1944 magazine ad from The Coca-Cola Company, illustrated by Dean Cornwell
Source: reddit / Archive New Zealand
On 15 January 1889, the Coca-Cola Company —then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company— was originally incorporated in Georgia, US. At the time it was incorporated, the company sold Pemberton's Indian Queen Hair Dye, Pemberton's Globe Flower Cough Syrup, and Pemberton's French Wine Cola —a moderately successful health drink made from extracts of the coca leaf and kola nut. French Wine Cola was the predecessor to the famous Coca-Cola.
Although New Zealand has produced soft drinks since the 1830s, it was the in late 1930s that Coca-Cola began to frequent New Zealand shores. As Te Ara notes, "Coca-Cola was popularised by American servicemen in New Zealand during the Second World War. It was imported ready-made from 1939, and made locally from imported concentrate after 1944."
The link between Coca-Cola and American servicemen can be seen in this kitschy and now politically-incorrect painting held at Archives New Zealand: warart.archives.govt.nz/node/1089. Dean Cornwell's "Have a "Coke" = Kia Ora" was painted c.1943-1945, and comes from the extensive collection of War Art. (...)
- Two soldiers and Maori with coke drinks ['Have a coke - Kia Ora'] by Dean Cornwell, c.1943 - 1945
On 15 May 1940 the world’s first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in San Bernadino, California, by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. The restaurant originally had 25 menu items and used ‘carhops’ to serve customers in their vehicles. Later in the decade the brothers reorganised their business as a hamburger stand using production line principles. The company was franchised in the 1950s, and went on to quickly spread throughout the United States and the rest of the world. Today the restaurant chain has more than 36,000 outlets in 119 countries and is one of the most recognisable brands on the planet.
In June 1976 the first McDonald’s restaurant opened in New Zealand, in Porirua near Wellington. However, there had been some hesitancy when the idea was proposed by two New Zealand businessmen about expanding the franchise to New Zealand, owing to the small local population. The brothers then negotiated a deal with the corporation by selling New Zealand cheese to the US to offset the high costs of importing plant equipment. The Porirua franchise was much more successful than the corporation predicted, and today there are approximately 167 outlets in New Zealand.
This photograph of the first Porirua McDonald’s Restaurant was taken by P. Martin in September 1976, and comes from the collection of National Publicity studios.
- 1944 newspaper ad for Coca-Cola - US Soldier in New Zealand, Kia Ora, WW2 ad
- 1944 Coca-Cola Soda Ad - art by Dean Cornwell - Have a Coke = Kia Ora Good Luck
- 1944 Coke New Zealand Maori & US soldier art Coca Cola vintage print ad
- The Cola Conquest Pt 1: The Big Sell — Documentary
- The Cola Conquest Pt 2: Cola War and Peace — Documentary
- The Cola Conquest Pt. 3: Cola Colonization — Documentary
After reading anthropologist Robert Foster's book "Coca Globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New Guinea," Lehigh University students Elif Anda '16 and Nadine Elsayed '16 composed this audiovisual commentary in response as a project in their Fall 2015 Global Studies/Anthropology course "Cultural Studies and Globalization."
- Opening Sequence
- Mach Mal pause... Trink Coca-cola
- Tell him about Coca-Cola colonialism
- We suppy the sirup, you do the bottling
