Coca-Cola Company’s 140-Year History and Advertising Legacy

Hi, this is Jim Meskimen, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey, it's Mistress

Carrie, and you are listening to Studio 2009.

Woo -haw! Woo -haw! All right, positive. There

is nothing wrong with your podcast player. Do

not attempt to adjust the volume. Hello and welcome

back to our studio. You're now inside Studio

2009, only on the Geekcast Radio Network. I'm,

of course, CF2 and Mike. Joining me once again

is Steve Megatron. Hello, sir. How are you? Don't

choke. Hello. Yeah, I'm messing with you. Can

you hear me? Yeah, don't do that. I said, who?

What? Oh, no, I didn't hear that. Yeah, no, I

didn't hear that. I'm getting too old. What,

Sonny? I can't hear you. Oh, crap. Getting too

old for this shit. Speaking of old, I don't know

what made me. Do the math on this. Maybe it's

because a certain movie is 40 years old this

year. But I was curious to do the math on how

old The Coca -Cola Company is... For the big.

For the small. The short. And the tall. Peacemakers.

Risk takers. For the optimists. Pessimists. Exhibitionists.

For long distance love. For the farsighted. Nearsighted.

For introverts. And extroverts. For the thinkers.

And the doers. For old friends. Coca -Cola. for

everyone. And the Coca -Cola Company is 140 years

old this year. 1886 is when the Coca -Cola Company

was put into business. They be doing the business,

man. They be doing the business, man. And we're

gonna, because here at Studio 2009 for the last

six years, we always say We will discuss things

as long as we can see, hear, whatever. We'll

talk about them, including advertising and other

things. It's not just movies and TV shows or

video games or cartoons or music or whatever.

We talked about the super soaked nineties all

the way back in episode 11, which funny enough,

surprisingly enough, that episode is only 19

minutes and change. I was surprised. I swear.

We talked about that a lot longer than 19 minutes,

but hopefully that episode isn't broken. I don't

think it is, but I don't think so. Yeah. I don't

think so either, but yeah. So I, Was like, oh,

okay. Hmm, interesting. But yeah, Coke, over

the last 140 years, can you believe it? When

was the first time you really noticed an advertisement

for Coke or Diet Coke or any of their brands?

Batman. I'm not joking, man. I literally think

it was Batman. Uh -huh, uh -huh, uh -huh. Yep.

Mm -hmm. Absolutely. That 1989 Diet Coke ad.

Hello, Gotham Corner store. We are down to our

last Diet Coke. A gentleman is on his way to

pick some up. He'll be arriving in a black car.

No, this black car is rather difficult to miss.

Just for the taste of it, Diet Coke. Now... I

kind of condensed and I got most of that correct

without having to. But, like, I know that ad

like the back of my hand for the most part because

I've been watching that commercial and I've been

placing that audio in certain podcasts over the

years for the last 17, 18 years. Hello. Gotham

Corner Store? Yes, we seem to be down to our

last Diet Coke. A gentleman is on his way to

pick some up. Just look for a black car. No,

this black car will be rather difficult to miss.

And by the way, the gentleman is usually in quite

a rush. I love that ad. That's one of my favorite

ads ever. But yeah, no, that's... Between that

and the... So the Santa Claus stuff for Coke

has really more been a print ad thing. It has,

but it's also been for regular Coke. Right. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. And I mean, I don't mind the regular

Coke advertisements. I mean, the best regular

Coke advertisement is the Polar Bears. I love

the Polar Bears. Polar Bears were cool. Yeah.

They were awesome. And the funny thing about

them is, I swear. And I just found it. It'll

be in the show notes. So the polar bears did

several versions. And then at one point they

did the polar bears and the penguins partying

together. I swear it was Pepsi versus Coke. Because

I swear the... Penguins were from Pepsi. But

it just seems like, no, the Coca -Cola people

wanted both sides. They just wanted polar bears

and penguins in one advertisement. It wasn't

like. A war type of thing. I always thought it

was, but it wasn't because the little penguin

that pops out brings the polar bear a Coke bottle.

I thought he was bringing him. I really thought

it was a war, and it's not. It's funny what you

misconstrued over the years. Well, I mean, that

happens with a lot of things, honestly. There's

a lot of stuff I don't even remember accurately.

There's quotes. I mean, I forget which the one

was that we found out recently was not correct.

