The Ledger
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Studies reveal Coca-Cola is the world's number one ocean plastic polluter
“I was looking up studies recently, and the Coca-Cola company is the number one polluter globally of Crap in the ocean. Pepsi's very close behind all the big drink companies.”
Warren Buffett's legendary Coca-Cola investment has actually underperformed the S&P 500
“He would have been better off buying the S&P Over that same time period. Including dividends over that same time period. The S and P 500 is up about 11% annually. So the famous Berkshire Hathaway Coca-Cola investment today is actually underperforming the marke…”
Rosenthal: Coca-Cola's Robert Woodruff backed segregationist politicians in the 1940s
“In fact, Robert Woodruff was openly supporting segregationist politicians during this time.”
Late 1950s McCann taste tests showed consumers preferred Pepsi over Coke
“Consumers, when presented with the two drinks, Coke and Pepsi, in a blind taste test, a statistically significant number of people prefer Pepsi. The taste of Pepsi.”
Coca-Cola approved all 35 commercials CAA presented in their agency shootout
“We got awarded the account And of the 35 commercials we presented, they approved every single one.”
The Coca-Cola formula was first written down in 1919 as loan collateral
“This is actually the first time the secret formula for Coca-Cola gets written down. It had been sort of this cool secret before, but as collateral for the loan that Woodruff took out to complete this transaction, they wrote down the formula and placed it in a …”
Pepsi tried to sell itself to Coca-Cola on three separate occasions
“Pepsi tried to sell itself to Coca-Cola, like sell its operations to Coca-Cola three separate times over the years.”
Early Coca-Cola contained roughly one line of cocaine per five glasses
“As best as I was able to read from a few different sources, I think roughly once Coca-Cola starts being produced in that first decade, call it four or five glasses of Coca-Cola would be about the equivalent of a line of cocaine today.”
Rosenthal: Pepsi surpassed Coca-Cola in US bottled market share in 1977
“In 1977, Pepsi outspends Coke in advertising for the first time in history. And Pepsi actually passes Coke in market share in the bottled market.”
Coca-Cola's board rejected a $16B Quaker Oats acquisition after the CEO announced it
“In 2000, the CEO of Coke announces publicly a sixteen billion dollar deal to acquire Quaker Oats and Gatorade... So he announced it without board approval. The board rejected it after the public announcement. The deal falls through and the next year Pepsi ends…”
Coca-Cola passed on buying Monster at an $11 billion valuation in 2012
“So in 2012, Monster reached out to potential buyers, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but Coke decided against pursuing it because the price was high. Monster's market cap was eleven billion dollars at the time.”
Rosenthal: Bill Gates revealed Buffett said Coke could be run by a ham sandwich
“Later on at Sun Valley, Bill Gates lets it slip on a panel with Warren and Roberto and Don Keogh that Warren has always told Bill that Coca-Cola could be run by a ham sandwich.”
Asa Candler acquired total ownership of Coca-Cola for just $2,300 in 1891
“In that next year, 1891, when Asa Candler buys the last piece to fully own Coca-Cola, he got an incredible deal. Even with all that growth having already happened, he only paid 2300 dollars to buy it all.”
A Coca-Cola facility in Peru once sold 42 pounds of byproduct cocaine
“Around 1930, when they were really freaked out about whether or not they'd have the ability to import the coca leaves to the United States to do the refining here, they actually leased a secret cocaine refining facility in Peru. They spun the factory up. It wa…”
Early gas station owners made more profit selling Coca-Cola than selling gasoline
“There's so much margin to go around being the retailer. Of soft drinks, especially at this time, that they were making more money on coke than gas.”
Coca-Cola's supplier is the sole commercial entity legally permitted to import coca leaves
“In 19 oh three, They contract with a company called the Schaefer Alkaloid Works of Maywood, New Jersey, that has developed a process to decocanize coca leaves. And this company, which still exists to today and is still the sole supplier of decocanized coca lea…”
Gilbert: Tab was the top-selling US diet soda until Diet Coke
“Tab quickly becomes the best-selling diet soda in America, I think in the world, and stays that way all the way up until they release Diet Coke, which we'll talk about in a little bit.”
Partner Frank Robinson both named Coca-Cola and designed its script logo
“Frank Robinson, the business partner who also named the drink. He also introduces the script logo. Like he writes out the Coca-Cola script logo that we still use to this day.”
Coca-Cola created the first manufacturer's coupon ever redeemable at retail
“And this is the very first manufacturer's coupon redeemable at a retailer.”
Rosenthal: Ovitz Pitched Coke 40 Ads for the Cost of McCann's Seven
“So he pitches Coke that CAA can make 40 ads a year for them. For the same cost that McCann Erickson is making seven and they can all stay unified under the new Coke slogan of always Coca-Cola.”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola is the longest running Olympic sponsor, starting in 1928
“Coca-Cola was a sponsor of the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, which makes them the longest running Olympic sponsor.”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola serves 2.2 billion beverage servings globally every day
“Coca-Cola serves 2.2 billion servings of their beverages to the world every day.”
Gilbert: Only 79 days passed between New Coke launch and Classic's return
“There was 79 days between when they released new Coke and when Coca-Cola classic made its return.”
Rosenthal: CAA Won Coke's Ad Business and Created the Polar Bears Campaign
“CAA wins the business. Dethrones McCann Erickson. And among the many ads that they create for Coke is a new Christmas Coca-Cola motif, not featuring Santa Claus, but instead the polar bears.”
