Celebrating 100 years of the Coca-Cola Bottle

Did you know that the Coca-Cola bottle is so unique that it could be recognized by touch alone and can even be identified even when shattered into pieces on the ground? Oh yes, it is! And this is just one of the many trivia facts I learned last October 2, 2015 at the Coca-Cola Bottle Art Tour in Bonifacio High Street.

The famous Coca-Cola bottle design just turned 100 years old this 2015, and to celebrate this milestone, The Coca-Cola Company began a year-long campaign which includes the exhibit entitled, The Coca-Cola Bottle Art Tour:  Inspiring Pop Culture for 100 Years.  Thankfully, I was able to bring my binata to the exhibit after classes were suspended because of the typhoon. The Philippines is just one of the 15 countries that the exhibit will visit.

Coca-Cola has become so popular in the early 1900's that competitors would copy the famous trademark in its packaging. To resolve this, The Coca-Cola Bottling Association had 8 bottle manufacturers design  a distinctive new bottle that would be "recognizable in the dark or lying broken in the ground."

The Coca-Cola Bottle that we know today was created in November 16, 1915 by the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Ind.  They mistook the cocoa bean as an ingredient in the secret recipe of Coca-Cola that they drew inspiration for their design from the cocoa pod illustrated in a 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. It has since become a global icon, inspiring a century's worth of signature moments in film, social history, design, and fine arts.

The Coca-Cola Company's Director of Heritage Communications, Ted Ryan, was present during the press conference in the first day of the exhibit. According to him, the Bottle Art Tour curates 100 years' worth of happiness in film, social history, design, and fine arts.

Eighteen (18) artists have contributed to the artworks showcased in the Bottle Art Tour, some of them being forerunners of the Pop Art Movement of which my boy is so fond of. Among them are Andy Warhol, known for his Campbell's Soup Cans, and Haddon Sundblom, the man behind the popular depictions of the Santa Claus.


By the way, did you know that the jolly, chubby Santa Claus in a red suit that we know today actually started in a Coca-Cola ad? Yup! Before that, Santa was depicted as an old man dressed in a green suit and was known as Saint Nicholas.

Our Coca-Cola Bottle Art Tour experience was really one for the books. Indeed, the tour was a treat for all the five senses. Yes, including taste because you can actually drink Coca-Cola while touring around the exhibit.  Special thanks to our friends from Coca-Cola Philippines for the invite!


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