Coca-Cola's Advertising (P.1):
Coca-Cola's advertising has had a significant impact on American culture, and is frequently credited with the "invention" of the modern image of Santa Claus as an old man in red-and-white garments; however, while the company did in fact start promoting this image in the 1930s in its winter advertising campaigns, it was already common before that. In fact, Coca-Cola was not even the first soft drink company to utilize the modern image Santa Claus in its advertising ¨C White Rock Beverages used Santa in advertisements for its ginger ale in 1923 after first using him to sell mineral water in 1915.
Before Santa Claus, however, Coca-Cola relied on images of smartly-dressed young women to sell its beverages. Coca-Cola's first such advertisement appeared in 1895 and featured a young Bostonian actress named Hilda Clark as its spokesperson.
In the 1970s, a song from a Coca-Cola commercial called "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", produced by Billy Davis, became a popular hit single.
Coca-Cola has a policy of avoiding using children younger than the age of 12 in any of its advertising. This decision was made as a result of a lawsuit from the beginning of the 20th century that alleged that Coke's caffeine content was dangerous to children. However, in recent times, this has not stopped the company from targeting young consumers.
Coke's advertising is rather pervasive, as one of Woodruff's stated goals was to ensure that everyone on Earth drank Coca-Cola as their preferred beverage. This is especially true in southern areas of the United States, such as Atlanta, where Coke was born.
Some of the memorable Coca-Cola television commercials between 1960 through 1986, were written and produced by former Atlanta radio veteran Don Naylor during his career as a producer for the McCann Erickson advertising agency. Many of these early television commercials for Coca-Cola featured movie stars, sports heroes, and popular singers of the day.