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Coca-Cola

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File:Cokecansmall.jpg
The wave shape (known as the "dynamic ribbon device") present on all Coca-Cola cans throughout the world derives from the contour of the original Coca-Cola bottles.

Coca-Cola (also known as Coke, a name which was trademarked by The Coca-Cola Company after it was discovered many people called it by that particular name) is a very popular cola, a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines everywhere in the world. It is produced by the Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), which is also often referred to as simply Coca-Cola or Coke. Coke is one of the world's most recognizable and widely sold commercial brands; its major rival is Pepsi.

Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century, rumored to be originally green; Coca-Cola was bought out by shrewd businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose aggressive marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft drink market throughout the 20th century. Although faced with critiques of its health effects and various allegations of wrongdoing by the company, Coca-Cola has remained a popular soft drink well into the first decade of the 21st century.

The company actually produces concentrate for Coca-Cola, which is then sold to various 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 in cans and bottles to retail stores and vending machines. Such bottlers include Coca-Cola Enterprises, which is the single largest Coca-Cola bottler in North America and Europe. The Coca-Cola Company also sells concentrate for fountain sales to major restaurants and food service distributors.

History

Early years

The Las Vegas World of Coca-Cola museum in 2000

Coca-Cola was invented in Columbus, Georgia, by John S. Pemberton in 1884, originally as a cocawine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca. He was inspired by the formidable success of European Angelo Mariani's cocawine, Vin Mariani.

In 1885, after Coca-Cola moved, when Atlanta and Fulton County passed Prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing Coca-Cola, essentially a carbonated, non-alcoholic version of French Wine Cola. The beverage was named Coca-Cola because originally, the stimulant mixed in the beverage was coca leaves from South America. In addition, the drink was flavored using kola (Cola) nuts, the beverage's source of caffeine. Pemberton called for 5 ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose, whereas in 1891 Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton's original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Contrary to popular belief, Coca-Cola did not actually contain cocaine per se, which is a highly refined extract of coca leaves and was always far too expensive to use in a mass-market beverage. However, as cocaine is one of numerous alkaloids present in the coca leaf, it was nevertheless present in the drink. Today, the flavoring is still done with kola nuts and the coca leaf; however, the coca leaves used today are "spent" leaves - the leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process - however, one cannot extract cocaine out of the leaf at a molecular level; therefore, the drink still contains trace amounts of the stimulant [citation needed].

Coca-Cola was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time thanks to a belief that carbonated water was good for the health. Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured a myriad of diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence. The first sales were made at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886, and for the first eight months only nine drinks were sold each day. Pemberton ran the first advertisement for the beverage on May 29 of the same year in the Atlanta Journal.

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 Corporation in 1888. The same year, while suffering from an ongoing addiction to morphine, Pemberton sold the rights a second time to three more businessmen: J.C. Mayfield, A.O. Murphey and E.H. Bloodworth. Meanwhile, Pemberton's alcoholic son Charley Pemberton began selling his own version of the product.[1]

In an attempt to clarify the situation, 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.[2]

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. Regardless, Candler began aggressively marketing the product — the efficiency of this concerted advertising campaign would not be realized until much later. By the time of its 50th anniversary, the drink had reached the status of a national icon for the USA.

Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894, and cans of Coke first appeared in 1955. 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 the two entrepreneurs who proposed the idea were so persuasive that Candler signed a contract giving them control of the procedure. However, 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 — in effect, becoming parent bottlers.

World War II

Before and during World War II, Coca-Cola adopted an apparent policy of ignoring the practice of eugenics and anti-Semitism by Nazi Germany. Several of Coke's top executives in Germany were prominent members of the National Socialist German Workers Party. The difficulty of shipping Coca-Cola concentrate to Germany eventually led to the creation of a new drink under the Coca-Cola brand, Fanta.

When the United States entered World War II, Coke began to represent itself as a patriotic drink by providing free drinks for soldiers of the United States Army. The United States Army permitted Coca-Cola employees to enter the front lines as "Technical Officers" when in reality they rarely if ever came close to a real battle. Instead, they operated Coke's system of providing refreshments for soldiers, who welcomed the beverage as a reminder of home. As the Allies of World War II advanced, so did Coke, which took advantage of the situation by establishing new franchises in the newly occupied countries.

