Buy a Coke from Mr. Gates!

Our next Coke celebrity is none other than one of the world's wealthiest people.  It's Bill Gates! Sure, Bill doesn't really need the money. That's part of the gag in this commercial where he tries to buy a Coke while working late.  He is out of money, so he gets not Coke. You see him walking down the darkened hallway asking to borrow some money.

2014 Summer Diet Coke Can "Go-Getter"

Actually, Bill has always been a Coke supporter.  When Microsoft first started, among other perks, employees had access to free Coca-Cola.  Now that sounds like a place I'd life to work at, especially if they let me keep the cans. Ironically, it also means the commercial was inaccurate...maybe Bill was moonlighting at a rival company that night.  Food, or actually drink, for thought...

Mr. Bill "Billions" Gates

Buy a Coke from LeBron and Yao!

This post will bring you two Coke cans and two Coca-Cola celebrities. Here, we see NBA stars LeBron James and Yao Ming in a Coca-Cola commercial for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.  You can see it here. It's actually quite good.

2014 Summer Diet Coke Can "BFF"

In the commercial, Lebron and Yao try to one up each other by slinging out American and Chinese icons. LeBron whips out a cowboy and Yao whips out panda bears. Their duels escalates into a massive parade of objects, until they both whip out a Coke. Hey, now!  How about that? The conflict then disappears, because we all know Coke is great everywhere in the world. They toast, Yao Ming says, "Cheers", and LeBron mumbles something in Chinese, which I am assuming also means cheers. What a smart guy!

Yao Ming

LeBron James

Again, more old-fashioned Coca-Cola love.  Seriously, its one of the most brilliant advertising themes in history.

Buy a Coke from J-Lo!

Our next Coca-Cola celebrity is Jennifer Lopez.  Jenny did a Coca-Cola commercial back in 1998. You can watch it here.

2014 Summer Diet Coke Can "Dad"

The commercial is very much in the usual vein of Coca-Cola's desiring to make its product synonymous with love, family, good times, and happy thoughts.  We see Jennifer Lopez as a movie star, as a kid at her own birthday party, auditioning her way through rejection, and sipping Coca-Cola through it all. While Pepsi has Britney Spears and Michael Jackson dance amid sparks and bright lights, Coca-Cola just keeps it real.

Buy a Coke from Michelle

Our next Coca-Cola spokes person brings the Coke to us ice cold. (She what I did there?) Michelle Kwan, Olympic figure skater, appears in Coca-Cola ads. I read somewhere she gets a little flack by being a Coke speaker while also an Olympic athlete, but I mean, seriously, folks, Coca-Cola is one of THE BIGGEST Olympic sponsors.  Them and McDonald's.  So give Michelle and the other athletes a break.

2014 Summer Diet Coke Can "Pal"

Here is Michelle, sharing a stunning leap and a Coke with the world! Looking good!

Buy a Coke from Charlie Rose!

I thought my run of Coca-Cola cans for the summer of 2014 was done. Coca-Cola had their share-a-Coke campaign, and I listed celebrities who endorsed Coca-Cola. Turns out there were more cans than I expected. Coke Zero released share-a-Coke cans and so did Diet Coke.

2014 Summer Coke Can "Star"

This is means there are far more celebrities to unearth as Coca-Cola folks. So here you go.

I know.  You are like, who is this guy?  Well it's Charlie Rose, a guy who hosts a talk show on PBS. I was watching it the other day, struggling to stay informed with the world, and I noticed the show is brought to us buy the sponsor....Coca-Cola! Buy the world a Coke, Charlie!

Buy a Coke from Elton!

Our next Coca-Cola celebrity is Elton John.  You can see Elton John tickling the ivories about Diet Coke being "the one" here.

"Buy a Coke for a Buddy"
2014 Summer Coca-Cola Can

If you notice, outside of Bill Cosby, many of Coca-Cola's celebrities are musicians.  I mean, lets be honest, being able to sing and dance a jingle is a big deal for a soft drink company.  So if you are looking to following in their footsteps and getting your own Coca-Cola endorsement paycheck, you better not flunk out of music class.

Buy a Coke from Taylor!

Our last Coca-Cola celebrity is arguably the most prominent as of this writing.  It's none other than the girl-next-door super star Taylor Swift.  You've probably already seen oodles of her Diet Coke commercials, but you can view a brief one here if you have been late to the party.

"Buy a Coke for a Friend"
2014 Summer Coca-Cola Can

So we've covered Bill Cosby, Whitney Houston, Paula Abdul, and Taylor Swift.  There are others, but I am out of the friendship cans currently, so those celebrities will have to wait.  I hope you've enjoyed these celebrity endorsements.  I'm sure the celebrities enjoyed making them to. Remember, they got paid for them.

Buy a Coke from Paula!

Our next Red-Side-Of-The-Cola-Wars celebrity is Paula Abdul.  Here,you can view a catchy jingle laden commercial of Paula Abdul singing and dancing to the greatness of Diet Coke.