It was one you sent me on Instagram. Yeah, it's

my phone in here. It's in the other room. It's

the Oregon. Oh, you have died of dysentery. Yeah,

it's not dysentery. It was you have dysentery

and you have died. So people alluded to it of,

you have died of dysentery. Yep, yep, yep, yep.

Which is funny. Yeah, exactly. Condensing the

stuff, absolutely. Funny you mention Coke, though.

I'm literally, there's a second -hand grocery

store that we have local to us. It's basically

for things that the stores or the food banks

reject. For various reasons. There could be literally

nothing wrong with it. And they'll reject it.

And it'll end up at this place. And it's free

food. It's free stuff. We've gotten gallons of

Italian dressing. Or recently, this week, they've

had Coke there for some reason. Diet Coke. I'm

drinking one right now. There's nothing wrong

with it. There's a little crease in the can,

and it's like, oh, it's not pretty enough to

be sold in store. So it's like, I'll drink it.

I don't care. They were Diet Pepsi this week,

too. A couple months ago, they had Coke Zero.

It's just funny the crap that... But I'm literally

drinking it right now, and I'm like, ah. Yep.

And the funny thing is, even though we're talking

about the Coca -Cola company tonight, you know,

the whole Coke versus Pepsi thing, outside of

the polar bears, the two ads I always remember

from either one company and the other, as we

already mentioned, the Batman 89 ad with Alfred

calling the Gotham Corner store for Diet Coke.

And then the diet Pepsi ads with Rach. Oh, you

got the right one, babe. Oh my God. Those at

Ray Charles. I remember those. Yeah, absolutely.

I don't know. We don't really get, and I've been

watching commercials lately and this is kind

of a tangent off of the Coca -Cola, but I've

been watching commercials on YouTube lately on

the shorts and they're, you know, the older commercials

were, eye -grabbing enticing and inventive or

they were original if if they weren't funny they

were original and you know it could be a brand

deal it could be something else but it it just

works like it hit differently to the point where

you know as the new kids say you know it just

hit hard uh uh sounded like an old man doing

that uh but no i i feel like they they resonated

more in your mental capacity whereas the stuff

nowadays it's ultimately forgettable or you don't

even really see it depending on if you're on

a streaming service either like we had cable

so we saw a lot of this yeah and i was looking

at like the doritos the old doritos commercials

or old skittles oh yeah those are those are beautiful

commercials like yeah they are they're stupid

but they're hilarious. Like I'll sit there and

just watch those because if nothing else, like

even if I'm not eating the item at the moment,

they're so entertaining to watch. Yep. But yeah,

I mean you could go all over the place with the

Coke ads. I mean we, we did a whole episode a

while back about Coke first Pepsi. Yep. Yeah.

And it's, it's insane. You know, the, the crap

that has, come out from these two companies over

the years as far as their advert advertising

yeah and the coca -cola company man just everything

that this company has done in 140 years and how

it started i like i've i don't think i've ever

like In the 17 years of the GCRN, we've read

a lot of Wikipedia articles on air just because

we want to get the information correct kind of

thing. But I don't think I've ever actually read

the history of the Coca -Cola Company. Confederate

Colonel John Pemberton, wounded in the American

Civil War and addicted to morphine. also had

a medical degree and began a quest to find a

substitute for the problematic drug. In 1885,

at Pemberton's Eagle Drug and Chemical House,

his drugstore in Columbus, Georgia, registered

Pemberton's French Wine Coca Nerve Tonic. Pemberton's

tonic may have been inspired by the formidable

success of Vin Mirani, I'm probably mispronouncing

that, a French Corsican coca wine, but his recipe

additionally included the African cola nut. the

beverage's source of caffeine. A Spanish drink

called Cola Coca was presented at a contest in

Philadelphia in 1885, a year before the official

birth of Coca -Cola. The rights for the Spanish

drink were bought by Coca -Cola in 1953. So the

fact that this dude was on morphine is how a

soft drink company 140 years ago got its start.

I could make a really poor comment that would

be akin to stuff I used to do. I triple dog dare

you. So the moral of the story is beyond drugs

to create something new. Don't do drugs, kids.

Seriously, don't. Yeah, don't do drugs, kids.

But there were a couple of nights those seven

or eight months before June 1st, 2009, where

we probably thought we were on drugs. We weren't,

but we probably thought we were. I mean, you

know, all that, uh, hand coding for website stuff.

I'm sure you probably thought you were losing

your mind. I like, I can't tell you the amount

of crap that, you know, I, I had to been on like

a lot of different, uh, like candies and different

caffeine drinks, like just to stay awake from

all of that. Like now I have stuff that automates.

a lot of it. I still have to audit everything.

