12 Fascinating Facts About The Coca-Cola Company

There are very few people and places that are unfamiliar with a bottle of Coke. Since the soda first debuted in 1886, Coca-Cola has become one of the most iconic brands in the world. Its namesake soda is the top soft drink in the U.S. and globally to this day, and the company's stock continues to rise over the years. Coke — which is the absolute best when paired with bourbon — has been around for more than a century, and even those who do not like soda have probably had a Coca-Cola product or campaign affect their lives.

The brand's enduring popularity gives it a sense of stability. But over its lifetime, Coca-Cola has had to make a lot of decisions, some smart and some not quite so brilliant. They've always been industry innovators, but it wasn't always intentional. From the age-old cola rivalry to politics and moviemaking, the Coca-Cola company has always dealt with a lot more than just a good soft drink.

There's a good chance that, at some point, you've heard the rumor that cocaine was an ingredient in early iterations of Coke. This isn't technically true; the recipe heavily featured the coca leaf, which cocaine is extracted from. The name Coca-Cola derives from the main ingredients of the original recipe: coca leaves and kola nut. Because of the kola nut's caffeine content and the coca leaf's many medicinal properties, Coke inventor John unPemberton saw an excellent opportunity.

At that time in the late 1800s, soda water was already thought to have health benefits. Because of this, pharmacies frequently had soda fountains and sold glasses of the stuff for a few cents. A pharmacist himself, Pemberton formulated the soft drink intending to treat his morphine addiction. But he didn't envision Coke's medicinal properties ending there; he advertised his new soft drink as a potential treatment for all kinds of ailments, from stomach issues and headaches to impotence.

The formula that makes up Coke's flavor is a closely guarded secret. Soon after founding the Coca-Cola Company, Asa Candler — who purchased the rights to the soda in 1892 — initiated a shroud of a mystery surrounding the recipe. There was more than one advantage to this; On the one hand, keeping the formula out of the hands of competitors who may want to share the company's success made sense. But it was also a great marketing tactic; The mysterious, unattainable recipe contributed to the power of the brand, even early on.

The recipe's secrecy has been maintained to this day, and the company has taken quite drastic measures. Since 1919, the only written recipe for Coca-Cola has been stored in a bank vault. There has been a longtime rumor that only two employees at a time know the formula, and the two are never allowed to travel together, but the company has never confirmed nor denied this. Would these precautions be necessary? Probably not, but having the dramatics of a spy novel is great for business.

With all the secrecy surrounding the recipe for Coca-Cola, it's not surprising that there would be a few people out there who would take that as a challenge. In 2006, Joya Williams worked at Coca-Cola as an administrative assistant. Eventually, she became dissatisfied with her treatment at the company and made a plan to sell their secrets; not just the original recipe, but all kinds of classified material, including samples of yet-to-be-released products.

After Williams and a couple of accomplices she acquired contacted a Pepsi executive, they were offered $1.5 million for the classified information. There was just one problem: it turns out that the executive wasn't an executive at all. He was an FBI agent. After Williams and her crew reached out to Pepsi the first time, the company let Coca-Cola in on the plot. Coca-Cola got the FBI involved in the investigation, and Williams spent eight years in jail on charges of fraud and stealing trade secrets.

Since Coca-Cola is one of the oldest brands in America, it's deeply embedded in the history of modern advertising. It's remarkable, how many of the company's marketing efforts became cultural touchstones over the years, like their "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" jingle and their polar bear mascots. Perhaps most impressive of all, Coke changed Christmas. When Coca-Cola first ran print ads of Santa Claus in the 1920s, there was no standard depiction of St. Nick. He was drawn with all kinds of body types and in a variety of different colored suits.

But in 1931, Coca-Cola hired illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop a new version of Santa Claus, and he based his depiction on "Twas the Night Before Christmas." That meant that Coke ads now featured a big and jolly, rosy-cheeked, red-coated Santa Claus. In the following decades, Santa Claus was featured heavily in Christmastime advertising for Coke; in commercials, print ads, toys, billboards, and more. Sundblom's vision of Santa Claus became the enduring image of the Christmas legend. Without Coke, St. Nick might have looked quite different in culture today.

In many ways, the history of Coca-Cola is an account of the constantly evolving world of modern industry. When the Coca-Cola Company bought Columbia Pictures in 1982, it was an unprecedented move. Major companies didn't just buy other major companies in an entirely separate industry. However, by purchasing Columbia for $750 million, a soda company had inserted itself into the movie business.

The sale was shocking at the time, but ended up being a highly successful gambit. Coca-Cola was able to place its products in Columbia's blockbuster films, like "The Karate Kid" and "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial." They also made certain that Coke was always available at movie theaters. Coca-Cola sold Columbia Pictures to Sony in 1989, but the Columbia acquisition added significantly to Coke's substantial cultural presence. Their soda had been featured in blockbuster movies for almost a decade. The Coca-Cola Company also made a tidy profit since the Sony deal went through at $3.4 billion.

If your love of Coca-Cola goes beyond preference at the soda fountain, Atlanta may be the city for you. Not only is it the place where the company was founded, but the Georgia capital is also home to a building complex all about the popular soda. It's called the World of Coca-Cola, and it's one of the most popular attractions in Atlanta.

