The history of Coca-Cola: when Coke was the new wine.

The history of Coca-Cola encompasses a world of far-reaching events, lifestyles, politics, and customs. Like it or not, it is the iconic product of an economic-political empire, the American one, freely inspired by the Ancient Rome.

In symbolic terms, someone says, Coca-Cola is to America as vinum is to Imperial Rome of the second century BC. Comparing the history of wine with Coca-Cola looks like a sacrilegious combination, or, at least, a risky parallelism. However the features in common are many, all of them leading to the same conclusion: food is an integral part of the culture.

The History of Coca-Cola.

1886, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. In the newspaper of the city of Rossella O’Hara, there is anadvertisement sponsoring a pharmacy preparation. That is the creation of Dr. John Syth Pemberton, a veteran of the Civil War. Having survived his injuries thanks to massive doses of morphine, from which he never detoxed, the Pemberton cultivates a dream. The dream is healing humanity from the plague of headaches. Therefore, as an expert and passionate about botany and of course, skilled in galenic preparation, he invents a drink destined to go through the centuries.
The preparation is baptized Coca-Cola thanks to the basic ingredient of the time: the fluid extract of coca and cola nuts.
This concoction of herbal extracts, aromas, alcohol, and spices therefore takes its place on the pharmacy counter at a cost of five cents a glass.

Delicious! Refreshning! Exhilarating! Invigorating!

Far from curing headaches, the tonic has a hard time finding many admirers at the beginning. At least until the advertising genius William D’Arcy started working on the image of the drink. A captivating Logo, several catchy slogans and the recognizable packaging. Just as the amphora had become the distinctive vessel for ancient Roman wine, the contour bottle will not be outdone.
In the empire of the Caesars, wine was both the drink of refined and cultured men and the link to divine. In America, Coca-Cola will become the drink of the people, a life partner, the identification of values, in one word: home.

A great marketing success.

It is enough to combine the image of the bottle to the lips of a beautiful girl or to a housewife who takes a break from domestic toils in a joyful, optimistic light to make the drink enter the habits and customs of a modern lifestyle.
Coca-Cola is a luxury that anyone can afford, a taste that wets the lips of every American. Man and woman, black and white, rich, and poor. Good for lunch or dinner, perfect at any time of the day.

 

Coca-Cola on display in the kitchen, alcohol hidden in the cellar.

When in 1919 the United States government passed the infamous Volstead Act – the US law that establishes the ban on almost all alcoholic beverages – Coca-Cola spread throughout America, replacing wine.
The period that went down in history as Prohibition, will end in 1933, the year in which the Volstead Act will be revoked. However, in those fourteen years of “sobriety” the illegal alcohol trade will grow dramatically. Favouring the rise of criminal clans and the birth of thousands of clandestine distilleries. The brown drink will now be on all tables in America, as the only legal option for no-water drinkers.

Santa Claus and Coca-Cola

December 1931, the States are going through one of the darkest economic crises, but the challenge will not stop D’Arcy’s creativity. From that specific Christmas campaign, will born a new myth. Those are the years following Wall Street stock market crash of 1929. America is shocked about the aberrant sequence of suicides and unemployed, and the need for normality is calling.  Coca-Cola answers: from the top of an advertising billboard, Santa Claus appears calm and smiling, with a comforting drink in his hand. Dressing for the very first time in red and white, mirroring the official logo colours. Yes, there is still hope! Even if prohibition is limiting freedom, whereas lines for bread are endless, America can still be everyone’s big home. In the same way that Coca-Cola is everyone’s drink, for adults and children, as well as for Santa.

What makes the drink so special?

The sweetness of course, the contingency, for sure. Marketing absolutely. Perhaps also the fascination caused by the famous secret ingredient of the drink recipe. Charm that will remain, so even when, in 1930, a competitor appears on the market: Pepsi-Cola.
Much like, but hugely cheaper than Coke, Pepsi will experience incredible public success. But the unscrupulous D’Arcy advertising agency has a new arrow in its bow: the war. During the Second World War, whit the American boys fighting away from home, morale must be kept high.
Coca-Cola will represent, for the soldiers at the front, the taste of home A little pleasure that recalls the same old habits. Soldier-President Woodruff will declare that every man in uniform would have received a bottle of Coca-Cola at a discounted price.
So, the production goes crazy. Soldiers will even risk their lives, but with a comforting bottle in the hand, as tasting memo to resistance. A bit like for Roman legionaries in ancient times, provided with a flask of wine – that was valuable for many other needs indeed.

The dark side of the bottle.

Therefore, for many, Coca-Cola embodies more than a drink, but a set of values, which go beyond the object itself. Values which are not shared from all. Naomi Klein’s 1999 bestseller No Logo, openly highlights the dark side of the Coca-Cola Company. The book which analyses branding strategies and the globalized economy, criticizes the black soul of corporations, the subtle dynamics through which fews manipulate our desires and consciences. Although it has not affected the success of the brand at all, the critics have favoured large re-branding operations. Leading many companies, including Coca-Cola, working on concepts of inclusion and sustainability, at least from a communicative point of view.

De gustibus non disputandum est – there is no accounting for taste, the Latins used to say.

And so we leave it to personal taste to choose what to drink at the table. We also leave everyone the freedom to follow the prescriptions of their trusted doctor. If yours is Pemberton, that’s fine. But according to the latest scientific research in the nutritional field, a glass of wine a day keeps the doctor away, a glass of Coca-Cola, no one knows.