Yeah. It automates everything for me. Yep. And

in a multitude of areas, but it's all crap I've

created because I know what I want and I know

I want it to do this certain thing. And because

the way that modern internet works and cleaning

up 17 years of bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just crap

we didn't know over the years. Or links to files

that don't exist anymore. Yes, unfortunately,

there are files that are no longer there. Headshot!

Headshot! I actually have that show. Yes, I know

you do. I do have it. I know. It will never be

heard of again. It'll never be heard from again.

But one of our friends, Brad, actually supplied

me with the. Oh, no, he gave me team bottom is.

And I think he gave me a headshot. I think I

deleted it. But yeah, he's like, yeah, I got

them all on a Google Drive. And I'm like, that's

reassuring. Yeah, that's nice. Thank you, Brad.

You rock, dude. But yeah, no. So in the other.

So it was marketed as Coca -Cola, the temperance

drink. which appealed to many people as the temperance

movement enjoyed wide support during a time.

The first sales were at Jacobs Pharmacy in Atlanta,

Georgia, on May 8, 1886, when it initially sold

for five cents a glass. God, five cents a glass.

I usually end up paying something like... $14

.99, $16 .99 for a 24 -pack of Diet Coke now.

Oh, it's ridiculous how much this crap costs.

I remember years ago, I sound like an old man.

Back in my day, I remember paying X amount of

dollars for this amount of Coke, and it was good.

Although it sounds bad, too, when it's like,

I paid for a lot of Coke. No, I mean... it's

like i think it's like three bucks now three

to like five bucks to get a two liter of coke

now yeah something like in walmart like i literally

watch the prices because i would much rather

get coke so i get the knockoff brand in walmart

because it's a dollar sam's choice yeah yeah

so i get that because it tastes the same and

it's a dollar and but it's still if i have the

option I like getting Coca -Cola. And it's funny

because there's a different taste depending on

what container it's in. Oh, yeah. Oh, don't even

get me started. There's can, there's glass, and

there's bottle. Yep. I'll be interested to hear

what your favorite is before I say mine. Oh,

boy. See, that's the thing. And it depends on

if it's cold or if it's like room temperature

too. Oh, yeah. No, I don't ever do it. So here's

the thing. If I am like... I don't know, a couple

days ago, I had one can left. And for me, no

one's going to be able to see this, but I'll

knock this against my head. People can hear this,

hopefully. I have a plastic tumbler. It's a whatever,

I don't know what kind. It's one of those tumbler

glasses. And it's one of those things where I

pour the cans into that because I'm usually sitting

here all day doing stuff on the computer, editing,

whatever, getting other stuff ready for records

and things like that. So I usually just pour

one can into it and it usually lasts me at least

half the day. So for me, I get the cans because

they last me longer. Like a two liter bottle

will last me a day and a half. That's how much

Diet Coke I drink. 24 -pack cans last me about

two and a half weeks. So I'm usually buying two

or three 24 -packs to make it last throughout

the month kind of thing. If I have to drink it

out of the can and I don't have a glass available,

I'm fine. I'm fine drinking it out of like a

20 -ounce bottle. But yeah, you're absolutely

right. It absolutely does taste different. I

don't ever, I haven't drank it out of, I have

not drank it out of the glass bottles in years.

It's either the can or the plastic, the two liter

bottles. But between those two, it tastes vastly

different. And it's hard for me, it's difficult

for me to go between them. Like, if I'm on the

cans, I have to stay on the cans. If I'm on the

bottles, I have to stay on the bottles for a

while. I can't switch between the two. It's just

not a thing for me to be able to do. And I don't

understand. Okay, I get it. It's because one

is plastic and one is metal. But the interesting

thing to me is that... If I had like right now

I have cans, but I guarantee you if I if I got

on the door dash after the show tonight and I

whatever time because we're going to be here

a while. But like, let's say we finished at midnight

or 1 a .m. Eastern time and I got on there and

I got on to Wawa and ordered a bunch of stuff

from Wawa and I ordered a two liter bottle of

Diet Coke. I guarantee you if I. poured a can

of Diet Coke into one of my tumblers and then

a bottle into the other, tasting it from the

tumbler from either one of them, it's going to

taste the same because it's not in either package

anymore. So that's the good thing, I think, is

that even though the taste from The can and the

bottle themselves are different. The actual taste

of the product in an actual glass or a cup or

whatever is the same. It's just the packaging

that it actually comes in is what, so it's the

metal versus the plastic is what makes the taste

different. I don't know. Yeah, I, my preference.

