The year on the two old Life magazines was the first thing that caught my eye. They were published in the two months before I was born, and were among about a half-dozen mags from 1939 to 1951.
On the front of one was a photo of New York City police commissioner Tom Murphy. The other showed a photo of rising film star Janice Rule (whose face I thought I recognized from old movies but not the name).
As I always do when I come across old magazines, I checked the index and started flipping through the pages. The mags were printed at a time when they had heft, lots of color and huge ads for everything from Buicks to sausage in a can to men’s Schlitz to women’s girdles.
The advertising that stopped me was the company whose product seemed to always be on the back of magazines, where it could be easily seen and absorbed: Coca-Cola.
The back of the January 8, 1951, edition was an ad celebrating the 65th anniversary of Coke (the first drink was served out of Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886). Side by side images showed Coke dispensed from very different fountains in 1886 and 1951.
The February 5, 1951, edition showed a woman drinking a Coke from its trademark contour bottle that we all recognize. At the turn of the century, the company used smartly dressed women to sell the product in print ads and on trays (that are very collectible today). In fact, much Coke memorabilia (but not all) is very collectible.
In its early years, some Americans could get the product at soda fountains and then in carry-home paper containers, and then cans. Today, you can even get it frozen as a Slurpee at your local 7-Eleven.
Both ads were a good reminder of how the Coca-Cola company had ushered in a new frontier in advertising that made its product one of the most recognizable in the world. Through the years, it promoted itself through its women trays, a jolly Santa Claus, white polar bears and the trademark contour or hobbleskirt bottle (manufactured first in 1915).
At a gospel breakfast I attended recently, each place setting had a contour bottle of Coke as part of the meal. I even brought home a few bottles that had been left untouched on the tables. Coca-Cola is a company that understood early on the benefits of advertising, and giving away stuff for free to win customers: coupons for free drinks and souvenir items.
Soon after Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton concocted the syrup for his beverage, he plastered the product and its message on barns and buildings in Georgia, and on oilcloth and tin signs.
- The Coke hobbleskirt or contour bottle.
He took the new product with the scripted name (which had been drawn by his business partner and bookkeeper Frank Robinson) down to Jacob’s Pharmacy to sell. The syrup was mixed with carbonated water and dispensed to customers for 5 cents a glass. The first year, the pharmacy sold nine glasses a day. Pemberton marketed it initially as a “brain tonic” and a cure for “nervous affections,” such as headaches and melancholy.
Coke’s first newspaper ad was in the Atlanta Journal. Before he died in 1888, Pemberton sold the company to a man named Asa G. Candler, who marketed it even further. Today, Coca-Cola occupies a place as one of the best-known products in the world. And it is still based in Atlanta.
Here are some other nice old Coke ads.