Rosenthal: Don Keough converted Warren Buffett to Coke using Cherry Coke
“Keo converts him to Coke by telling him about this new product that they're going to launch, Cherry Coke, because Buffett loved cherry syrup in his Pepsi, and so he converts Warren to a Coke guy before Warren ever invests a dollar in the Coca-Cola company.”
Rosenthal: D'Arcy agency established strict brand commandments for Coca-Cola
“And so he and the Darcy agency come up with a list of commandments for the Coca-Cola account. Some of them are never split the trademark Coca-Cola on two lines. Coca-Cola must always be together on one line. The circular sign should always carry the phrase del…”
The famous Coca-Cola contour bottle was mistakenly modeled after a cocoa pod
“Something got lost in translation, and the bottle was designed to look like the cocoa plant. The cocoa pod that you smash open to get out cocoa beans. This is a whole different thing called the coca plant, not the cocoa plant. C O C A versus C O C O A.”
Coca-Cola captures $47B of its $175B system revenue with 10% of employees
“Revenue, forty seven billion dollars at Coca-Cola company out of one hundred and seventy five billion dollars in total revenue by the system. And this is as reported by Coca-Cola in their proxy statement. There are 70,000 employees of Coca-Cola. But again, if …”
Gilbert: Coca-Cola's $2B+ stake in Monster grew to nearly $12B
“Coke puts in over two billion dollars. At least they're getting on the train. So Coke is the largest shareholder now in Monster Energy. And you know, that deal looks pretty good. That two-ish billion that they put in is worth almost twelve billion dollars toda…”
Gilbert: 1980 federal antitrust amendment allowed soft drink bottler territorial monopolies
“In 1980, the government passed an amendment to federal antitrust law that exempted the soft drink industry. So Coke and Pepsi could actually grant exclusive territories to their bottlers”
A 1920 Supreme Court ruling legally defined Coca-Cola as a single-source brand
“And the Supreme Court says we are ruling in favor of Coca-Cola. It is a phrase that has transcended being a descriptive name, and it is now just a brand. And the official ruling, which is the stuff of legend, contains this phrase. Coca-Cola means a single thin…”
Coca-Cola sued and successfully shut down over 7,000 copycat brands by 1925
“So over the next, like, 1520 years, by the mid-twenties, it's estimated that Coca-Cola sues and shuts down over 7000 Copycat cola brands in a very, very busy legal department.”
Coca-Cola kept patent protection on its bottle design from 1915 to 1951
“They would then, this is some classic Coca-Cola lawyering, get additional patents for iterations on the design that effectively renewed the patent all the way from 1915 until the final one expired in 1951.”
The Coca-Cola Company had only 20 employees in 1900
“And at this point in history in 1900, the Coca-Cola company is still just 20 employees.”
Coca-Cola notably ships its syrup to McDonald's in stainless steel tanks
“The thing that is definitely true is Coca-Cola ships the formula to McDonald's in stainless steel tanks instead of being delivered in bags.”
Coca-Cola secured trademark protection for its bottle shape in 1951
“The company then went to the patent office and made the case that the bottle shape was so distinctive and so well known in 1951 that it should be granted trademark status Which they got. It is highly unusual for packaging to be granted a trademark.”
Coca-Cola greenlit a record $100,000 budget for 1971 'Hilltop' ad
“They got the budget greenlit from the head of advertising at Coca-Cola to do the most expensive ad of all time, a 100,000 dollar budget.”
Gilbert: 69% of Coca-Cola's revenue comes from sparkling soft drinks
“69% of revenue comes from sparkling soft drinks. So as much as they are in water and milk and tea and juice and sports drinks, the bulk of this business is selling soda.”
The original Coca-Cola formula contained four times today's caffeine content
“In the original Coca-Cola, for the first, I don't know, couple decades, it actually had four times the amount of caffeine that Coke does today, so it's effectively an energy drink, even leaving the cocaine aside.”
Gilbert: Over 5B Coke bottles were distributed via 64 WWII portable plants
“1941 to 19 45, 64 portable bottling plants were sent to Asia, Europe, and North Africa, and the best estimates are that more than five billion bottles were distributed to troops during the war.”
Coca-Cola's New Coke taste tests never asked consumers about replacing the original
“So it turns out that in all the research that they conducted for New Coke, all 200,000 people that they did the taste test with They never asked them how they would feel if this new beverage replaced the old Coca-Cola.”
Rosenthal: Coke hired Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth for lifestyle ads
“Lee goes out and he contracts with all these famous American artists and illustrators of the day to create these like American lifestyle tableaus for the visual aspects of the Coke ads... They actually go get Norman Rockwell. Along with N.C. Wyatt and Haddon S…”
Rosenthal: Diet Coke cost significantly less to produce than regular Coke
“And Diet Coke costs significantly less for Coke to produce because it doesn't have sugar.”
Rosenthal: Diet Coke became America's #3 soft drink by 1984
“By the end of 1983, the first full year on the market, Diet Coke is the number one diet drink in America. And unlike Tab, which clearly from That commercial that you talked about earlier was exclusively marketed to women. 30% of Diet Coke drinkers, even in the…”
Early soda fountains generated $6.40 in revenue per $1.30 gallon of syrup
“Coke, when they were selling gallons of syrup to the soda fountains, they sold them for about a dollar and 30 cents per gallon. The soda fountains then sold drinks to customers at five cents a drink. They're 120 drinks per gallon. They're making six dollars an…”
Rosenthal: Coca-Cola was Monsanto's first customer, buying its entire saccharin supply
“So Monsanto started as a saccharin manufacturer and Coca-Cola was their first major customer and bought their entire saccharin supply.”