I’d also like to express a measure of debt to the authors who have previously tackled the rich subject of Coca-Cola, on whose work I drew from heavily (and in some cases, shamelessly) in order to tell various aspects of the history and current practices of the company. For the first chapters dealing with the history of the company, Mark Pendergrast’s For God, Country, and Coca-Cola was enormously helpful, as was Secret Formula by Fred Allen. I was also helped immensely by the collections of documents that Pendergrast and Allen left at the rare book library at Emory University, as well as other collections there, from which most of the historical documents I relied on are drawn. For the later history of the company, I relied on Constance Hays’s The Real Thing and Thomas Oliver’s The Real Coke, The Real Story. In the chapter detailing the fight to get soda out of schools, I was greatly assisted by Michele Simon’s Appetite for Profit (and by Simon herself, who freely shared information with me from the beginning stages of the manuscript). And on international affairs, I relied on Laura Jordan’s excellent thesis on Coke in Mexico, and on Nantoo Banerjee’s book—also called The Real Thing—to elucidate Coke’s problems in India.
In addition to those written sources, I’d like to acknowledge all of the patient time and effort granted to me by those struggling to keep Coke accountable, including: Ray Rogers, Lew Friedman, Terry Collingsworth, Dan Kovalik, Camilo Romero, Amit Srivastava, Jackie Domac, Ross Getman, Michael Jacobson, Stephen Gardner, Dick Daynard, Gigi Kellett, and Javier Correa and all of the other union leaders in Colombia. On the other side, I’d like to thank the executives of Coca-Cola India, especially Kalyan Ranjan, who, quite unlike their counterparts in the United States or Mexico, granted me the access I asked for and shared with me their perspective; their openness and candor have made this a better book.
I’d also like to acknowledge the Herculean efforts of my research assistants, David Mashburn, Tony D’Ovidio, Alexis Hauk, Hannah Martin, and Maddy Schricker, without whom I quite literally could not have written this book (especially David and Tony, who helped draft some early sections of Chapters 3 and 4); and the translators who helped me understand foreign perspectives along with foreign words, including Arup Chanda and Nandan Upadhyay in India; Paco Vasquez and Erin Araujo in Mexico; and my translator in Colombia, whose name I must unfortunately withhold for safety reasons. Many thanks to Laura Bravo Melguizo, who spent countless hours translating Spanish-language documents with me and correcting multiple facts and translations in the text. I’d be remiss, as well, if I didn’t give a shout-out to Ula Café, whose strong coffee and friendly baristas sustained me through many long hours of writing.
Last but absolutely not least, I must thank my wife, Alexandra, who not only came up with the title for this book, but also suffered through interminable conversations about soft drinks and corporate accountability, working “vacations” in Atlanta and Chiapas, and babysitting two unruly toddlers during my long nights of writing and revising at the office. I can’t thank you enough, sangsai, and only hope I can do the same for you with your next book.
Notes
INTRODUCTION
Page 1 On the morning of December 5, 1996: The description of Gil’s murder relies on eyewitness accounts by Luis Hernán Manco Monroy, Oscar Alberto Giraldo Arango, and Luis Adolfo Cardona Usma, interviews by the author.
Page 2 twenty-eight-year-old was a natural leader: Martín Gil, interview by the author.
Page 3 union submitted its final proposal: Complaint (Docket Entry 1), SINALTRAINAL, et al. v. The Coca-Cola Company, et al., United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, 1:2001-cv-03208 (hereafter SINALTRAINAL v. Coke), 23.
Page 3 .38 Special: Ballistics report, December 2, 1998, Isidro Gil investigation, Fiscalía de la Nación, Unidad de Derechos Humanos, Radicado Preliminar No. 164, Republica de Colombia (hereafter Gil), vol. 2, pp. 72-76.
Page 3 shot him between the eyes: Gil autopsy report, December 10, 1996 (Diligencia de Necropsia, No. UCH-NC-96-412), Gil 1:87.
Page 3 more than 2,500 union members: Human Rights Watch, World Report 2009—Colombia, January 14, 2009.
CHAPTER 1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF COKE
Page 9 One million visitors: The World of Coca-Cola®—Atlanta, http://www.worldofcoca-cola.com.
Page 11 “patents of royal favor”: Gerald Carson, One for a Man, Two for a Horse: A Pictorial History, Grave and Comic, of Patent Medicines (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961), 9.
Page 11 Hooper’s Pills . . . “Rivals might detect”: James Harvey Young, The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America Before Federal Regulations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961), 13.
