently displayed in Pushkin Square, Moscow.

Coca-Cola Beach is located in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, on the Atlantic side. People in the town gave the beach this name more than 40 years ago because it was located in front of a small Coca-Cola bottling plant. The bottling plant is no longer there, but the beach has kept its name.

One of the largest wall paintings in Asia features a can of Coca-Cola, measuring 200 feet by 180 feet. The hand-painted picture is on the side of the Coca-Cola Hong Kong Bottling Plant in Shatin and took the artist and three assistants three and a half months to complete. At 18 industrial stories tall, this plant also is the tallest Coca-Cola plant in the world.

Volume:

If all of the Coca-Cola ever produced was in 8-ounce bottles, and these bottles were distributed to each person in the world, there would be 795 bottles, or more than 49 gallons, per person.

If all the Coca-Cola ever produced were in 8-ounce bottles laid end-to-end, they would reach to the moon and back 1,239 times. That's one round trip per day for three years, four months and 24 days.

If all the Coca-Cola ever produced were poured into one tremendous swimming pool with an average depth of six feet, this pool would be over 25 miles long and eight miles wide. Allowing nine square feet of surface or 54 cubic feet each, this pool would hold more than 643 million people at the same time.

If all the Coca-Cola ever produced were in 8-ounce bottles loaded on average-sized route trucks, and these trucks were to pass a given point, bumper-to-bumper, at an average speed of 65 miles per hour, it would take six years, four months and seven days for all the trucks to pass.

If all the Coca-Cola ever produced were in 8-ounce bottles, there would be over 13 trillion total bottles. If these were stacked on an American football field, the total would make a mountain 346 miles high -- 70 times taller than Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

If all the Coca-Cola ever produced were to erupt from "Old Faithful" at its normal rate of 15,000 gallons per hour, this geyser would flow continually for 1,979 years -- or from 20 AD to the present.

If all the Coca-Cola ever produced were in 8-ounce bottles, placed side-by-side and end-to-end to form a four-lane highway, it would wrap around the earth 96 times.

Consumption:

Thirsty consumers around the globe now enjoy products of The Coca-Cola Company more than a billion times every single day.

About 11,236 soft drinks from The Coca-Cola Company are consumed every second of every day.

Diet Coke is known as Coca-Cola light in most markets outside the United States and Canada. The brand is the world's most popular diet soft drink, and the fourth most popular soft drink in the world.

One out of 11 non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages (including soft drinks, milk, packaged water, coffee, tea, juices and other types) consumed globally is a Coca-Cola.

When asked if they ever drink Coca-Cola, 60 percent of people in the world say yes.

The best-selling noncarbonated soft drink in Japan is Georgia Coffee, a product of The Coca Cola Company.

In 1991, the Company, in cooperation in NPO Energia, the Soviet space agency, successfully tested the "Coca-Coca Space Can" about the Soviet space station Mir. Until this development, carbonated soft drinks could not be consumed in outer space because there was no adequate way to dispense carbonated beverages in a microgravity environment.

The Company markets more than 230 brands worldwide, including soft drinks and noncarbonated beverages such as sports drinks, juice drinks, milk products, bottled waters, teas and coffees.

Packaging:

To thwart the efforts of copycats, the now-famous contour bottle for Coca-Cola was created in 1915 by the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana. The following year, bottlers approved the 6.5-ounce bottle with the unique hobble-skirt design as standard. The bottle later received a rare distinction for packaging when, in 1977, it was granted registration as a trademark by the United States Patent and Trademark office.

The contour bottle continues to be utilized today in various packaging sizes around the world, and has become a global icon for Coca-Cola. The contour bottle is one of the most-recognized packages in the world.

In 1923, the six-bottle cardboard carton was introduced. Described as a "home package with a handle of invitation," the carton offered consumers a convenient way to carry their favorite beverage home to their families.

In 1993, tradition met convenience with the introduction of the plastic contour bottle. The convenient plastic version was an instant success.

There are more than 100 different type containers of Coca-Cola sold to consumers worldwide. The most-popular container by volume is the 2-liter plastic bottle -- 2 out of every 10 liters of Coca-Cola are sold in this way. However, the greatest number of containers sold is the 355-milliliter aluminum cans -- 1 in 10 containers are sold this way.

Bottling/Vending:

The first two countries to bottle Coca-Cola after it was introduced in the United States were Cuba and Panama, both in 1906.

The volume of Coca-Cola sold in bottles first exceeded that sold through soda fountains in 1928.

The global bottling system packages and markets products, then distributes them to more than 14 million retail outlets worldwide.

The Southernmost bottling plant in the world is in Argentina, where the Coca-Cola bottler serves Tierra del Fuego, roughly 700 miles from Antarctica.

The Coca-Cola can-filling plant in Dunkirk, France, is the largest and most efficient canning operation in Europe. It produces four and a half cases of soft drinks per second.

The largest Coca-Cola territory is served by the Simones, Brazil bottler. Besides the Amazon basin, the territory encompasses six Brazilian states, which make up a territorial area totaling 3,591,217 square kilometers.

In Brazil, in the territory served by the Simones Group, it may take up to 30 days by ferry boat up the Amazon River and its tributaries to deliver Coca-Cola to remote locations, especially during the drought season.

Bottling/Vending, continued

Vending Machines in Japan serve selected products of The Coca-Cola Company either hot or cold, depending on the time of the year.