Coca-Cola set up bottling plants in several locations overseas to assure the drink's availability to soldiers, setting the stage for the company's post-war overseas expansion. The popularity of the drink exploded as American soldiers returned home from the war with a taste for the drink. The beverage had become synonymous with the American way of life.

For more corporate history, see The history of the Coca-Cola Company.

New Coke to the present

File:Newcoke.jpg
New Coke stirred up a controversy when it replaced the original Coca-Cola in 1985. The original formula was reinstated as Coca-Cola Classic within a few months of the new Coke's introduction into the market.

In 1985, Coca-Cola, amid much publicity, attempted to change the formula of the drink, without changing its name. Some authorities believe that New Coke, as the reformulated drink was marketed, was invented specifically to respond to its commercial competitor, Pepsi. Double-blind taste tests indicated that most consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi (which has more lemon oil, less orange oil, and uses vanillin rather than vanilla) to Coke. In taste tests, drinkers are more likely to respond positively to sweeter drinks, and Pepsi had the advantage over Coke because it is much sweeter. Coca-Cola tinkered with the formula and created the new Coke. Follow-up taste tests revealed that most consumers preferred the taste of New Coke to both Coke and Pepsi. The reformulation was led by the then-CEO of the company, Roberto Goizueta, and the president Don Keough.

It is unclear what part long-time company president Robert W. Woodruff played in the reformulation. Goizueta claims that Woodruff endorsed it a few months before his death in 1985; others have pointed out that, as the two men were alone when the matter was discussed, Goizueta might have misinterpreted the wishes of the dying Woodruff, who could speak only in monosyllables. It has also been alleged that Woodruff might not have been able to understand what Goizueta was telling him.

The commercial failure of New Coke therefore came as a grievous blow to the management of the Coca-Cola Corporation. It is possible that customers would not have noticed the change if it had been made secretly or gradually, and thus brand loyalty could have been maintained. Coca-Cola management was unprepared, however, for the nostalgic sentiments the drink aroused in the American public; some compared changing the Coke formula to rewriting the American Constitution.

The new Coca-Cola formula subsequently caused a public backlash. Gay Mullins, from Seattle, Washington, founded the Old Cola Drinkers of America organization, which attempted to sue the company, and lobbied for the formula of Old Coke to be released into the public domain. This and other protests caused the company to return to the old formula under the name Coca-Cola Classic on July 10, 1985. The company was later accused of performing this volte-face as an elaborate ruse to introduce a new product while reviving interest in the original. Donald Keough, company president at the time, responded to the accusation by declaring: "Some critics will say Coca-Cola made a marketing mistake. Some cynics will say that we planned the whole thing. The truth is we are not that dumb, and we are not that smart."

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest consumer of natural vanilla extract. When New Coke was introduced in 1985, this had a severe impact on the economy of Madagascar, a prime vanilla exporter, since New Coke used vanillin, a less-expensive synthetic substitute. Purchases of vanilla more than halved during this period. But the flop of New Coke brought a recovery.

Meanwhile, the market share for New Coke had dwindled to only 3% by 1986. In 1992 the company renamed the product "Coke II" (not to be confused with "Coke C2", a reduced-sugar cola launched by Coca-Cola in 2004). However, sales falloff caused a severe cutback in distribution. By 1998, it was sold in only a few places in the Midwestern U.S.

On February 7, 2005, the Coca-Cola Company announced that in the second quarter of 2005 they planned a launch of a Diet Coke product sweetened with the artificial sweetener sucralose ("Splenda"), the same sweetener currently used in Pepsi One. On March 21, 2005, it announced another diet product, "Coca-Cola Zero", sweetened partly with a blend of aspartame and acesulfame potassium.

Coca-Cola formula

The exact formula of Coca-Cola is famously 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's initial public offering in 1919.[3] A popular myth states that only two executives have access to the formula, with each executive having only half the formula. 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.dfsgfg

Coca-Cola's advertising

File:Cokebottles.jpg
Specially designed Christmas labels featuring Santa Claus give a seasonal twist to these Coca-Cola bottles. The characteristic shape of the bottles is trademarked. It was designed to be universally recognizable, even when used a vibrator.

