The Cola Conquest DVD

This documentary was produced in 1998. The inspiration was the book ‘For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It’ by Mark Pendergrast.

            The film has several themes from the book it explores, from the beginnings of Coca-Cola when it was invented by a Civil War Veteran to The Cola War with Pepsi. It is a fast paced, serious and at times funny look at the soft drink we all know.

Shot in the US, Canada, Russia, England, France, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, The Sahara Desert and China, it has very good information with some wonderful photography. The film is divided into three parts: Part I: The Big Sell Part II: Cola War and Peace Part III: Coca-Colonization

            The film won a few awards back in 1999. It has been a hard to find DVD, but it pops up on the internet for sale every so often. (Beware of the $149.00 copy listed on the internet, you can find it much cheaper on Amazon and ebay for around $15.00.) The DVD is about 150 minutes long.  I don’t know how many copies are currently available, so I would order sooner instead of later.

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Coca-Cola program on CNBC

Have you had a chance to see the ‘Coca-Cola: The Real Story Behind The Real Thing’ on CNBC? It is a wonderful program showing how Coca-Cola grew from a soda fountain drink in one pharmacy in Atlanta to where it is today, almost everywhere. It shows the archives ‘basement’ with some rare Coca-Cola advertising items.  Countless interviews and interesting information from around the world. If you get a chance, try to catch it.  If you have seen it and would like a copy, you can order it from CNBC on DVD. The DVD also contains 20 minutes of extra footage.

Here is the link to order: 

http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/detail.php?p=145741&v=cnbc_original-productions

A GREAT Website to Help Identify Bottles

A wonderful online resource for identifying any type of bottle can be found on the SHA website (Society for Historical Archaeology). The link to the Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website is  http://www.sha.org/bottle/

The author of the website created it when he worked for The Bureau of Land Management (A part of the U.S. Department of the Interior)

The site is set up for easy use. The Main Subject Pages will allow you to go directly to the information you are looking for. Such as Dating a bottle, Type of bottle, Glassmaking techniques, Colors, Finishes and Closures, Body Seams, Bases, Fragment IDing of bottles, Glossary and an excellent Reference area that will get you to a great deal if information available in book form, internet sites and Periodical and Journal Articles.

I recently came across this website and have found it to be user friendly and full of wonderful and helpful information.

Check it out!

A Book Worth Tracking Down on Coca-Cola

Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World

 By Frederick L Allen

 Hardcover in 1994, Paperback in 1995

Frederick Allen worked for CNN as a reporter

 The book covers Coca-Cola history from the beginning with Doc Pemberton stirring his concoction in 1886 in a large kettle to the New Coke concoction of 1985.

             The book describes what it took to get Coca-Cola from being brewed in a kettle to a multibillion dollar business known around the world. It shows the corporate brilliance in marketing that put Coca-Cola in the center of American culture and the Worlds consciousness.

           It looks at the political side as well as the historical side of The Coca-Cola Company.    It also discusses that other cola company Pepsi, and covers the issues that Pepsi and Coke have had over the years.

               It covers the Marketing of the soft drink very well and has many interesting facts from some of the campaigns. The book flows as a story and not as a bunch of facts put together.

The book is a thorough and comprehensive history of Coca-Cola from its inception to the modern era (well, up to 1985 anyway).

                  The book is fairly easy to find. I see it often at used book stores and thrift stores. Widely available on line also.