"Buy a Coke for a Legend"
Summer 2014 Coca-Cola Can

Paula Abdul was actually a double-threat for the Pepsi competitor.  While Paula's popularity waned for a while, perhaps making Pepsi executives breathe a sigh of relief, she came into prominence again with the success of the reality show juggernaut America Idol, which was also a big Coca-Cola peddling machine.  It was as if Paula's Coke enthusiasm shined all over again.

Buy a Coke from Whitney!

Our next celebrity profile that took the Red side of the Cola wars is Whitney Houston.  You can get a glimpse of an 1980s Diet Coke commercial by Whitney here.

"Buy a Coke for Your Soulmate"
Coca-Cola Summer Can 2014

My brief research for this post was actually rather sobering. While every other celebrity I searched for under the tags Coke gave me a smiling advertisement of the celebrity swigging Coca-Cola with a proverbial thumbs-up.  Unfortunately, searching for Whitney Houston and Coke did not bring up Coca-Cola advertisements.  It's sad, really.  Stay off drugs, people.

Buy a Coke from Bill

Since Coca-Cola's summer advertising is about buying your friends a Coke, I thought it would be nice to profile some of Coca-Cola's best buddies.  Instead of you buying them a Coke, they are trying to sell you one!  Our first is Bill Cosby. You can see him in a commercial for the controversial New Coke in 1985 here.

"Buy a Coke for your BFF"
Summer Coke Can 2014

It's unique to be a Coca-Cola spokesperson.  Pepsi is the brand that is far more celebrity driven. Let's give cheer for over the next couple of weeks for the underdog celebrities who had the guts (and generous paychecks) to take the Red side of the Cola Wars.

Share-A-Coke!

So this is the real deal.  Coca-Cola pulled this stunt overseas a while back.  They decided it was hip enough to try in Coca-Cola's home land: The Name-On-A-Bottle Stunt.

Coca-Cola World Cup Can
Can 2 of 3

It works like this.  Coca-Cola markets itself as a feel good soft drink, the kind of soft drink you would share with your friends.  So when you see your friend's name on the Coke bottle in your local five and dime, your encouraged to buy it and share a Coke!  I actually think its a pretty swell campaigan.  Do you want to know if your name made the Coca-Cola cut?  You can check here.

Coca-Cola Loses in the SCOTUS.

It's back to Coca-Cola for the next several weeks.  I have several new Coca-Cola cans that need to be posted.  This is great because surely you heard the latest legal news.  A while ago I posted that Coca-Cola was being sued because of a juice drink.  It went all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Coca-Cola World Cup Summer Can 2014
Can 1 of 3

Turns out Coca-Cola lost.  Yup, their Blueberry Pomegranate 5 Juice Blend doesn't fly because the amount of blueberry and pomegranate are such a small percentage of the drink.  It counts as false advertising.  The world will sleep safe knowing the average juice consumer has been protected by the highest court in the land.

Coke's Super Bowl Ad

It's never out of season to discuss a Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad.  After all, Coca-Cola helped define the art form of the Super Bowl ad with the infamous "Mean Joe Green" commercial.  So while the world is thawing up in late April, I thought I discuss the "It's Beautiful" Coke ad from Broncos vs Seahawks 2014. In case you missed it, the ad is a montage of the song American the Beautiful in various languages in a cast of many races.  The message is clear; Coca-Cola makes America and America is great because our differences rock.  It does give you a warm feeling watching it.  It hearkens back to the Hilltop Coca-Cola commercial, all those teenagers singing on an Italian hill holding Coke bottles.  Only this time it wasn't targeted at the world but just at America.  Right at Uncle Sam's striped hat.  Works just as well. You can check out the ad here.

2013 Fiji Coke Can

There was some backlash against the ad, as there usually is with any good Super Bowl ad.  Some folks were offended that America was portraying all these immigrants (that could be illegal for heavens sake!) singing in their native tongue one of our sacred songs (threatening the eradication of English, omygosh!).  The fact all these different kinds of people were drinking OUR DRINK probably made them even madder.  It would be comical if it wasn't more sad.  The only thing sadder than liberals trying to poison Coke is conservatives being offended by it.

Coca-Cola Slogans and Can Draft Number 8

Here is the weekly post of my first great can draft.

2012 London Olympic Coke Can 6 of 6

The previous Coca-Cola slogan was 1923's "Enjoy Thirst."  This only lasted a year and was replaced by this

1924: "Refresh Yourself"

Ah, once again, it reminds my of selling Coca-Colas a type of sport's drink. Which makes me reflect on when I happen to enjoy Coke, or any soft drink really, the most.  If I am sitting around doing nothing, yes, even lethargically watching a football game, Coca-Cola does't really hit the spot too much.  It's when I'm up and about and my blood sugar feels low that I crave a Coke. Most recently, one of my favorites is to crack a can open when cooking dinner for the family when I am cutting vegetables, manning the stove, and mixing ingredients together.  It helps me from snacking on the unprepared meal.  Point is, before sports drinks existed, Coca-Cola and other soft drinks really were the laboring man's refreshment.  The advertisement was surely no lie for the meat and potato American.    

