Coca-Cola's rich heritage in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - The whopping $35.36 million paid for a classic Andy Warhol black-and-white Coke bottle on canvas during a recent Sotheby’s post-war auction in New York proves that Coke is one of America’s significant 20th century icon.

Warhol founded Pop Art whose paintings and prints of Presidents, movie stars, soda bottles, soup cans and other icons of America made him one of the most famous artists in the world.

To celebrate the rich heritage of Coca-Cola in the Philippines, the company’s local executives recently held a one-day affair dubbed “A Date With History” and an exhibit of old Coke artifacts, products and memorabilia at the New World Hotel. Coke was first bottled in the Philippines in 1912 and the country has long been one of the top 10 markets for Coke products.

The exhibit displayed black-and-white photos of the old Coke manufacturing plant in the provinces, sepia and colored advertisements of Coke selling for five cents in the 60s, showbiz luminary Gloria Romero as a Coke model and in the 80s, the colorful Coke ads of Regine Velasquez and Sharon Cuneta. But the star of the exhibit was the iconic contour Coke bottles.

Ted Ryan, who manages Coke’s archives collections and exhibits, was the special guest at the event and talked about Coke’s heritage and its many icons and stories to a rousing audience.

In an interview with The Star, Ryan said Coke appealed to Filipinos because of the brand’s spirit of optimism and happiness.

Pinoys, as a fun-loving and warm people, love the concept of good feelings and happy thoughts and Coke’s ads have successfully captured the feelings of Filipinos.

He said the Philippines is a special market for Coke.

“The Philippines is also one of the earliest countries in Asia to begin producing advertising to relate to the Filipino people. The brand has used this long heritage and good advertising to relate to the Filipino people,” Ryan said.

He added that through the years, Coke’s brand of advertising has always recognized that even amidst the complexity and stress of modern day life, each day presents opportunities to find moments of simple pleasure.

“This brand of Coke’s advertising bodes well to the culture and attitude of Filipinos. The advertising I saw during my time in Manila had that same spirit of optimism and happiness. The Coca-Cola advertising does reflect the attitude and nature of the different countries where it is sold,” Ryan said.

Since it started in the early 20th century, Ryan said they made it a point to make some of Coke’s inspiring stories available to the employees.

“We make sure that some of the stories that are critical to our brand or company are available to our employees. The purpose of my visit to the Philippines was to do just that. I just told the stories of our company and its icons including the contour bottle, the rich advertising and our heritage of helping people. The response was outstanding,” he said.

Photo shows top Coke executives gracing the event ‘A Date With History.’ From left: Ted Ryan, Coke’s archives manager, Guillermo Aponte, general sales manager, Coke Philippines Inc. and Shakir Moin, Coke’s marketing director.

He also lauded the Filipinos involvement in advertising Coke and turning the Philippines into a Coke country.

Ryan also discussed that Coke has been using the new media as a tool to reach out and let the younger generation know about Coke’s rich heritage.

“We have three main social media sites. Coca-ColaConversations.com is the blog we maintain posting two to three post per week. I also maintain the Coke Archives facebook page and the @Coke_Archives Twitter feeds. All three are used to tell stories of Coca- Cola and popular culture,” he said.

There are also free Ipad heritage application that people can download from app stores on Itunes.

“It is currently only available for iPad but we are hoping to launch both iPhone and Android versions early next year,” he said.

Coke, Christmas and Santa

The Philippines has the longest Christmas celebration and it is almost natural that Filipinos are drawn to Santa Claus. Coke has pioneered in making Santa Claus a centerpiece of its advertising throughout the years, especially during the holiday season.

“Santa Claus is very closely tied with Coca-Cola, and he appears in a number of Coke ads. We have a rich history with Santa. The famous Coca-Cola Santa Claus by artist Haddon Sundblom appeared in advertising from 1931 to 1964, and still appears in our advertising today, he added.

In one of Coke’s blogs, Phil Mooney, Coke's archivist and historian for 30 years now rectified a rumor that Santa Claus wears read because it’s Coca-Cola’s color.

“That was the subject of one of my first posts on the Coke blog. In fact, Santa was wearing red before the Coca-Cola Santa Claus was created, but the image most of us have of Santa – warm, friendly and filled with the joy of the season – is indeed based on our ads,” said Mooney.

Although, Coca-Cola did help to create the modern-day image of Santa, and the way people see Santa Claus – friendly and plump with a white beard – did come from Coca-Cola advertising, Mooney said.

“Before these ads, Santa was drawn in a variety of ways – even as a scary elf – but he was already wearing red. Coca-Cola introduced this new friendly, human image of Santa (created by illustrator Haddon Sundblom) in December 1931. Sundblom created holiday ads for Coke featuring Santa, and those images continue to be used each year on bottles, cans and 12-packs,” he added.

Ryan said he tremendously enjoyed his stay in the Philippines because of the warm hospitality of the Filipinos and promised to come back.

“I greatly enjoyed the Christmas spirit I felt in Manila. I am a big fan of Christmas, so I felt right at home. It is really an awesome experience to be here ” he said.