See, I can go between any of them. It doesn't

really bother me. Glass definitely tastes the

best because it doesn't taste like it's been

in a can or been in plastic. Right, right. If

I have a two liter, I generally pour into 16

or 20 ounce bottles to like split it up. Right.

Because otherwise, one, it'll go flat or two,

I'll drink it all in one sitting. Right. Which

neither one is a good idea. So that's what I

do with that. As far as the cans, I mean, I can

drink them pretty much whenever. It doesn't really

bother me. I've drank primarily cans over the

years with a lot of two -liter bottles split

up. Although back when I worked at the car dealership,

I used to carry around a two -liter of Coke in

my pocket. I remember. Yeah, I used to keep it

in the sleeve of my coat, which was hilarious

because I'd just walk up and be like... Chug,

chug, chug. And, you know, in the winter and

they're like, where did that come from? And I'm

like, pocket universe. Yeah. Literally pocket,

you know. Yeah. Steve and his Coca -Cola universe.

That's what that was. The only time that backfired

on me was when I carried it and I was doing IT

work and I was a white shirt at this point. And

I spilled it. And I was wearing khaki pants.

That was part of my uniform, khaki pants with

a white shirt. And the bottle, I had opened it

a little too fast and it exploded and sprayed

me. So thankfully I keep extra. I keep extra

clothes in my desk since then. Even at that point

I did. But it was hilarious. Yeah, so back to

the Coca -Cola. Yeah, they're advertising. The

first ever advertisement was inside an 1886 issue

of the Atlanta Journal calling the drink delicious,

refreshing, exhilarating, invigorating. It 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. I can't read that. What does

that say? And in Sunbloom, the motif was already

common. 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. Before Santa Claus, Coca -Cola relied

on images of smartly dressed young women to sell

its beverages. As they would. As they would.

Well, you know. Commercials, television commercials

between 60 through 1986 were written and produced

by former Atlanta radio veteran Don Naylor. During

his career as a producer for McKay and Erickson

Advertising Agency, many of these early television

commercials for Coca -Cola featured movie stars,

sports heroes, and popular singers. During the

1980, Pepsi ran a series of television advertisements

showing people participating in taste test. I

remember the taste test commercials demonstrating

that according to the commercials, 50 % of the

participants who said they preferred Coke actually

chose the Pepsi. I remember those. Those were

hilarious. Coca -Cola ran ads to combat Pepsi's

ads. In an incident sometimes referred to as

the Cola Wars. Yep, yep, yep. Good old Cola Wars.

Coca -Cola has gone through a number of different

advertising slogans in its long history, including

It's the Real Thing, The Pause That Refreshes,

I'd Like to Buy the World of Coke, and... Coke

is it. In 1999, the Coca -Cola company introduced

the Coke Card, a loyalty program that offered

deals on items like clothes, entertainment, and

food when the cardholder purchased a Coca -Cola

Classic. The scheme was canceled after three

years, with Coca -Cola's spokesperson declining

to state why. Hmm, I wonder why. But yeah, no.

I just, yeah, I just, and again, like you said

earlier, what is so great about the Coca -Cola

advertisements, the TV advertisements, I forget

what some of the radio advertisements were like,

but the TV adverts, like the Bears, like the

Batman adverts and stuff like that, they were...

but they were fun because like, you know, how

are you not going to want to go out and buy a

Coke from a polar bear? Like those first few

polar bear ads was just like essentially the

Papa polar bear. And then later they brought

in like the polar bear cub and it was like, Oh,

That's awesome. And, you know, like we already

said, literally the Diet Coke ad with Batman,

like, come on. That's immediate. Go out and buy.

Go out and get yourself a Diet Coke. Just absolutely

awesome. I don't even know what the ad campaign

is nowadays. AI? I think that's what it is. I

don't even know. Yeah, pretty sure. Let me double

check. Coca -Cola has been prominently featured

in many films, political cartoonists, moral references.

Yeah, probably. That sucks. Beep. I don't. I

don't love the AI commercials because I think,

one, they're kind of lazy. They're kind of lazy.