Can Draft and Coca-Cola Slogan Number 7

Can selection number 7.

2012 Holiday Coke Can

1922's Coca-Cola slogan of "Thirst Knows No Season" ironically only lasted four seasons.  A year later they changed it again.

1923: Enjoy Thirst

Oh!  Sounds a bit masochistic.  Make yourself hurt a bit.  Enjoy it.  You can tame it with the bubbly pleasure of Coca-Cola.  Don't fight it, relish it!  That thirst is going to guide you to the local pharmacy to buy a Coca-Cola.  It actually sounds a little like Sprite's relatively modern, "Obey your Thirst."  Who knows, some Sprite executive might have mined this old Coca-Cola slogan to create that one.

Coca-Cola and the Olympics

Coca-Cola is one of the advertising heartbeats of the Olympics.  Every two years, you will never fail to see Coca-Cola commercials hailing the triumphs of athletes.  The Olympics are a feel good marketing event for the G8, and no one knows how to market to the feel good vibe better than Coca-Cola.

2014 Sochi Olympic Speed Skater Coke Can 

The funny part was Sochi 2014 was a little bumpy for Coke.  Putin's crackdown on the gay community angered many Americans, and anyone with ties to the Olympics became a fair target for guerrilla warfare.  For example, someone juxtaposed the iconic Hill Top Coca-Cola commercial with footage of Russians manhandling protesters of Russian's sexuality laws. The video attempts to convince the viewer Coke is in cahoots with this behavior by sponsoring the games.

Of course, to the sensible, anger should be directed more to the International Olympic Committee than Coca-Cola.  The IOC selected Russian as the host venue, not a beverage company.  Then again, it's far more fun to throw rocks at American corporations than at the French elitists that compose the IOC.  Yet is operated by marketing genius, and they struck back by posting the video on their facebook page, essentially recasting it as Coca-Cola being the bright light of diversity and inclusion coming to the dark and dreary Russian world, an advertising counter stroke I believe is pure genius.   

Still, I believe the memes like this had an effect; there were only 3 Coca-Cola winter games cans this year, far less than what was released for London.  It seems at least in American, Coke was willing to keep a lower profile than usual.

Can Draft and Coca-Cola Slogans Number 5

Can Draft pick number 5!

1986 Mickey's ToonTown Coca-Cola Can

To our sensitive modern ears, the slogans for Coca-Cola certainly seemed to be on the down slide starting in 1905.  Interestingly, it didn't get any better until 1917.  Yes, Coca-Cola was known as "The Great National Temperance Beverage" for eleven years!  And even that was three years before the 18th Amendment making Temperance an enshrined Constitutional ideal.  So what did Coca-Cola's slogan change to after being known as the non-alcoholic drink of choice?

1917:  Three Million a Day

Ah, so now Coca-Cola is giving us some numbers to justify why it's such a great American drink. It reminds me of the numbers McDonald's touts. Certainly, the slogan "Three Million a Day" is several pegs above the old slogan.  Of course, again imagining the slogan in the modern world, a measly three million a day would make Coca-Cola a type of niche hipster drink.  But it must have seen staggeringly large to a lad in 1917.

Can Draft and Coca-Cola Slogans Number 4

Can number 4 in the draft!

Old School Coca-Cola Can

Now, if you thought that 1905's Coca-Cola slogan was odd, the following year will sound even odder to your modern ears.  Are you ready for it?  It appears below...

1906: The Great National Temperance Beverage

Wow.  I mean, really?  Imagine that today.  In 1906 during the push for prohibition, however, it certainly made sense.  Drink Coke, not booze!

Can Draft and Coca-Cola Slogans Number 2

The next can in my can draft with a fellow collector appears below.

2002 Coca-Cola Christmas Can

And Coca-Cola's next advertising slogan after the no frills "Drink Coca-Cola" from 1886?  It appears below...

1904:  Delicious and Refreshing

I like that.  By 1904, Coca-Cola decided to toss some adjectives in there to describe the taste. Clever. And they were right.  Coca-Cola certainly is delicious, and yes, it is refreshing.

Big Bucks for Spilled Coke

So did you know a little Coca-Cola can get you fined $50,000?  Jason Kidd of the Net's found that out after using a friend's Coca-Cola as a diversionary tactic on November 26th of this year.

Coke Zero 2013 Basketball Can

Out of time outs and with 8.3 seconds left, the lad had the admirable strategy of bumping into a teammate enjoying some Coca-Cola.  The result was a slick and sugary basketball court that required clean-up, which involved, guess what..an informal time out!  Unfortunately, neither strategy worked.  The Net's still lost and replays showed the spill was intentional and hence the fine.  Still, you gotta admire Kidd for trying!