Coca-Cola is a marketing giant. Its first ad was in its hometown newspaper.
The beverage giant has created iconic ad campaigns and even shaped the modern image of Santa Claus.
Coca-Cola’s very first advertisement was in an 1886 edition of The Atlanta Journal. (Courtesy of Coca-Cola)
Hometown Coca-Cola has long been a marketing behemoth, from Super Bowl spots to its iconic holiday ads featuring Santa Claus and precocious polar bears.
But Coca-Cola’s first advertisement was far more modest, about the size of a pair of postage stamps on an inside page of The Atlanta Journal on a Saturday afternoon in 1886.
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Coca-Cola has its headquarters in Atlanta. Its first ad was in The Atlanta Journal. (Seeger Gray/AJC)
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A 1931 Coca-Cola ad in The Atlanta Constitution with “The Pause That Refreshes” slogan. (AJC archive)
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It’s a myth that Coke invented Santa Claus. But the soft drink maker’s ad campaigns did reinforce the image of St. Nick as a chubby, jolly man dressed in red, which happens to be Coke’s corporate color. (Courtesy of Coca-Cola)
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A 1996 story in a special combined section of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution told about Coca-Cola’s advertising spending during the Olympic Games. (AJC 1996)
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Karen Wilson petitions against New Coke. (Photo by © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty Images)
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Amy Wenk is the consumer brands reporter for the AJC.
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