Coca-Cola's advertising has had a significant impact on American culture, and is frequently credited with the "invention" of the modern image of Santa Claus as an old man in red-and-white garments; however, while the company did in fact start promoting this image in the 1930s in its winter advertising campaigns, it was already common before that.[4] In the 1970s, a song from a Coca-Cola commercial called "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", produced by Billy Davis, became a popular hit single, but there is no evidence that it did anything to increase sales of the soft drink.

Coca-Cola has a policy of avoiding using children younger than the age of 12 in any of its advertising as a result of a lawsuit from the beginning of the 20th century that alleged that Coke's caffeine content was dangerous to children. However, in recent times, this has not stopped the company from targeting young consumers. In addition, it has not been disclosed in exact terms how safe Coke is for consumption by young children (or pregnant mothers).

Coke's advertising has been rather pervasive, as one of Woodruff's stated goals was to ensure that everyone on Earth drank Coca-Cola as their preferred beverage. Advertising for Coke is now almost ubiquitous, especially in southern areas of North America, such as Atlanta, where Coke was born.

Sport event sponsorships

Coca-Cola was the first-ever sponsor of the Olympic games, at the 1928 games in Amsterdam and has been an Olympics sponsor ever since. This corporate sponsorship included the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta, which allowed Coca-Cola to spotlight its hometown. Since 1978 Coca-Cola is the main sponsor of FIFA and has sponsored each FIFA World Cup and other competitions organised by FIFA. In fact, one of the FIFA tournament trophy: FIFA World Youth Championship from Tunisia in 1977 to Malaysia in 1997 was called "FIFA - Coca Cola Cup". In addition, Coca Cola sponsors the annual Coca-Cola 600 for the NASCAR Nextel Cup auto racing series at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. 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. They also sponser the [[International Rules football]] test game played between Australia and Ireland every year

During the 1980s, Pepsi-Cola ran a series of television advertisements showing people participating in taste tests in which they expressed a preference for Pepsi over 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.

In an attempt to broaden its portfolio, Coca-Cola purchased Columbia Pictures in 1982. Columbia provided subtle publicity through Coke product placements in many of its films while under Coke's ownership. However, after a few early successes, Columbia began to under-perform, and was dropped by the company 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).

Criticisms

File:Camel-3.jpg
A camel drinks a Coke.

Acidity and urban legends

Coca-Cola has been the target of urban legends decrying the drink for its supposedly copious amounts of acid (its pH value of 2.5 is midway between vinegar and gastric acid), or the "life-threatening" effects of its carbonated water. These urban legends usually take the form of "fun facts" — for example, "highway troopers use Coke to clean blood from highways after accidents, "somebody once died in a Coke-drinking competition," or "Coke can dissolve a tooth overnight". All of these claims are false. (While Highway Troopers do not use Coca-Cola for this purpose, it was proven on the television program MythBusters (a "myth testing" show) that Coca-Cola can be used quite well as a blood cleaning agent.) Evidence has been presented in numerous cases against Coca-Cola since the 1920s that decisively proves that the drink is not more harmful than comparable soft drinks, or indeed acidic fruit juices like Mr Juicy apple juice. Under normal conditions, its acidity causes no immediate harm.[5] A 2005 experiment by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry found the pH of the mouth to be 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7 5, 10 and 20 minutes (respectively) after swishing 15ml in the mouth for one minute. None of those are in the critical range to damage tooth enamel. Diet Coke was found to be slightly less acidic. [6]

One unusual use for Coke is as a rust-control substance—the phosphoric acid in coke converts iron oxide to iron phosphate, and as such can be used as an initial treatment for corroded iron and steel objects being renovated, etc. The phosphoric can be used to anodize Titanium according to various websites. [citation needed] It has also been experimentally used as a pesticide by Indian farmers in Andhra Pradesh.[7]

The numerous urban legends about Coca-Cola have led the Urban Legends Reference Pages to devote a whole section of their site to "Cokelore". One false legend claims that Coke was once green, or was accidentally carbonated when a clerk squirted syrup into the wrong glass.