Page 11 bleeding . . . and “purging”: Mary Calhoun, Medicine Show: Conning People and Making Them Like It (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 24-25, 65-67; David Armstrong and Elizabeth Metzger Armstrong, The Great American Medicine Show (New York: Prentice Hall, 1991), 1-10; Alyn Brodsky, Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician (New York: Truman Talley, 2004), 29.
Page 12 practice grew into a fad: Young, 44-45; Armstrong and Armstrong, 23-25; A. Walker Bingham, The Snake Oil Syndrome: Patent Medicine Advertising (Hanover, MA: Christopher, 1994), 13.
Page 12 Connecticut physician Samuel Lee, Jr.: Bingham; Young, 32-34.
Page 12 Thomas W. Dyott amassed: Young, 34-35.
Page 12 The Civil War brought new patients: Young, 97.
Page 12 little more than laxatives or emetics: Young, 98-99; Carson, 30; Armstrong and Armstrong, 178.
Page 12 between 20,000 and 50,000 . . . concoctions: Young, 109.
Page 12 total sales of $80 million: Calhoun, 70.
Page 12 The winners were . . . rescuing his son from a bear: Bingham, 91-92.
Page 12 “medicine shows”: Calhoun, 1-8.
Page 13 notorious showmen, Clark Stanley: Carson, 41.
Page 13 As one 1930s-era pitch doctor . . . sold themselves: Calhoun, 45, 58.
Page 13 early devotee of Samuel Thomson’s . . . Extract of Stillingia: James Harvey Young, “Three Atlanta Pharmacists,” Pharmacy in History 31, no. 1 (1989), 16-22.
Page 13 later named him an addict: A. O. Murphy testimony, Coca-Cola Co. v. Koke Co., 254 U.S. 143 (1920) (hereafter Koke), 392; J. C. Mayfield testimony, Koke, 776; “The Original Coca-Cola Woman: Mrs. Diva Brown,” The Southern Carbonator, September 1907; Hugh Merrill, “The Formula and Diva Brown: ‘The Original Coca-Cola Woman,’” Atlanta Business Chronicle, January 7, 1991.
Page 14 “I am convinced from actual experiments”: “A Wonderful Medicine,” Atlanta Journal, March 10, 1885.
Page 14 Cocaine Toothache Drops: Armstrong and Armstrong, 160-161.
Page 14 concoction called Vin Mariani: Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It (New York: Basic Books, 2000 [orig. pub. 1993]), 22-23; Frederick Allen, Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World (New York: HarperBusiness, 1994), 23-24.
Page 14 French Wine Coca . . . kola nut: J. C. Louis and Harvey Yazijian, The Cola Wars: The Story of the Global Corporate Battle Between the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, Inc. (New York: Everest House, 1980), 15.
Page 15 beer was one of the first luxuries . . . cheapest form of water purification: Armstrong and Armstrong, 39, 5.
Page 15 Soon enterprising drunkards . . . “beverige”: John Hull Brown, Early American Beverages (Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle, 1966), 13-16.
Page 15 mineral springs such as those at Saratoga Springs: Stephen N. Tchudi, Soda Poppery: The History of Soft Drinks in America (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1986), 6.
Page 15 Joseph Priestley discovered how to produce: Robert E. Schofield, The Enlightenment of Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Work from 1733 to 1773 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), 256-258.
Page 15 movement against alcohol led by Benjamin Rush: Brodsky, 95-97, 100; Armstrong and
Armstrong, 41-42.
Page 15 Alcoholics Anonymous . . . statewide prohibition laws: Brown, 78.
Page 15 many were repealed: Armstrong and Armstrong, 44.
Page 15 creating the world’s first “soda fountain”: H. B. Nicholson, “Host to Thirsty Main Street” (New York: Newcomen Society, December 18, 1953), 9; Franklin M. Garrett, “The Development of the Soda Fountain in Drug Stores for the Past 50 Years” (The Coco-Cola Company, n.d.); Joseph L. Morrison, “The Soda Fountain,” American Heritage 13, no. 5 (August 1962).
Page 15 Lemon’s Superior Sparkling Ginger Ale: Lawrence Dietz, Soda Pop: The History, Advertising, Art and Memorabilia of Soft Drinks in America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973), 83.
Page 16 Hires Root Beer: Tchudi, 21-22.
Page 16 Dr Pepper . . . Moxie: Dietz, 82-84.
Page 16 the South suffered a complete disruption: Louis and Yazijian, 14-15.
Page 16 Atlanta . . . known as the “Phoenix City”: Pendergrast, 20.
