Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1888, Pemberton sold Coca-Cola's ownership rights to Asa Griggs Candler, a businessman, whose marketing tactics led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the global soft-drink market throughout the 20th and 21st century. The drink's name refers to two of its original ingredients: coca leaves and kola nuts. The current formula of Coca-Cola remains a closely guarded trade secret; however, a variety of reported recipes and experimental recreations have been published. The secrecy around the formula has been used by Coca-Cola in its marketing as only a handful of anonymous employees know the formula. The drink has inspired imitators and created a whole classification of soft drink: colas.
The Coca-Cola Company's formula for Coca-Cola syrup, which bottlers combine with carbonated water to create the company's flagship cola soft drink, is a closely guarded trade secret. Company founder Asa Candler initiated the veil of secrecy that surrounds the formula in 1891 as a publicity, marketing, and intellectual property protection strategy. While several recipes, each purporting to be the authentic formula, have been published, the company maintains that the actual formula remains a secret, known only to a very few select employees.
New Coke was a new formula for the soft drink Coca-Cola, introduced by the Coca-Cola Company in 1985. It was renamed Coke II in 1990 and discontinued in July 2002.
Cocacolonization refers to the globalization of American culture pushed through popular American products such as soft drink brand Coca-Cola. It is a portmanteau of the name of the multinational soft drink maker and "colonization".
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. The company's stock is listed on the NYSE and is part of the DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes.
Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (CCA) was an Australian bottler of non-alcoholic beverages that existed from 1904 to 2021, when it merged with Coca-Cola European Partners to form Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. It was one of the largest bottlers of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the world's five major Coca-Cola bottlers. CCA operated in six countries—Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa. The company also bottled beer and coffee.
John Thomas Lupton (1862–1933) was an American lawyer, industrialist and philanthropist who along with Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, obtained exclusive rights from Asa Candler to bottle and sell Coca-Cola.
The Hunter Museum of American Art is an art museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The museum's collections include works representing the Hudson River School, 19th century genre painting, American Impressionism, the Ashcan School, early modernism, regionalism, and post-World War II modern and contemporary art.
Sinaltrainal v. Coca-Cola, 578 F.3d 1252, was a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of a case filed by Colombian trade union Sinaltrainal against Coca-Cola in a Miami district court, demanding monetary compensation of $500 million under the Alien Tort Claims Act for the deaths of three workers in Colombia.
Since its invention by John Stith Pemberton in 1886, criticisms of Coca-Cola as a product, and of the business practices of The Coca-Cola Company have been significant. The Coca-Cola Company is the largest soft drink company in the world, distributing over 500 different products. Since the early 2000s, the criticism of the use of Coca-Cola products, as well as the company itself, escalated, with criticism leveled at the company over health effects, environmental issues, animal testing, economic business practices and employee issues. The Coca-Cola Company has been faced with multiple lawsuits concerning the various criticisms.
Edward Neville Isdell is an Irish businessman, former chair and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company.
Letitia "Lettie" Pate Whitehead Evans was an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She was the first woman to be on Coca-Cola's board of directors.
Benjamin Franklin Thomas (1860–1914) was a Chattanooga, Tennessee, businessman and industrialist who pioneered the development of the Coca-Cola bottling industry and founded the Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
George Thomas Hunter (1886–1950) was a businessman and philanthropist in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who inherited and ran the Coca-Cola Bottling Company empire from his uncle Benjamin Thomas. Hunter grew up in Maysville, KY, but moved to Chattanooga in 1904 to live with his aunt and uncle. Hunter's most notable philanthropic efforts is the creation of The Benwood Foundation and The Hunter Museum of American Art. Hunter Hall at UT Chattanooga was posthumously named in his honor.
George Benjamin Hunter may refer to:
The Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company Plant, also known as Baptist Student Center, or Baptist Collegiate Ministry, Georgia State University, is a historic building at 125 Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. Built in 1891, it was the headquarters and bottling plant of the Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company, and the place where the transition from Coca-Cola as a drink served at a soda fountain to a mass-marketed bottled soft drink took place. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1983, and is one of the only buildings in Atlanta dating to Coca-Cola's early history. Since 1966 the building has been the Baptist Student Ministry location for Georgia State University.
Joseph Brown Whitehead (1864–1906) was a lawyer, who, along with Benjamin Thomas and John Thomas Lupton, obtained exclusive rights from Asa Candler to bottle and sell Coca-Cola.
Summerfield Johnston III, a.k.a. Skeeter Johnston, (1954-2007) was an American businessman and polo player.
Between 1886 and 1959, the price of a 6.5 US fl oz (190 mL) glass or bottle of Coca-Cola was set at five cents, or one nickel, and remained fixed with very little local fluctuation. The Coca-Cola Company was able to maintain this price for several reasons, including bottling contracts the company signed in 1899, advertising, vending machine technology, and a relatively low rate of inflation. The fact that the price of the drink was able to remain the same for over seventy years is especially significant considering the events that occurred during that period, including the founding of Pepsi, World War I, Prohibition, The Great Depression, changing taxes, a caffeine and caramel shortage, World War II, and the company's desire to raise its prices.
James Francis Johnston was an American businessman and the founder of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, the first Coca-Cola franchisee. Johnston was raised in Bradley, Tennessee. He was the son of Sarah Amelia Tucker and James Miller Johnston. By the late 1880s, Johnston was engaged in business at Pocatello, Bingham, Idaho, with his brother-in-law James H. Bible, and his future brother-in-law John Guthrie Brown. The company was Bible, Brown, and Johnston and advertised as "Indian Traders." Johnston returned to Tennessee and married Margaret Key on 9 January 1896. In 1901, Johnston, along with Benjamin Thomas, began operations of the first Coca-Cola Bottling franchise in Chattanooga, Tennessee, serving parts of Tennessee and other nearby locations. Johnston died on 26 February 1930 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
