User:Natl1/CokeSandbox

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 in more than 200 countries. 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; Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose 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.

The Coca-Cola Company has on occasion introduced other cola drinks under the Coke brand name. The most famous of these is Diet Coke, which has become a major diet cola but others exist, such as Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke. There are also some drinks marketed by the company but which remain unaffiliated with Coca-Cola the drink, such as Sprite.

Early years


Coca-Cola was invented in Columbus, Georgia, by John S. Pemberton, 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. Favorable to popular belief, Coca-Cola did actually contain cocaine at one point 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.

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 myriad 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 &mdash; sold by three separate businesses &mdash; were on the market. Asa Griggs Candler acquired a stake in Pemberton's company in 1887 and incorporated it as the Coca Cola Company 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.

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.

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 &mdash; 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 &mdash; 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. 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.

New Coke to the present
Image:Newcoke.jpg. Coca-Cola Classic was reinstated within a few months of New Coke's introduction into the market.]]

In 1985, Coca-Cola, amid much publicity, attempted to change the formula of the drink. Some authorities believe that New Coke, as the reformulated drink was called, 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 "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. The company renamed the product "Coke II" in 1992 (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.

Local competitors
Pepsi is often second to Coke in terms of sales, but outsells Coca-Cola in some localities. Around the world, some local brands do compete with Coke. In South and Central America, Big Cola is a fast growing competitor to Coca-Cola. On the French island of Corsica, Corsica Cola, made on the French island of Corsica by brewers of the local Pietra beer, is a growing compeditor to Coca-Cola. In Peru, Inca Kola outsells Coca-Cola. However, The Coca-Cola Corporation purchased the brand in 1999. In Sweden, Julmust outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas season. In Scotland, the locally-produced Irn-Bru was more popular than Coca-Cola until 2005, when Coca-Cola and Diet Coke began to outpace its sales. In India, Coca-Cola ranks third behind the leader, Pepsi-Cola, and local drink Thums Up. However, The Coca-Cola Company purchased Thums Up in 1993. Tropicola, a domestic drink, is served in Cuba instead of Coca-Cola, in which there exists a United States embargo. Mecca Cola, in the Middle East, is a competitor to Coca-Cola. In Turkey, Cola Turka is a major competitor to Coca-Cola. In Iran and also many countries of Middle East, Zam Zam Cola and Parsi Cola are major competitors to Coca-Cola. Finally, In Slovenia, the locally-produced Cockta is a major competitor to Coca-Cola, as is the inexpensive Mercator Cola, which is sold only in the country's biggest supermarket chain, Mercator.

Coca-Cola and Islam
Due to its symbolic association with the United States, Coca-Cola has been a target of anti-Americanism in the Middle East. One such instance in 2000 saw a claim that the Coca-Cola label contained hidden anti-Islamic phrases in Arabic. The Coca-Cola Company claimed sales dropped 10 to 15% in Egypt after the rumor began spreading in 2000. The controversy became so widespread that the Grand Mufti of Egypt—who has proudly admitted in related interviews that he himself indulges in at least one Coke daily—publicly addressed it, declaring that the logo "does not injure Islam or Muslims."

Mecca Cola was launched in France in 2002 and has since proliferated in Europe and the Middle East. Some purchasers may see buying Mecca Cola as a way to combat "America's imperialism … by providing a substitute for American goods and increasing the blockade of countries boycotting American goods."

Coca-Cola formula
The exact formula of Coca-Cola is a famous 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. 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.

Franchised production model
The actual production and distribution of Coca-Cola follows a franchising model. The Coca-Cola Company only produces a syrup concentrate, which it sells to various bottlers throughout the world who hold Coca-Cola franchises for one or more geographical areas. The bottlers produce the final drink by mixing the syrup with filtered water and sugar (or artificial sweeteners) and fill it into cans and bottles, which the bottlers then sell and distribute to retail stores, vending machines, restaurants and food service distributors. The bottlers are normally also responsible for all advertisement and other sales initiatives within their areas.

The Coca-Cola Company owns minority shares in some of its largest franchisees, like Coca-Cola Enterprises, Coca-Cola Amatil, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (CCHBC) and Coca-Cola FEMSA, but fully independent bottlers produce almost half of the volume sold in the world.

As the bottler adds sugar and sweeteners, the sweetness of the drink is said to differ in various parts of the world, in order to cater for local taste.

Bottle and logo design
The famous Coca-Cola logotype is said to have largely been created by John Pemberton's business partner, Frank Mason Robinson, in 1885. It was Robinson who came up with the name, and he also chose the logo’s distinctive cursive script. The typeface used, known as Spencerian script, was developed in the mid 19th century and was the dominant form of formal handwriting in the United States during that period.