Japan has the greatest number of soft-drink vending machines -- about 2.3 million. More than one-third, or 970,000, bear the trademark for Coca-Cola.

A Coca-Cola vender placed in the lobby of the Hotel Mezhdunarodnaya in Moscow in 1988 was the first commercially operated vender in the then Soviet Union.

The Coca-Cola plant in the Netherlands is more than 5 meters under sea level.

Advertising:

The first advertisement for Coca-Cola appeared in The Atlanta Journal on May 29, 1886, proclaiming that Coca-Cola was "Delicious and Refreshing."

During the 1930s, Coca-Cola became one of radio's first commercial sponsors. The 1960s saw the transformation of the popular "Things Go Better with Coke" jingle into a hit radio spot using successful groups of the times such as The Supremes, The Four Seasons, Jan and Dean and The Moody Blues.

A Thanksgiving Day broadcast in 1950 featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy marked the first sponsorship of a television program by The Coca-Cola Company.

Advertising themes for Coca-Cola have hit the European and American Music charts. Robin Beck's "First Time" hit the European charts and "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" made the U.S. Top 10, and in 1955, a jingle for Cherry Coke hit No. 2 on the Spanish charts.

"Good To The Last Drop," a slogan later used by a coffee company, was first used by Coca-Cola in 1908.

In a painting commissioned for The Coca-Cola Company in 1931, Swedish artist Haddon Sundblom transformed Santa Claus from a "jolly old elf" into the totally human, merry man with rosy red cheeks and a handsome white beard. Over the years, "Sundblom Santa" has become the lovable personification of the holiday season known around the world.

The model for Sundblom's original Santa was a retired salesman, Lou Prentice, who had just the right combination of happy wrinkles on his face. After the death of Prentice, Sundblom -- who himself had aged into a seeming caricature of Santa -- became his own model for Santa.

In 1994, Advertising Age named three Coca-Cola advertisements to a roster of the 50 best spots in the past 50 years: “I'd like to Buy the World a Coke," the ad with "Mean" Joe Greene, and the Coca-Cola polar bears. The Coca-Cola Company was the only company with more than two commercials selected.

Olympic Games

The Coca-Cola Company is the longest continuous sponsor of the Olympic Games. The Coca Cola Company's association with the Olympic movement dates back to 1928.

Coca-Cola made its first official Olympic appearance when 1,000 cases of Coca-Cola accompanied the U.S. Olympic team to Amsterdam in 1928 during the IXth Olympic Summer Games -- the same year that the Olympic Flame was lighted for the first time in the modern Olympic era.

When the first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens, Greece in 1896, with 311 athletes from 13 nations, Coca-Cola was 10 years old and available in every state and territory in America.

During the Xth Olympic Summer Games in 1936, J. Paul Austin, a young Harvard undergraduate, competed for the U.S. Rowing Team. He later became President (1962), Chief Executive Officer (1966) and Chairman of the Board (1970) of The Coca-Cola Company.

Spectators were served Coca-Cola in 12-ounce cans for the first time during the 1960 Olympic Winter Games in Squaw Valley. Since that time, Coca-Cola has been served at the Olympic Games in bottles, glasses, cups and cans by vendors attired in everything from white gloves to astronaut-type back-pack dispensers.

In 1979, The Coca-Cola Company announced the creation of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, co-sponsored by the United States Olympic Committee.

During the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Canada, The Coca-Cola Official Olympic Pin Trading Center made its debut, with crowds exceeding 17,000 visitors each day during the Games. During the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, the Pin Trading Center continued its long-standing tradition as one of the most-popular non-athletic venues at the Games.

During the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, Coca-Cola Radio made its debut with more than 30 top-rated radio stations from the U.S. broadcasting live reports back to home markets on the excitement of the Games. Following the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, Coca-Cola Radio has hosted more than 250 hit radio stations from around the world as part of its prestigious broadcasts from the Games.

In an Olympic "ceremony" involving rings but not medals, a couple was married in a festive ceremony at the Coca-Cola Olympic Pin Trading Trading Center during the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta Georgia. The ceremony was conducted by a judge for the State of Georgia who was also serving as an Olympic Badminton judge. Hundreds of people viewed the wedding, which was broadcast on the jumbotron TV in Coca-Cola Refreshment Plaza.

Sports

The Coca-Cola Company has a long-time partnership with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Coca-Cola has had stadium advertising at every World Cup since 1950, and it has been an official sponsor of each World Cup since 1978.

The Coca-Cola Company has committed its support to other well-known sports organizations: Special Olympics International; The Rugby World Cup; NASCAR; and the United States National Football League, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League.

Gee Whiz:

In the summer of 1994, in Sydney, Australia, a happy couple exchanged wedding vows while paragliding with a parachute bearing the trademark for Coca-Cola with the Sydney Harbor Bridge and famous Opera House as a backdrop.

There are 5,000 members of the Coca-Cola Collector's Club.

When a couple from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney, Australia, won a holiday on Coca-Cola Island as part of a national promotion, they decided to make the most of it and exchanged wedding vows on the Island in April 1999. Coca-Cola officials and the island staff organized a celebrant, flowers, hair, make-up and a special dinner with champaign.

The formula for Coca-Cola is in written form only and the only copy is kept in a vault of the SunTrust Company bank, located in Atlanta, Georgia. The Coca-Cola Company Board of Directors is authorized to open the vault if any emergency arises. Over the past century, many people claim to have the original formula, yet not one imitation has ever proven to be the "real thing."

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