THE HISTORY OF THE HAPPTER DRINK IN THE WORLD

On May 8th, 139 years passed the day the first dose of Coca-Cola was sold in a pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born as a medicine for headaches and stomach, and at the time contained cocaine. He quickly gained popularity among Americans and then won the world. Today it is difficult to find someone who has not yet tasted it.

It is almost 140 years old and it seems that time does not go through it… It is perhaps one of the best known, consumed and appreciated drinks worldwide by both kids and big scale. According to the brand’s own website, it is calculated that more than 1.9 billion Coca-Cola are served every day in the world. This is so famous that, according to the Business Insiderfollowing « OK », « Coca-cola » It is the second word most easily understood throughout the globe.

A soda that fits well in the most diverse situations, stands out for its unique flavor, its freshness and sweetness. Even for those who do not like, there is no denying that this is part of our daily lives and growth when thinking of soda, sponsorship and ads. It is difficult to spend a day without seeing someone with a can of this drink in hand, or sitting on a terrace with a glass of ice and lemon that complete the brownish liquid full of gas. And its story is fascinating, since it was born of a chance and with a very different goal from the one we know today.

A medicine for headaches

They say it all started on a hot summer afternoon in 1886 when John Stith Pemberton, a pharmacist in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, created a drink, which baptized from «Tonic for the Brain»which would become one of the great symbols of American capitalism in the world. The pharmacist loved to manipulate medicinal formulas and, in order to create a medicine to alleviate headaches and stomach, eventually created a liquid mixture of caramel. The original recipe included coca leaves, glue nut extract, and other ingredients such as flavoring oils and phosphoric acid.

Pemberton took the mixture to a small pharmacy, Jacob’s Pharmacy, where it was eventually combined with carbonated water and sold as a medication to customers. Pharmacy Jacobs put it for sale for five cents (about 0.04 cents) per glass. “With the medicine in a jar, Pemberton went to the currently famous pharmacy Jacob’s, where each glass of medicine, gasified water and ice began to be sold for five cents. Gradually, this new drink has begun to become known in local society and to enter the daily life of Americans »tells the brand’s website. Thinking that «The two CS would look good in advertising»Pemberton’s partner, Frank M. Robinson, suggested the name, thus causing the famous refreshing drink.

According to the company on the site, the pharmacist never realized the potential of the drink and gradually selling parts of the business. Morphine’s addiction led to his death two years after creating the drink. In 1891, another Atlanta pharmacist, Asa Griggs Candler, acquired the full property of the business from Frank Robinson and founded Coca-Cola Company the following year. The Coca-Cola brand was patented in 1893. At that time the first building was built with the sole purpose of welcoming The Coca-Cola Company. The company has grown at such a speed that has changed office five times for the next 12 years.

Brand growth

Known as a born seller, through creative forms of marketing, he turned it into a millionaire business: he distributed coupons to encourage people to experience the product and supplied pharmacists with pens, watches, scales, lamps, cards and calendars with the Coca-Cola brand. In 1895, it had already conquered the US and, at the turn of the century, spread through its nearest neighbors: Canada, England, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Remember that so far the liquid was sold within what was available. According to the company’s page, the first time Coca-Cola was bottled at a small glass bottles of glass. In 1899, only three people were allowed to bottled the drink. But as one might expect, imitations began to grow. Therefore, it was necessary to standardize the brand with an attractive design: “We need a bottle that people recognize like a Coca-Cola bottle, even when they are feeling it in the dark. The Coca-Cola bottle must have such a form that, even if departed, it has to be recognizable of a glance »these were the instructions given by the company for the contest from where the winning bottle would come.

Who won was the Root Glass Company, from the state of Indiana, in 1915. Machinist Earl Dean was the one who drew the bottle that would be in a short time, worldwide. This one was inspired by the cocoa figure, confusing himself as he sought a drawing that represented the ingredient « coca » of the drink. It is recalled that Coca-Cola even literally contained cocaine. However, since 1929 the company has no longer used the substance in the drink.

Prior to the beginning of manufacturing, this design had to be adapted. It was not practical to produce and pack bottles with the environment so much wider than the base, which forced the reduction of « waist ». The patent was delivered to the factory superintendent, the Swedish Alexander Samuelson. The bottle earned the name of «Contour». The first traffic jams were then opened in Europe, Paris and Bordeaux.

