Coca Cola Series

 

This series excerpts heavily from For God, Country, and Coca-Cola by Mark Pendergrast, 1999, who grew up on “Coca-Cola Row” and after Harvard, became an investigative journalist and independent scholar, also the author of Uncommon Grounds. Coca-Cola ties in nicely with the Public Opinion Series. If there’s one company that knows the power of marketing and public opinion, it’s Coca-Cola, deep in American history, politics, folklore, industry, and now a global icon.

While watching the 2008 Olympics, this Coca-Cola commercial surprisingly mentioned its founder - John Pemberton - who concocted Coca-Cola in 1886. “The most uplifting drink of all time” the commercial said. So very true. They should bring back the original formula.

Early History

Cocaine Miracle Cure

Pemberton Creates Coca-Cola

Medicinal Cocaine Controversy

Coke Fiends

Coca-Cola Cocaine Content Removed

Santa and Coca-Cola

Schools and Coca-Cola

Nutrition and Coca-Cola

Tea and Coca-Cola

Military and Coca Cola

Regimes and Coca-Cola

In which countries is Coca-Cola not sold?

Books:

Coca Cola Anarchist by B Wardlaw, 2010 – Book Review

Belching Out the Devil by Mark Thomas, 2008, - Book Review

Secret Formula by Frederick Allen: Interesting internal company lore, particularly regarding Robert Woodruff.

Sweetness and Power by anthropologist Sidney Mintz, traces how sugar and tea were initially considered exotic luxuries available only to the wealthy nobility in Great Britain.

Movies:

The Cola Conquest, documentary

For His Son by D.W. Griffith, 1909 [Birth of a Nation, 1912]: the inventor of a “DOPO-KOKE” watched as his son fall prey to the drink’s cocaine.

Soda Fountain Service, Come In, Customer, and These Changing Times: Woodruff directed an innovative public relations campaign in the 1920s based on a series of soft-sell movies using professional actors in the role of druggist and dispenser.

Coca-Cola Font