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Have you had your daily Coke product yet?
2016-09-20
Coca-Cola is everywhere.
The iconic American brand is recognized instantly around the globe and sold in more than 200 countries.
On average, more than 10,000 soft drinks from Coca-Cola are consumed every second of every day. You'll be familiar with brands like Diet Coke, Sprite, and Fanta — but here are some facts about Coca-Cola you might not have heard before.
Kim Bhasin contributed to an original version of this report.
Coca-Cola was invented by Atlanta-based pharmacist John S. Pemberton in 1886. But the name was conjured up by his bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, who was also a dab hand with a pen. He created the unique flowing script that became the Coca-Cola logo that is still used today.
You may have heard this story before, and it's true: The very first Coca-Cola products contained cocaine — but only around 9 milligrams per glass. The drug was touted at the time as a substitute for alcohol and was said to cure opium addiction. But cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola in 1903.
Of the 57 billion servings of all kinds of beverages drank each day (other than water), just over 3% (1.9 billion) are drinks trademarked or licensed by Coca-Cola. It's the most widely distributed product on the planet.
Coke makes so many different beverages that if you drank one per day, it would take you more than nine years to try them all. Coca-Cola has a product portfolio of more than 3,500 beverages (and 500 brands), including sodas, energy drinks, and soy-based drinks.
If every drop of Coke ever produced were placed in 8-ounce bottles and laid end-to-end, the bottles would reach the moon and back more than 2,000 times. Put another way, that would be one round-trip a day for five years, seven months, and 14 days.
Mexicans are the biggest drinkers of Coke in the world. On average, Mexicans drink 745 Coke beverages a year. Americans drink 401 Coke products a year on average.
Coca-Cola believes it invented the concept of the coupon. The company distributed sample coupons in late 1886, and the company believes it was the reason the drink spread from the small population of Atlanta to every state in the US by 1990. Between 1886 and 1914, one in 10 Cokes was given away free.
Coca-Cola is also to thank for the image we have today of Santa Claus. Coke began its Christmas advertising in 1920s to drum up sales in the slow winter months. It used several images, but none proved popular until 1931 when illustrator Haddon Sundblom painted a plump, jolly Santa in a red coat. The image was based on the Clement Moore poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and his own Scandinavian heritage. Previous images of Santa Claus ranged from him being gaunt, to very big, and he wore all different colors including green and brown.
In 1985, Coca-Cola became the first soft drink to go to space. Astronauts tested the Coca-Cola Space Can aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. Here's the can.
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Lara O'Reilly is the anchor of the CMO Insider newsletter.She is a chief correspondent who has covered the digital advertising, marketing, and media industries since 2010. Her current beat includes big tech companies like Alphabet and Meta, adtech firms, agencies, publishers, the creator economy, and CMOs.Lara has previously worked as a reporter and executive producer at titles including The Wall Street Journal, Digiday, Yahoo Finance, and Marketing Week. She was previously Business Insider's senior global advertising editor from 2014 to 2017.Lara is a regular guest on TV and radio and has appeared on outlets such as the BBC, NPR, SiriusXM's Wharton Business Daily, and CTV Television Network. She also frequently speaks on stage at major events such as Web Summit, IFA, VivaTech, Advertising Week, and Cannes Lions.To get in touch with Lara O'Reilly, email loreilly@jkmperu.com or contact her on Signal at @loreilly.71