Page 16 dozens of reformulations . . . bitter orange and cassia: Frederick Allen, Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World (New York: HarperBusiness, 1994), 28.
Page 17 “three-legged iron pot”: E. J. Kahn, The Big Drink: An Unofficial History of Coca-Cola (London: Max Reinhardt, 1960), 56-57.
Page 17 “brass kettle heated over an open fire”: Pat Watters, Coca-Cola: An Illustrated History (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978), 5, 9; see also Wilbur Kurtz, “Dr. John S. Pemberton: Originator of the Formula for Coca-Cola, A Short Biographical Sketch,” January 1954.
Page 17 pharmacy owner Willis Venable himself: Watters, 16; Allen, 28.
Page 17 John G. Wilkes, who came: Elizabeth Candler Graham and Ralph Roberts, The Real Ones: Four Generations of the First Family of Coca-Cola (Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade, 1992), 6.
Page 17 Pemberton’s pharmacy laboratory as state-of-the-art: Pendergrast, 28-29; Allen, 27-28.
Page 17 fountain drinks containing kola nut: Tchudi, 25.
Page 18 company’s more recent official histories: The Coca-Cola Company, The Chronicle of Coca-Cola Since 1886 (Atlanta: The Coca-Cola Company, 1993); Coca-Cola Heritage, www.coca-cola.com/heritage.
Page 18 coined by one of Pemberton’s partners: Watters, 15; Pendergrast, 29; Allen, 28.
Page 18 label for the syrup: Charles Howard Candler, Asa Griggs Candler, Coca-Cola & Emory College (Atlanta: Higgins-McArthur, 1953), 10.
Page 18 just twenty-five gallons the first year: Robinson testimony, Koke; The Coca-Cola Company, Annual Report to the Stockholders, 1923.
Page 18 took to his bed with illness: Pendergrast, 34.
Page 19 neither drank nor smoked . . . scrap paper: Kahn, 59.
Page 19 mix up a single gallon: Graham and Roberts, 55.
Page 19 “more money to be made as a druggist”: Graham and Roberts, 39.
Page 19 Candler knew the real money . . . mysterious circumstances: Pendergrast, 44-46.
Page 19 the earliest records of the company burned: “The Beginning of Bottled Coca-Cola as Told by Mr. S. C. Dobbs,” October 13, 1913.
Page 20 handing out tickets for free Cokes: Allen, 29.
Page 20 Each soda fountain operator got: Asa G. Candler to Warren Candler, Atlanta, April 10, 1888, reprinted in Candler, Asa Griggs Candler, Coca-Cola & Emory College.
Page 20 more than 100,000 drinks a year: Pendergrast, 60.
Page 20 Sales took off . . . 50,000 gallons: The Coca-Cola Company, Annual Report, 1895.
Page 20 posting on Coke’s corporate website: Phil Mooney, January 30, 2008, Coca-Cola Conversations: Did you know? 1886 vs. today, http://www.coca-colaconversations.com/my_weblog/2008/01/did-you-know-18.html.
Page 20 early copy of the formula: Pendergrast, 56; Mark Pendergrast, “Cocaine Information, Amount in Vin Mariani, French Wine Coca, Coca-Cola,” Pendergrast collection, Emory University.
Page 20 Georgia Pharmaceutical Association in 1891: “Analysis of Coca-Cola, Analysis No. 7265, Office of H. R. Slack, M.D., Ph.G.,” reprinted in Coca-Cola, What Is It? What It Is (The Coca-Cola Company, 1901).
Page 21 narcotic kick on his letterhead: Constance L. Hays, The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company (New York: Random House, 2004), 102.
Page 21 Pamphlets he handed out to retailers: Atlanta Constitution, June 19, 1891.
Page 21 “a very small proportion”: Asa G. Candler testimony, Henry A. Rucker v. The Coca-Cola Company, U.S. Circuit Court, District of Georgia, 52.
Page 21 wasn’t entirely removed: Graham and Roberts, 19.
Page 21 needed to raise at least $50,000: Allen, 38.
Page 21 One of the very first corporations: Joel Bakan, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 8.
Page 22 “directors of such companies”: Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (London: T. Nelson & Sons, 1895), 311.
Page 22 The corporation took off: Bakan, 7.
Page 22 more than three hundred: Jack Beatty, ed., Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America (New York: Broadway Books, 2001), 5.
Page 22 And unlike their British counterparts . . . beginning in the 1830s: Beatty, 45-46.
Page 22 No corporations were as successful: Beatty, 103-112.
