50. The Real Coke, The Real Story - Thomas Oliver

[My 50th book ... I'm halfway there, ahead of schedule!]
I had no idea there was such a fascinating story behind the Coca-Cola Company! In the first couple of chapters, Oliver (a staff writer for what's now the Atlanta Journal Constitution) tells some history about the company. Yes, it's true that the original Coca-Cola (called "French Wine Cola") had cocaine in it ... as well as wine, and a few other ingredients. Oliver also talks about the early members of the company's board of directors (which completely explains why every other building at Emory University is named either "Woodruff" or "Goizueta"!).

But by far the most interesting part of the book is the story of what happened when Coke introduced "new Coke." Pepsi started its "Pepsi Challenge" back in the '70s, and Coke executives started getting concerned because Americans were saying that they liked the taste of Pepsi better than that of Coke. So in an attempt to maintain its market share, Coke pulled its original formula and introduced new Coke - a sweeter cola, more similar to Pepsi. The uproar was ridiculous! Coke got 8,000 calls a day and thousands of letters and petitions from people who were simply outraged. It wasn't so much that they hated the new Coke - they were just mad that the company took something away that was so quintessentially American.

So, despite the millions that had been spent on introducing new Coke ... the old Coke (now, "Coca-Cola Classic") was brought back. The day the company made the announcement, it received 18,000 phone calls from people saying thank you! "One woman called and said she had just found out she was pregnant and didn't know which her husband would be happier about - their first child or old Coke's return." Ha!

A funny tidbit:

"Coke had turned down Michael Jackson as a candidate for its advertising because he was considered too flashy and his androgynous appearance didn't jibe with the company's image of the all-American boy." Pepsi got him instead ... and we all know what happened after that (the incident during the filming of the commercial).

A random thought I had while reading this: some of Coke's most significant board members in the 20th century were incredibly diverse for the time ... a first-generation Mexican was in charge of bottling operations; an Argentinean in charge of Coca Cola USA; an Egyptian chief financial officer ... the vice-president of the Americas group often joked that he was the "token American" on the board. In fact, there is some speculation that because these key folks were not American, they didn't understand the patriotism behind the old Coke - and why Americans were so upset when new Coke was rolled out. But ... my thought is that it's interesting how the fact that Coke is sold around the globe is often cited as showing how "globalization = Americanization." Of course I understand the basis for saying that ... but still, quite interesting for a good ol' southern company that was led by quite the diverse group of immigrants.

Clearly, due to the length of this post and the excitement with which I'm writing it ... this was a fabulous book. I didn't want to put it down - the way Oliver wrote about the whole diet Coke and new Coke fiascos made this work of non-fiction incredibly fascinating and suspenseful. Highly recommended!

*Ahh, but one note ... something my mom heard on the radio: "A non-fiction book that doesn't have an index is not a serious book." Maybe that says something about the quality of this book (since there was no index) ... oh well, it was still a great read.