They're very lazy. You know what I mean. As far

as the creative stuff, I do prefer the skill

set. As far as programming, I love the AI for

that. For the tedious back -end work that I don't

want to deal with. I still audit everything because

I don't trust it. And I've seen it in some of

the stuff I've programmed. But yeah, the recent

commercials for this, I remember around Christmas

time last year, they got a lot of flack for trying

to combine multitudes of their different commercials

with AI. And you have these people that are venomous

either way. It's like, you know, this way or

that way. But it just seemed like there was a

lot of glitchy stuff and it was just kind of

weird. Yeah. Like I did. Yeah. I don't know.

I miss the bears. I think the bears are their

solid point. And I think that there's a lot of

room they could do stuff with that. It's just

they don't. I think that they were trying something

new to see what it would do. And it kind of was

like, yeah, that's the problem, though, is we're.

With these ads, and again, like I said earlier,

there's nothing inventive, nothing original,

nothing fun about any of these ads anymore. How

much crap can we pump out? It's literally that.

It would be like if I sat here and I literally

scripted out the entire podcast with AI, and

then I had an AI version of me with no emotion

sitting here. reciting the whole thing people

would probably still listen just to the fact

that it still sounds legit or probably be cleaner

but at the same time like it would lack the soul

and the substance or the authenticity and so

in that regard like I think that I think if we're

going to use it I think it needs to be used for

what it's for is like you know managing the analytics

or the digital crap i think it needs to just

as far as commercials i think we need to get

back to original creative ideas stuff that's

fun yep absolutely get one of those young get

those those young whippersnappers and have them

do some campaigns and like do something different

with it do something original like you know Going

through a car wash and all of a sudden a Coke

bottle is showing up. I don't know. Everywhere

you go throughout your day, somebody's got a

Coke or there's a reminder of it or there's a

truck. There's a lot you could do that's kind

of interesting. Now I can see Pepsi doing that,

reminding you about a Coke and then at the end

they're like, I prefer Pepsi or something. I

don't know. They need to do something better.

Because it's kind of faded. Yeah, absolutely.

One of the best ones, which wasn't even a Coke

ad, which is kind of silly that I'm even bringing

this up because it wasn't a Coke ad, but the

Curly Sue Pepsi ad. So when the film Curly Sue

came out, they did a Pepsi ad where the actress

that played her. uh along with um oh what was

his name i forget what his name was but anyway

she goes into this pizza i think it was a pizza

hut or something or other i forget but she goes

oh i want this this and this and i want a pepsi

he goes yeah sure curly that's fine here you

go and she uh he hands her a coke and and Her

voice changes through whatever, and she goes,

hey, come here. I thought I said I wanted a Pepsi.

Oh, okay, okay, okay, I'll get you a Pepsi. Thank

you. It's a Pepsi ad, obviously, but, you know,

it's imaginative. And the only thing I can think

of for Coke is, like, okay, you've been using

Santa in print for years, and it's the classic

look, and it's the thing and thing and thing.

TV ad or whatever for a visual commercial. I

know we got winter coming up, so you can't do

it now. But for like summer 2027, do like Santa

on the beach, like Santa's on vacation kind of

thing. Like Santa's best thing is, oh, I want

a Coke. I want to relax with a Coke. I'm not

working yet kind of thing. I don't know. They

could do something. But 140 years of Coca -Cola.

Holy crud. What a legacy. What a brand. Crazy,

crazy. So we are going to take it to a quick

ad break. You're going to hear some podcast ads

and some other stuff. We'll come back to close

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won't. Alright folks, we are back in the 186th

episode of Studio 2009. Any final thoughts, sir?

What do you got going on in the world of Steve

Megatron? Working on a lot of different little

projects and prepping for those to hopefully

come to fruition. But yeah, otherwise just trying

to learn some new tech and mess with that. Record

some new podcasts and hopefully continue some

that we've started and not got any further in.

We have to put some on pause so we can start

the other ones and finish those off and continue

the other. It's a balancing act. You know this.

I do know this. Anyway. All right, folks, that's

going to do it for us. Thank you for joining

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talk about kindergarten cop That was supposed

to be an anniversary episode because I think

at one point it had an anniversary. I think it

was last year or two years ago or whatever, but

it got delayed until now. So there you go, folks.

Kitty Garden Cop. It's not a tumor. It's not

a tumor. It's not a tumor. We show daddy and

what does he do? When he said that, I'm like,

oh, yeah. Who's your daddy? And what does he

do? Stop whining. Yeah, stop whining. Enough

whining. Yep, yep, yep. For now, I am TFG1 Mike

with... Steve Megatron. You'll hear us back in

the studio soon.