In 1920, the brand page writes, the introduction of the first pack of six bottles was a significant innovation for the beverage industry – the famous Six-Pack. The box was patented the following year. At this point, two more significant innovations were launched: Coca-Cola’s glass source in bell-shaped and the first standardized open lid refrigerator.

The American soldiers also played a very important role in the internationalization of the drink as it was thanks to them that a new packaging model, easy to transport as well as more resistant, the can. The success of this version was so great that, even with the end of World War II, the model continued to be marketed.

Brilliant advertising

Next marketing and advertising strategies were followed by Coca-Cola one of the most famous drinks in the world. In fact, to have a notion, the value spent by the advertising brand is more than the sum of the amount invested by Microsoft and Apple together. In addition, the main strategy of Branding DThe brand is to associate the soda with the moments of happiness – «Open happiness».

One of the best known advertising is related to the old man who delivers the gifts to all homes in the world on Christmas Eve. It is true that many point to Coca-Cola as the creator of Santa’s current image-white beards and red clothes, according to the colors of the brand. However, several artists have been recreating and redesigning this Christmas symbol, each granting their own personal touch. According to MarketeerFrom the 1930s, Coca-Cola used its image in Christmas ads, helping to consolidate the character’s image in the collective imagination. According to the company’s official website, illustrator Haddon Sundblom was hired, who gave an idea of ​​a more realistic Santa Claus, with a wide smile and a rolling figure, inspired by a friend, a retired salesman.

In 1950, Coca-Cola became the first commercial product to appear on the cover of the magazine Teamhaving been an important milestone in the history of advertising and branding. At the time, the American magazine highlighted the drink as a product that became part of popular culture and a world icon.

In addition, soda has been featured in several movies and television shows that over the years have raised the brand. The drink was an important element in films like One, Two, Three1961, performed by Billy Wilder; The Gods Must Be Crazy1890, performed by Jamie Uys; The Coca-Cola Kid1985, performed by Dušan Makavejev, among many others.

There are also references of the drink in songs like Eat togetherfrom the Beatles, and All Summer Longfrom The Beach Boys. Elvis Presley also promoted her during her last tour in 1977. The Coca-Cola Company even used the best-selling artist’s image of all time to promote the product. Singers and groups such as David Bowie, George Michael, Elton John and Whitney Houston, Julio Iglesias, Cyndi Lauper, U2 and Red Hot Chili Peppers also referred to Coca-Cola in their songs.

In 1953, the fado singer Amália Rodrigues was invited from the American program Coca-Cola Timepresented by Eddie Fisher, where he played the song April in Portugal. After this performance the fado came to be known internationally.

Coca-Cola in Portugal

According to the company’s website, the history of the drink in Portugal is «A history of modernity, innovation, and involvement with the country and the Portuguese». The drink was already totaling 91 years when he arrived in Lusitano territory.

In 1928 already Fernando Pessoa – at the time copywriter of a Portuguese advertising agency – the advertising slogan had created «First strange, then get on»but not even that was enough to convince the newly installed military dictatorship to let the soda enter Portugal. By then, this one was already sold in the former colonies. However, Salazar did not want him in the metropolis, giving official justifications the concerns of health (due to the high caffeine content and the creation of used), as well as a protectionism for soft drinks and national production wines. «(…) I always opposed your appearance in the Portuguese market. This is what I could call our moral landscape. Portugal is a conservative country, paternalistic and – God be praised – late, a term that I consider more flatter than pejorative. The Lord risks introducing in Portugal what I hate above all, that is, modernism and the famous efficiency. I shudder in the face of the idea of ​​your trucks to go at all speed the streets of our old cities, accelerating, as they pass, the rhythm of our secular habits »reads in a letter from Salazar addressed to an American employee who tried to intercede through the entrance of Coca-Cola in Portugal, cited in the collection Scenes of Portuguese Lifeby Maria Filomena Monica.

The drink only officially entered the country in 1977. Currently arrives in the Portuguese through its factory, Refrige, located in Azeitão, Setúbal district. It is from here that about 90% of the drinks that reach every point of sale in the country are bottled.

In Hong Kong, some people still often drink hot coca-cola as a flu medicine. The recipe is still saved to seven keys inside a safe at the World of Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta, headquarters of the brand. The drink is not only sold in Cuba and North Korea.