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We’re celebrating 100 years of the Coke bottle

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11896CFWet100 Years Young: Global Campaign Celebrates Coke Bottle Centennial

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By:  Journey Staff  |  Feb 26, 2015

An Atlanta pharmacist’s secret formula gave Coca-Cola the beverage its distinctively delicious taste. A few decades later, an Indiana glass company’s bottle design gave Coca-Cola the brand its signature curves.

In 1915, Coca-Cola attempted to fend off a host of copycat brands by strengthening its trademark. The company and its bottling partners issued a creative challenge to a handful of U.S. glass companies: To develop a “bottle so distinct that you would recognize if by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground.” The Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Ind., developed the winning design, mimicking the elongated contour shape and distinct ribs of a cocoa bean. The bottle was patented on Nov. 16, 1915 and has since inspired a century’s worth of signature moments in film, social history, design and fine arts.

Coca-Cola is celebrating the centennial of its proprietary package in 2015 with a year-long campaign that includes new advertising, a music anthem and a series of art exhibits featuring works from leading contemporary artists including Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Peter Blake.

“Since its creation in 1915, the Coca-Cola bottle has achieved iconic status as a symbol of refreshment and uplift and it remains an important asset for our business today,” said Marcos de Quinto, Chief Marketing Officer, Coca-Cola. “The campaign, which will be executed in over 130 countries, is our invitation to consumers around the world to share in the specialness of an ice-cold Coca-Cola.”

The campaign kicks off this week with the opening of a new exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The Coca-Cola Bottle: An American Icon at 100, which opens Feb. 28 and runs through Oct. 4, will salute the Coca-Cola bottle and its special place in the worlds of art, design and commerce over the past 100 years. For the first time, two original Andy Warhol Coke bottle paintings will be displayed alongside more than 100 original artworks and photographs featuring the bottle. The exhibit will also include original bottle prototypes and sketches.

A traveling art exhibition, The Coca-Cola Bottle Art Tour: Inspiring Pop Culture for 100 Years, will take consumers on a unique, multi-sensory journey featuring an array of Coca-Cola bottle-themed art, historical artifacts and interactive experiences showcasing the Coca-Cola bottle’s role in art and popular culture. The exhibition will visit more than 15 countries and travel more than 62,000 miles around the world in 2015.

The Coca-Cola bottle’s legacy will be explored through 14 TV and digital filmsthat will air globally in 2015. One spot from Ogilvy & Mather Paris tells the epic tale of the creation of the Coca-Cola bottle, as narrated by a big brother to his younger sibling. The bottle travels through distant lands and curious settings, captivating the boy’s imagination. Through this journey, the bottle obtains its iconic curves, its flutes and red ribbon, and gets filled with icy-coldCoca-Cola as it ends its ride back in the hands of the refreshed older brother. The additional 12 spots were produced by Ogilvy & Mather Paris, Wieden + Kennedy Portland, Sid Lee Canada and McCann Madrid.

“Nobody Like You” is the music anthem for the Coca-Cola bottle campaign from 19-year-old, Canadian singer/songwriter Francesco Yates. Yates is now signed to Atlantic Records. The anthem’s lyrics tell both a traditional love story and serve as an ode to the contour shape of theCoca-Cola bottle and the specialness of shared moments. “Nobody Like You,” which can be downloaded starting today, will appear on radio and in Coca-Cola TV commercials throughout the year.

Assouline Book CoverIconic celebrities, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles unite in the new “Kissed By” global outdoor, digital and retail campaign. The images feature the stars being “kissed by” theCoca-Cola bottle, an experience shared across generations for the last 100 years. Throughout the year, local markets will further leverage “Kissed By” featuring modern-day celebrities and musical icons.

Coca-Cola, in partnership with French publishing house Assouline, will release a limited-edition book highlighting the rich history of the Coca-Colabottle, Kiss the Past Hello. In addition to famous artwork featuring the Coca-Cola bottle, the company invited contemporary artists and designers from around the world to reinterpret the bottle in their own signature aesthetic. The result is a stunning array of “mash-up” artwork, which will be showcased in the book when it is released in March 2015.

To share our rich heritage with our consumers in a contemporary way, we have created an interactive journey through the Story of the Coca-Cola Bottle App that takes you through a behind-the-scenes look at our Coca-Cola Archives featuring stories about both the brand and the bottle from inside our headquarters in Atlanta. The free app will be available in both Apple and Android formats.

Coca-Cola Journey will serve as a global hub for Coke Bottle 100 content.

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