This soda museum is full of interactive exhibits that highlight big moments in the history of Coke. You can take a picture with the classic Coca-Cola polar bear or shop in the gift store. There are even tasting rooms where you can try rare, limited-time flavors of Coca-Cola beverages. Oh, and remember that super-secret formula locked away in a high-security vault? The Word of Coca-Cola has been the home of that vault since 2015. You can take a peek inside, but you have to do it from a distance, so you probably aren't getting out of there with any confidential information.

The Coca-Cola Company's power and prestige have been influential far beyond the food and beverage world. In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. His hometown — and Coca-Cola's — was Atlanta. The city was planning a dinner to celebrate King's win, but there was a problem: the conservative elites of Atlanta weren't interested in attending an integrated dinner. With very few RSVPs coming back, the mayor of Atlanta reached out to Robert Woodruff, a former president of Coca-Cola who remained influential in the city.

Woodruff understood that this could be a great embarrassment to Atlanta and, by association, the company. He then asked Coca-Cola CEO J. Paul Austin to intervene. Austin felt strongly that Atlanta must not tolerate the racist views of the elites. In a front-page article in The New York Times, Austin was quoted as saying that the Coca-Cola Company would not stay in a city that would not respect Dr. King. Suddenly, everyone was more than happy to attend King's dinner.

Since its inception, Coke had a meteoric rise in the soft drink industry. But, of course, with success comes competition. In the beginning, Coca-Cola sent their syrup concentrate to various bottlers, who would use the industry standard, cylindrical bottles. Branded labels were the primary signifier for consumers that they were drinking a genuine Coke. However, competing soft drink brands easily and frequently replicated the labels. Plus, the label itself would fall apart when stored in ice water, rendering them essentially useless.

In 1914, the company contacted all the bottlers and asked them to invest in a new glass bottle design that would completely distinguish Coke from other sodas. The curvy bottle shape that resulted from that investment has been very successful, and that's an understatement; the bottle itself is trademarked. The Coca-Cola bottle is so iconic that almost everyone recognizes it — whether or not they drink the stuff.

While Coke always faced fierce competition from other soda manufacturers, its rivalry with Pepsi reached a fever pitch in the 1980s. That's when Pepsi launched a wildly successful "Pepsi Challenge" campaign, which featured blind taste testers choosing Pepsi over Coke. Coca-Cola executives were convinced that the taste of Coke, which had not changed for nearly a century, was the problem at hand. So, the classic Coke recipe was changed in 1985, and consumers were faced with what many called "New Coke."

The change was meant to shake things up, but it was far from the positive change that Coca-Cola executives imagined. Long story short, it was a disaster. Coca-Cola stock plummeted, and customers revolted by the thousands. The backlash was so significant that, not even three months later, Coca-Cola returned to the original formula. Luckily, the dramatic change didn't end in total disaster; Consumers' desire for the original Coke made their product more appreciated than ever. Nevertheless, as successful as Coca-Cola is, the "New Coke" era showed that even they can make significant business blunders.

The top-secret Coke recipe and its attempted theft may make for a more sensational headline. But while it's probably the most well-known of Coke's potential heist stories, the drink recipe itself isn't the only closely held secret of Coca-Cola. The chemical makeup of the can liner is an equally important trade secret. Without that thin coating, the soda would eat through its aluminum container. This means that the can liner is not just essential, but valuable as well.

Several chemical and science companies owned the formulas for the lining, not just Coca-Cola itself. In 2017, when Coke employee Shannon You learned she was being laid off from her position as a chemical engineer at Coca-Cola, she saw an opportunity to come out on top. You was able to retrieve key information about the can lining from these companies before leaving Coca-Cola. She then passed the formulas off as her own in order to win research grants and court Chinese investors. Eventually, however, her actions caught up with her. While working at another chemical company, You was asked by the FBI to turn over a hard drive containing all the top-secret info she had taken from Coca-Cola. She was later sentenced in federal court to 14 years in prison, with charges including wire fraud and stealing trade secrets.

The Cola Wars were already in full swing by the 1980s, but in 1984, the conflict went interstellar. The Coca-Cola Company researchers began developing a soda can design to allow carbonated beverages to be drunk in outer space. Ostensibly, the goal was to create a can that could both contain and keep soda fizzy in zero gravity. Of course, it was about more than that; being the first soda consumed in space was priceless marketing. So when NASA agreed to take some Cokes along for a mission aboard the Challenger Space Shuttle, Pepsi wasted no time creating their own new can for space and getting NASA approval of their own for the cosmic journey.

While both Coke and Pepsi were on the STS-51-F Challenger flight, the can of Coke was tested first, so Coke won the precious accolade the company had sought: It was the first soft drink consumed in space. Neither soda, however, made for a particularly pleasant experience; the weightlessness of space means that the carbon dioxide that makes soda bubbly gets trapped in the digestive system instead of being burped out like on Earth.

Though the Olympic Games have famously ancient origins, the first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896. It wasn't until the 1920s, however, that the Olympics gained international popularity. In 1928, Coca-Cola came on board as a sponsor. One thousand cases of Coke arrived in Amsterdam alongside the U.S. Olympic team. In 1932, the company distributed Coke to a crowd of over 100,000 spectators at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

The Coca-Cola Company has consistently partnered with the Olympics ever since. They've certainly sold quite a lot of soda, but their relationship with the Games goes far beyond concession stand offerings. Coke has become a pillar of the iconic international event with its portfolio of Olympic commercials, movies, mascots, and more. In 2019, Coca-Cola signed another sponsorship deal with the Olympics that will last through 2032, making Coke the Olympics' longest-standing sponsor.