Adverse long-term health effects

While many nutritionists believe that "soft drinks and other calorie-rich, nutrient-poor food can fit into a good diet", it is generally agreed that Coca-Cola and other soft drinks can be harmful if consumed to excess, particularly to young children whose soda consumption competes with, rather than complements, a balanced diet.[8] Studies have shown that regular soft drink users have a lower intake of calcium (which can contribute to osteoporosis), magnesium, ascorbic acid, riboflavin, and vitamin A.[9]

The drink has also aroused criticism for its use of phosphoric acid[10] and caffeine.[11] The soft drink industry dismisses many of these criticisms as urban myths.[12] There are some reports that Coca-Cola is addictive, although the veracity of these reports has yet to be established.

For more, see phosphoric acid in food.

Since the late 1980s in the US, Coke has been made with high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar glucose/fructose, except Kosher for Passover Coke which can't be made with high fructose corn syrup. This was done largely due the prices of sugar increasing during these times. There are some groups who criticize this move to use high fructose corn syrup over sugar due to the fact that the corn in which the corn syrup is maintained may come from genetically altered plants.

In India, the Centre for Science and Environment, a non-governmental organisation, in 2003 said aerated waters produced by soft drinks manufacturers, including multinational giants Pepsico and Coca-Cola, contain pesticides and insecticides. Coke, Pepsi, Seven Up, Mirinda, Fanta, Thums Up, Limca, Sprite and many others carry "deadly" insecticides like lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos.

They conducted tests which showed that Pepsi's soft drink products had 36 times the level of pesticide residues permitted under European Union regulations; Coca Cola's 30 times.

The CSE said in all 12 of the soft drinks it tested it found toxins including lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos — pesticides that can contribute to cancer and a breakdown of the immune system. CSE said it had tested the same products in the US and found no such residues. Coca Cola and PepsiCo, the US soft drinks companies, angrily denied allegations that their products manufactured in India contained toxin levels far above the norms permitted in the developed world.

Coca-Cola had registered a 15 percent drop in sales after the allegations were made.

Business practices

Main article: Coca-Cola Company: Criticisms

As the largest seller of soft drinks in the world, including its flagship Coca-Cola drink, the Coca-Cola Company has been criticized for some of its corporate actions, from issues such as monopolistic practices, reliance on low health standards, racist employment practices, the privatization of water supplies, to the abuse of workers' rights, including the assassination of union members. There are many criticisms of both the company's products and trade practices.

  • A number of universities in Canada, the UK, the U.S. and Ireland boycott Coca-Cola products for concerns over human rights abuses.
  • In India, the corporation has provoked a number of boycotts and protests as a result of its perceived low standards of hygiene and adverse impact on the environment. [13]
  • Coca-Cola was denounced in the UK for weaning young children onto junk food.
  • In Colombia, the company has been accused of human rights violations. Specifically, The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers are accused of using an armed paramilitary to prevent their workers from setting up trade unions, resulting in leaders of said attempted trade unions being murdered. A lawsuit was filed in U.S. federal court in 2001. The Coca-Cola Company was dismissed from it in 2003. The lawsuit is continuing against the bottlers.[14])

Main article: Coca-Cola Company: Praises

Coca Cola's positive business contributions following some of these criticisms include:

  • Promoting Diversity: Awards including "50 Best Companies for Minorities" by Fortune Magazine in 2004 and ""50 Best Companies for Latinas to Work for in the U.S." by Latina Style in 2004. Coca-Cola offers domestic partner health benefits and its non-discrimination policy includes sexual orientation.
  • HIV / AIDS in Africa: Coca-Cola will spend up to $5 million per year to fund HIV/AIDS treatment for Africans who work within the company's bottling system which employs 58,000 people in Africa; Coca Cola Africa has a $50 million budget to support HIV/AIDS programmes.
  • Charitable Giving: The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners shipped more than 30 million donated 8-oz. servings to Hurricane Katrina Evacuees, donated $10 million to tsunami relief efforts in Asia and after the September 11 terrorist attacks committed to a $12 million financial contribution to disaster relief efforts.

International appeal

Coca-Cola is the best-selling soft drink in most countries. Nevertheless, there are some places like Scotland, where the locally produced Irn-Bru is more popular; Peru, where Inca Kola, the "national beverage" (independently produced until 1999, when Coca-Cola acquired Corporación Inca Kola del Perú S.A., the Peruvian company that formerly produced it) is more popular; and Quebec, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island in Canada, where Pepsi is the market leader. In Sweden, despite Coca-Cola's strong holiday-oriented marketing efforts, Julmust outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas season.