Page 22 corporations were chartered by states . . . any purpose they desired: Richard L. Grossman and Frank T. Adams, “Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation,” in Dean Ritz, ed., Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy (New York: The Apex Press, 2001), 59-72.
Page 23 concept of “limited liability”: Bakan, 11-13.
Page 23 declared corporations to be virtual “persons”: David C. Korten, The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism (West Hartford, CT, and San Francisco: Kumarian Press and Berrett-Koehler, 1999), 184-186.
Page 23 And in 1880, the federal government . . . “as well as financially”: Humphrey McQueen, The Essence of Capitalism: The Origins of Our Future (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2003), 29.
Page 23 few “national” products: Juliann Sivulka, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998), 18-19.
Page 23 new markets in city department stores: Sivulka, 93.
Page 23 power of corporations was made complete: Bakan, 13-14.
Page 23 falling from 2,653 to 269: Sivulka, 93.
Page 23 companies that succeeded . . . quintessential example: Richard Tedlow, New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America (New York: Basic Books, 1990), 4-6.
Page 23 incorporated the Coca-Cola Company: Allen, 38-39; Pendergrast, 57-58.
Page 23 selling syrup wholesale . . . 400 percent profit: Charles Howard Candler, “Thirty-three Years with Coca-Cola 1890-1923” (unpublished manuscript, 1929), 20.
Page 24 legions of salesmen: Candler, “Thirty-three Years,” 16-19.
Page 24 made only $12.50 a week: Candler, “Thirty-three Years,” 33.
Page 24 sold in all forty-four states . . . soon to follow: Pendergrast, 61, 93.
Page 24 sleeping on a cot: Allen, 67.
Page 24 drum up clients . . . solely on advertising: Candler, “Thirty-three Years,” 139.
Page 24 one-man pep squad: Allen, 71-72.
Page 24 more than 250,000 gallons . . . over a million: The Coca-Cola Company, Annual Report, 1923; Tedlow, p. 29.
Page 24 $1.5 million in sales: Tedlow, 29.
Page 24 In 1899, a Chattanooga lawyer . . . worked their territory: Allen, 106-107, 109; Pendergrast, 69-71.
Page 25 Sam Dobbs had been urging: Allen, 68.
Page 25 Chero-Cola . . . Coca & Cola: Roy W. Johnson, “Why 7,000 Imitations of Coca-Cola Are in the Copy Cat’s Graveyard,” Sales Management, January 9, 1926.
Page 25 “Unscrupulous pirates”: Tchudi, 34-35.
Page 25 “gourd vines in wheat fields”: Charles Howard Candler, Asa Griggs Candler (Atlanta: Emory Univ
ersity, 1950), 144.
Page 25 “the most beautiful sight we see”. . . “a political parasite”: Pendergrast, 96, 125.
Page 25 nascent Progressive movement: Beatty, 141-168.
Page 26 “I have spent my nights and my days”: Harold Hirsch, “The Product Coca-Cola and a Method of Carrying on Business from a Legal Point of View,” speech at 1923 bottlers’ convention.
Page 26 J. C. Mayfield . . . Koke: Pendergrast, 43.
Page 26 Hirsch brought suit . . . when it didn’t: Elton J. Buckley, “A Bottling Trade as well as a Trade Mark Decision of Great Importance,” National Bottlers Gazette, July 5, 1919, 83; Iver P. Cooper, “Unclean Hands and Unlawful Use in Commerce,” Trademark Reporter 71 (1981), 38-58.
Page 26 In a December 1920 ruling: Opinion, December 6, 1920, Koke.
Page 27 tens of millions of gallons . . . $4 million: The Coca-Cola Company Annual Report, 1922; Tedlow, 29.
Page 27 Candler bought up skyscrapers: Candler, Asa Griggs Candler, 262-263.
Page 27 depression got the best of him: Pendergrast, 93-95.
Page 27 eccentric drunk, who kept a menagerie: Kahn, 60.
Page 27 lacked his father’s vision: Allen, 79-80.
Page 27 suffered a nervous breakdown: Pendergrast, 97.
Page 28 treated Coca-Cola as his personal piggybank: Candler, Asa Griggs Candler, 145.
Page 28 Progressive changes . . . profits to investors: Candler, Asa Griggs Candler, 266.
Page 28 “forced liquidation” . . . “he was ready”: Candler, Asa Griggs Candler, 146.
Page 28 contribution of $1 million: Asa Candler to Warren Candler, July 16, 1914, reprinted in Candler, Asa Griggs Candler, 398.
The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink Page 33
