This system has helped people for decades
An 1890s advertisement showing singer and actress Hilda Clark in formal 19th-century attire. The ad is titled 'Drink Coca-Cola.' Clark was the company's first celebrity to feature in its publicity campaigns. The original price for a glass, 5 cents, remained the same until 1959.
This early 20th-century ad featuring the 'Delicious and Refreshing' slogan first appeared in 1904. The poster goes on to read: 'A Star Drink. Morning, Evening, Night - at Home or Abroad. Traveling or resting - Working or Recreating. SOLD EVERYWHERE.'
Pictured is a coupon advertising Coca-Cola. A similarly designed coupon was distributed in 1888 to promote the drink, the card entitling the recipient to a free glass of the carbonated soft drink. By 1913, the company had redeemed 8.5 million tickets.
Perhaps inspired by American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, this early 1930s ad depicts a female pilot in flying cap alongside the slogan 'Your thirst takes wings.'
A US soldier is seen on this Second World War-era ad, published in 1944. He's being greeted in Normandy by a French gendarme and a poster publicizing America's favorite soft drink.
This 1930s sidewalk scene in Selma, Alabama, depicts African Americans outside a shop run by Roy L. King. The wall ads include signs for 'Ice Cold Coca-Cola.'
Novelty Coca-Cola advertising methods included this 1905 bookmark featuring American opera star Lillian Nordica, who also enjoyed a stage career in Europe.
A 1930s-era crossroads store and post office in Sprott, Alabama, with signs advertising Arcadian nitrate of soda, Coca-Cola, and Pan-Am motor oil, among other goods.
By the mid-1920s, Coca-Cola advertising campaigns were promoting how popular the drink had become. '7 million drinks a day,' reads this 1926 trade card.
This outstanding aerial view looking down on Times Square in New York City in the early 1930s features advertisements for Chevrolet, Wrigley's chewing gum, and Coca-Cola, presented with the slogan 'The Pause that Refreshes.'
In 1936, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Coca-Cola, the company's marketing department devised this advertisement featuring two women modeling period bathing apparel, one in beachwear dating from 1886, the other dressed in a 1936 swimsuit.
A Dake's drug store in the 1940s. Besides serving as a prescription drugs dispensary, the store also sells camera film and Coca-Cola, according to its shopfront advertising. You can also lunch at their fountain. Dake's Drug Store is a community pharmacy that has been independently owned and operated for over 80 years.
The drinks fountain served as a popular meeting place for get-togethers over a Coca-Cola. In this magazine advertisement from 1948, three young women 'Pause to Refresh...at Everybody's Club.'
Christmas lights twinkle on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles during the festive season. But none shine brighter than the neon-lit 'Have a Coke' Coca-Cola sign in this 1950 photograph.
Santa Clause made his debut in Coca-Cola ads in 1931. The Father Christmas figure was painted by Haddon Sundblom, who continued to paint a new Santa for Coke every year until 1964. In this 1953 advertising poster, a young boy surprises Santa Claus helping himself to a drink. The slogans read 'Refreshing Surprise' and 'Stock up for the Holidays.'
The 1950s saw the company emphasize the community spirit associated with Coca-Cola. In this 1954 advertisement, a family is seen enjoying a day out at the beach drinking what's described as "pure and wholesome, delicious and refreshing."
Early Coca-Cola advertising didn't miss a beat when it came to promoting the drink using celebrity names from the era. In this 1910 publicity card, professional baseball player Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie is pictured with spectators as they drink Coca-Cola—'THE GREAT NATIONAL DRINK AT THE GREAT NATIONAL GAME.'
'Everything is much better with Coca-Cola' declares this mid-1960s French advertisement featuring a young woman with a bob haircut eating a club sandwich while clutching a Coke.
Savvy marketing led the company to market its drink on anything new and innovative, at home and abroad. In this 1950 photograph, Coca-Cola is promoted on a cabin of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, an overhead suspended monorail train that made its debut in Germany in 1903. It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world, and is still in service.
Coca-Cola stole the show with its fabulous and futuristic-looking 'World of Refreshment' pavilion at the 1965 World's Fair in New York.
Sources: (The Coca-Cola Company)
See also: Surprising uses for Coca-Cola
A truck laden with cases of Coca-Cola is pictured with its driver in 1929 before making its rounds in New Orleans. The sign reads 'EVERY BOTTLE STERILZED.'
Coca-Cola advertising in the 1930s mimicked the Hollywood celebrity look by using portraits of beautiful backlit models smiling widely and clutching the familiar contoured and embossed Coca-Cola bottle.
Early 20th-century Coca-Cola advertising campaigns made a point of associating the drink with rest and relaxation, something to enjoy while on vacation.
In fact, the roofs and facades of many buildings across the United States in the 1940s and 1950s served as convenient platforms on which to create huge illuminated Coca-Cola signs, often around a theme. Here, the Baltimore and Ohio motor coach station features a giant thermometer under which the drink is advertised with the slogan 'THIRST KNOWS NO SEASON.'
Soldiers' leave during the Second World War provided opportunities for many companies to capitalize on the return home of combatants and the brief normalization of life. Coca-Cola was no different. This 1944 ad features a laughing soldier lying on a sofa holding a newborn in the air with his wife sitting next to him. A tray of Coca-Cola sits on the carpet. It's the festive season and the slogan reads 'Christmas together...Have a Coke...welcoming a fighting man home from the wars.'
This 1954 French advertisement for Coca-Cola promotes the 'pleasure of refreshing.' The artwork is typical of the era, and evokes the style of French new wave cinema.
London's Piccadilly Circus provided an ideal canvas on which to promote Coca-Cola in Great Britain in the 1960s. But competition was fierce, with Schweppes and Double Diamond beer also vying for the public's eye.
An early advert for Coca-Cola was the preppy-looking "man sitting on grass" image from 1910.
This rare Coca-Cola artwork features Boston Red Sox pro baseball player Ted Williams depicted on a cardboard window poster printed but never issued in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 1950s.
Coca-Cola is one of the most famous soft drinks in the world. Introduced in the United States in 1888, the Coca-Cola company immediately began promoting its product across America. Imaginative advertising involving colorful and highly detailed imagery and using catchy and memorable slogans quickly made Coca-Cola a household name. Soon afterwards, savvy marketing tactics led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the global soft-drink market throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. So, how was a drink originally intended as a patent medicine so cleverly promoted as "delicious and refreshing" and sold everywhere?
Click through and quench your thirst with these vintage Coca-Cola advertising posters.
Decoding the irresistible appeal of vintage Coca-Cola advertising
How the world's most popular drink was originally promoted
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Coca-Cola is one of the most famous soft drinks in the world. Introduced in the United States in 1888, the Coca-Cola company immediately began promoting its product across America. Imaginative advertising involving colorful and highly detailed imagery and using catchy and memorable slogans quickly made Coca-Cola a household name. Soon afterwards, savvy marketing tactics led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the global soft-drink market throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. So, how was a drink originally intended as a patent medicine so cleverly promoted as "delicious and refreshing" and sold everywhere?
Click through and quench your thirst with these vintage Coca-Cola advertising posters.