The equally famous Coca-Cola bottle, called the "contour bottle" within the company, but known to some as the "hobble skirt" bottle, was created in 1915 by a Swedish former glassblower, Alexander Samuelson, who had emigrated to the U.S. in the 1880s and was employed as a manager at The Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana, one of Coca-Cola's bottle suppliers. According to the Coca-Cola Company, Samuelson took time to ponder a possible new design for the bottle after production at his plant was shut down due to a heat wave. Inspired, he considered the possibility of basing a new design on the kola nut or coca leaf, two of the drink's flagship ingredients. He sent an employee to research the shape of the two objects in question, but a misunderstanding led to the man returning with sketches of the cacao pod—a crucial ingredient in chocolate, but not Coca-Cola. According to the company, it was this mistaken design that was accepted and put into production.

Although endorsed by the company, this version of events is not considered authoritative by many who cite its implausibility as difficult to believe. One alternative depiction has Raymond Loewy as the inventor of the unique design, but although Loewy did serve as a designer of Coke cans and bottles in later years, he was in the French Army in the year the bottle was invented and did not migrate to the United States until 1919. Others have attributed inspiration for the design not to the cacao pod, but to a Victorian hooped dress.

Coca-Cola's advertising
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. 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 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.

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 of Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola Company has been criticized for the allegedly adverse health effects of its flagship product. However, a common criticism of Coke based on its allegedly toxic acidity levels has been found to be baseless by most researchers; lawsuits based on these criticisms have been dismissed by several American courts for this reason.

Most nutritionists advise that Coca-Cola and other soft drinks can be harmful if consumed excessively, particularly to young children whose soft drink consumption competes with, rather than complements, a balanced diet. 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. The drink has also aroused criticism for its use of caffeine, an addictive substance.

Although numerous court cases have been filed against The Coca-Cola Company since the 1920s, alleging that the acidity of the drink is dangerous, no evidence corroborating this claim has been found. Under normal conditions, scientific evidence indicates Coca-Cola's acidity causes no immediate harm.

Like most other colas, Coca-Cola contains phosphoric acid. One study has shown that this hastens bone loss, contributing to illnesses such as osteoporosis.

There is also some concern regarding the usage of high fructose corn syrup in the production of Coca-Cola. Since 1985 in the U.S., Coke has been made with high fructose corn syrup, instead of sugar glucose or fructose, to reduce costs. This has come under criticism because of concerns that the corn used to produce corn syrup may come from genetically altered plants. Some nutritionists also caution against consumption of high fructose corn syrup because of possible links to obesity and diabetes.

In India, there exists a major controversy concerning pesticides and other harmful chemicals in bottled products including Coca-Cola. In 2003, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-governmental organization in New Delhi, said aerated waters produced by soft drinks manufacturers in India, including multinational giants PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, contained toxins including lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos &mdash; pesticides that can contribute to cancer and a breakdown of the immune system. Tested products included Coke, Pepsi, and several other soft drinks, many produced by The Coca-Cola Company. CSE found that the Indian produced Pepsi's soft drink products had 36 times the level of pesticide residues permitted under European Union regulations; Coca-Cola's soft drink was found to have 30 times the permitted amount. CSE said it had tested the same products sold in the US and found no such residues. After the pesticide allegations were made in 2003, Coca-Cola sales declined by 15%. In 2004, an Indian parliamentary committee backed up CSE's findings, and a government-appointed committee was tasked with developing the world's first pesticide standards for soft drinks. The Coca-Cola Company has responded that its plants filter water to remove potential contaminants and that its products are tested for pesticides and must meet minimum health standards before they are distributed. In the Indian state of Kerala, sale and production of Coca-Cola, along with other soft drinks, was initially banned, before the High Court in Kerala overturned the ban ruling that only the federal government can ban food products.

In 2006, the United States Food and Drug Administration responded to reports that the carcinogen benzene was present in unhealthy levels in certain soft drinks by conducting a survey of more than 100 soft drinks and other beverages. Based on this limited survey, the FDA stated that it "believes that the results indicate that benzene levels are not a safety concern for consumers."

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.

"Bite the wax tadpole" is a rough translation for one of the names previously used by Coca-Cola to translate the name of their product into Chinese. The original Chinese is kǒukē-kǒulà (口蝌口蜡), which does approximate the sound of "Coca-Cola" quite closely, and which might more literally be translated as "mouth tadpole, mouth wax". When it was discovered that this name had an unappetizing sound, Coca-Cola changed their translation to kěkǒu-kělè (可口可乐), meaning roughly "tasty and fun", after which the beverage became increasingly popular in China.

The drink 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.

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.

Types of Coke

 * New Coke
 * Diet Coke
 * Coca-Cola C2
 * Coca-Cola Zero
 * Cherry Coke
 * Diet Coke Cherry
 * Vanilla Coke
 * Diet Vanilla Coke
 * Coca-Cola with Lime
 * Diet Coke with Lime
 * Raspberry Coke
 * Diet Raspberry Coke