Top 5 WEIRD Coca-Cola Facts
If you COULD give the world a Coke, well, SHOULD you? That's what we're investigating in this video, as we look at the world's biggest soft drink manufacturer's origins, the links to Nazi Germany, how they wanted it to replace you favourite caffeinated beverage, and their war on water! Forget the war FOR water, as Coca-Cola fought against it! Well, to a certain degree…
#5: Even When You’re Not Drinking Coke… You’re Probably Drinking Coke
By Coke’s own estimates, 10,450 Coca-Cola brand soft drinks are consumed every second around the world – and they pride themselves on this idea. While they aren’t legally allowed to distribute in Cuba and North Korea, the fact that Coca-Cola was the first soft drink to go to space proves just far they’re willing to go to get Coke products into the hand of every potential consumer. As a result of various environmental and economic practices of the company, many people choose to boycott their products. But with over 500 different beverage brands under their umbrella… Coke products can be hard to keep track of.
#4: They Tried To Replace Morning Coffee
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Coca-Cola is known for their iconic marketing, so much so that they’ve been credited with helping to shape the modern image of Santa Claus. But in the 80s… they made a few missteps. Remember “New Coke”? Their attempt to make a place for themselves at the breakfast table proved equally misguided. Humans drink roughly 2.25 billion cups of coffee daily. So when Coke found out that 12% of their customers drank Coke instead of coffee… they saw a MAJOR opportunity. They launched a “Coke in the Morning” campaign, and initially, industry experts were calling it brilliant. They even introduced the “Breakmate”… a mini soda fountain for the workplace. In the end - it failed. Those who chose soda in the morning had never really liked coffee much to begin with. True coffee drinkers however… were thoroughly disinterested in converting.
#3: Nazi Business?
Ahhh… the old Nazi Coke myth. Here’s the honest truth: In the 1930s, Germany was an important Coca-Cola market. But when war broke out, the syrup became impossible to import. Following the death of the American head of German Coca-Cola operations in 1938, the German Nazi government appointed his German-born associate, Max Keith, to oversee production. He invented Fanta in order to keep the bottling plants running. Despite being selected by Nazis, post-war investigations show that Keith himself never supported the party. When war ended, he handed over the recipe and profits to the Coca-Cola Company. So… while Fanta isn’t a “Nazi beverage”, it was born in Nazi Germany. Coca-Cola made the mistake of forgetting this history, when they released a German Fanta anniversary ad, in which they referred to the 1940s Germany as “good old times”. Woops.
#2: They Ran A Campaign Against Tap Water In Restaurants
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The Coca-Cola company faced a bit of bad press in the early 2000s when they touted the success of their “H2NO” campaign. Originally a covert operation, it consisted of training kits designed to help restaurants train their staff to dissuade customers from picking tap water. “Just say no to H2O” proved a rousing success for both Coke and Olive Garden, the restaurant chain involved. Had Coke been humble about their accomplishment and kept quiet, it may have gone unnoticed, but when they chose to release a detailed “success story”, they were met with disbelief and a healthy dose of criticism. Considering that Coke had started selling bottled tap water just two years earlier under the Dasani brand… the hypocrisy was not lost on critics, news outlets or consumers.
#1: Like Many Sodas, It Began As Medicine
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And yes - it had cocaine in it. It was a very small dose, but when you’re talking about a serious narcotic... any quantity sounds insane by today’s standards. But when Coca-Cola was invented in 1886, the addition of cocaine wouldn’t have raised many eyebrows - it was considered a medicinal ingredient. Naturally carbonated water has been used to promote health for centuries. In the 1830s, the first soda fountains made their debut in pharmacies, dispensing flavored seltzer in which medicine was mixed for ease of consumption. While it might sound strange to modern consumers, it was a pharmacist who invented Coke. It was marketed as a “nerve tonic”, that could cure headaches, impotence, indigestion… even morphine addiction. But by 1903, cocaine had been removed from the recipe.