It is often repeated as an urban legend that the Coca-Cola company mistranslated its product's name into a string of characters meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" while attempting to market the product in Chinese. In reality, some local Chinese shopkeepers did create their own signs in an effort to approximate the sound of the product's name, resulting in kǒukē-kǒulà (口蝌口蜡), which might more literally be translated as "mouth tadpole, mouth wax". However, the Coca-Cola company itself never adopted such a translation. After reviewing all of the possible soundalikes, the company officially adopted kěkǒu-kělè (可口可乐), meaning roughly "tasty and fun".

As a political and corporate symbol

The Coca-Cola drink has a high degree of identification with the United States itself, being considered an "American brand" or to a small extent as representing America (compare Mickey Mouse). The drink is also often a metonym for the Coca-Cola Company. The identification with the spread of American culture has led to the pun "Coca-Colonisation".

Coke is less popular in other places, such as India, due to suspicions regarding the health standards of the drink, and in Arab countries, due to disapproval of U.S. foreign policy in Israel and elsewhere. Mecca Cola has become a hit in the Middle East in the past few years.

Colombian trade Union SINALTRAINAL called for an international boycott of Coca-Cola products because of intimidation, kidnapping and murder of workers in Coca Cola bottling plants by paramilitaries who were allegedly acting on behalf of the Coca Cola Company in order to drive down wages in Colombia. With the help of the United Steelworkers of America, SINALTRAINAL filed a lawsuit against the Coca Cola Company in 2001. In April 2003 District Judge Jose E Martinez in Miami excluded The Coca-Cola Company and its Colombian unit because its bottling agreement did not give it "explicit control" over labour issues in Colombia. Panamco and Colombian bottler Bebidas y Alimentos now face a trial. [15]

As part of their 2005 "Experience The Experience" tour, art group monochrom created a 'Brick Of Coke': they put several gallons of Coca-Cola into a pot and boiled it down until the residue left behind could be molded into a brick. The performance and talk dealt with the sugar industry and other multinational corporation policies and Coca-Cola as a symbol of corporate power.

Notes

  1. ^ Pages 41–45: . ISBN 0465054684. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Pages 45–47: (Pendergrast, 2000)
  3. ^ Sun Trust.
  4. ^ Luis A. Gómez, "Peruvian Drug Control Agency: Coca Cola Buys Coca Leaves," Narco News Bulletin, January 28, 2005 (accessed June 10, 2005).
  5. ^ Barbara Mikkelson and David P. Mikkelson, "The Claus That Refreshes," snopes.com, February 27, 2001 (accessed June 10, 2005).
  6. ^ Mikkelson and Mikkelson, "Acid Slip," March 29, 2004 (accessed June 10, 2005); Mikkelson and Mikkelson, "Tooth in Advertising," February 27, 2001 (accessed June 10, 2005); Mikkelson and Mikkelson, "CO2 Fast, 2 Furious," April 2, 2004 (accessed June 10, 2005).
  7. ^ John Vidal, "Things grow better with Coke," Guardian Unlimited, November 2, 2004 (accessed June 10, 2005).
  8. ^ Michael F. Jacobson, "Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming Americans' Health," Center for Science in the Public Interest (accessed June 10, 2005).
  9. ^ Ibid; Russell Robertson, "Soda, Calcium, and Osteoporosis," Healthlink—Medical College of Wisconsin (accessed June 10, 2005).
  10. ^ "Cola Soft Drinks may Contribite to Lower Bone Mineral Density in Women," American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, September 19, 2003 (accessed June 10, 2005).
  11. ^ "Label Caffeine Content of Foods, Scientists Tell FDA," Center for Science in the Public Interest, July 31, 1997 (accessed June 10, 2005).
  12. ^ Coca-Cola Myths and Rumors The Coca-Cola Company (accessed June 10, 2005); "Caffeine and Dehydration: Myth or Fact?," Food Insight, July–August 2002 (accessed June 10, 2005).
  13. ^ Mark Thomas Comady Featuring Coke Online Video about Coke and violations of good practice. (accessed June 10, 2005);

See also

Types of Coke

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