The Triumph Of Democracy
Coca-Cola booth at the 1952 Olympics. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Woodruff had an instinctive grasp of what made a successful marketing campaign. In 1928, the U.S. Olympic team arrived in Amsterdam with 40,000 bottles of Coca-Cola, its official sponsor.
The association of Coca-Cola products with the Olympics continues to this day, and probably played a role in the Olympic committee’s choice to host the 1996 Centenary Games in Atlanta, the site of Coca-Cola’s corporate headquarters.
Woodruff also forged links between Coca-Cola and the U.S. military. At the outbreak of World War II, he swore that American servicemen would be able to get a cold Coca-Cola everywhere the war took them. With very few exceptions, he was as good as his word.
Soldiers all over the European Theater had bottles of Coca-Cola waiting for them in rear areas almost before they had replacement socks and gloves, and the drink followed soldiers to Japan during the postwar occupation.
Naturally, with every soldier swigging Coca-Cola from the bottle practically every time a unit stopped for rest, people in the liberated countries came to associate the drink with the American soldiers, who were generally willing to share.
Overnight, Coca-Cola, along with Hershey’s chocolate and Spam, became an American hallmark. Eventually, the American forces withdrew from occupation duty, but the products they had introduced to a generation of foreigners remained behind.
Global Dominance
A Coca-Cola billboard in the remote High Atlas mountains of Morocco.
Today, Coca-Cola is sold virtually everywhere in the world. Researchers working at the South Pole can enjoy a frosty Coca-Cola in the sub-zero temperatures. Mountain climbers in the high Himalayas can stop for a Coca-Cola at their basecamp 20,000 feet above sea level – so high that breathable air itself is a rare commodity.
The drink was even carried into space – on the July 12, 1985, anniversary of the billionth bottle – aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger for very important research into whether water can be carbonated in microgravity (it can).
Every day, people all over the world drink 1.9 billion servings of Coca-Cola between them. It is, by some measures, the most widely distributed product in history. The brand’s humble, up-by-the-bootstraps origin story, its history of innovation in both marketing and technology, and its close association with American men in uniform have made Coca-Cola virtually synonymous with America’s image overseas.
This close association has mostly worked for the company, but sometimes it gets in the way. Just before World War II, for example, no less than leading Nazi Hermann Göring blocked the import of Coca-Cola syrup into Germany unless a huge bribe was paid. The company then created Fanta as a way to enter the German market.
Other countries, as they’ve passed through their own anti-American periods, have also vented their rage at Coca-Cola. As of now, however, the official word from Islamic authorities is that Coca-Cola is halal since the Quran doesn’t explicitly forbid drinking it.
That this question even came up, or that there really is a competing product called Mecca-Cola, shows what a double-edged sword Coca-Cola’s 130-year-old marketing strategy has been. Either way, the product has been linked with America in the world’s consciousness, for better or worse, and it’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
After learning about the history of Coca-Cola, see how bad the sugary drink is for your teeth by seeing what it does to a car’s bumper.
