Search

As everybody knows, Coca-Cola is a symbol for the American consumer culture, at the same time, it is a top global brand-value drink. However, at its early stage, Coca-Cola was advertised and sold as a patent medicine for headaches, gastroenteritis, or tonic. If then, why has its usage been switched from patent medicine to soft drink despite its ingredients has been little changed more than 120 years? This article tries to answer to this question by way of analyzing the advertisements of Coca-Cola. Unlike the existing interpretation, Joseph Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola, sold it as a soda beverage. As its sale was very bad, however, he switched its selling target into a patent medicine for the white-collar. Due to Pemberton's untimely death, Asa Candler undertook Pemberton's business. He also posited its goal as a patent medicine. Once its purchasers had been diverse, about after 1890s he also advertised it as a soft drink for the mass consumers. At that time, in particular, Frank Robinson being responsible for its advertisement keenly recognized the advent of mass consumer society in America. Even though this kind of Candler's dual strategy seems to be ambiguous whether it was patent medicine or soft drink, in fact, he seemed to strive for two purposes at the same time. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, when the federal government imposed taxes to the medicinal goods the Coca-Cola Company stood at the crossroad. Furthermore, when the federal government basing on the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 raised a lawsuit against the Coca-Cola Company, its advertising strategy had been changed. As a result, at its ad copies words such as 'relieve fatigue,' 'tonic,' 'nerve' had disappeared, instead, words such as 'fun,' 'pleasure,' 'satisfying,' 'thirst' had shown up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]