Coca-Cola is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. While we were there we had to go visit it. I figured it would be neat to see the history and all of the old ad campaigns.
I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures, but if you’re interested this is the official website for the World of Coca-Cola.
The best part of my visit was that I was horribly thirsty by the time that we arrived and when you walk in they offer you a complimentary bottle of coke. Coke had never tasted so good (I used to be a die-hard Pepsi girl).
There were all different exhibits that you could see. They showed you how Coke was invented and what a typical soda fountain counter would look like. They had the various ad campaigns throughout their history plus different marketing items that they had used. Sarah and I walked through saying, “I remember that!” and critiquing the ads that we’d never seen.
I was intrigued by the many decorated Coke bottles that they had scattered throughout the place. I’m sure that somewhere was an explanation as to the why’s and how’s, but I preferred to just enjoy them without knowing the back story.
We sat in a theater and watched commercials that they had used, plus commercials that were aired in other countries. If you want a good laugh at something that just doesn’t seem like a good marketing campaign do a search on YouTube for Russian Brrr Coca-Cola commercial. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you!
Isn’t this one pretty? It looks like a Ming vase.
I wanted to touch it and see if it was porcelain, but I didn’t dare. I figured that would get me tossed out.
And probably by the creepy polar bear…
Okay, so Sarah and I disagreed on this polar bear. She thought he was cute. I thought he was creepy. You were allowed to take your picture with him and I avoided that area at all costs. To be fair, I don’t like the movie “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” because I get creeped out at the part where the suits of armors are lined up for battle, but they lose the magic that brought them to life so they all whither down into heaps. So perhaps I’m the creepy one…
As we were walking up the stairs towards the room where the commercials were playing, which was right next to the tasting room, I spotted this bottle. I wanted to take a better picture of it, but there was a docent there who looked like he could easily get chatty. I wanted to avoid that at all costs so I took my pictures as quickly as I could.
I did manage to snap one more, though. Look! They’ve got a moat of broken Coke bottle glass! It was much more impressive in person.
Not only can you see this broken glass, but they show you the Coke bottle throughout its history. You can also walk through an exhibit that shows you how they make and bottle it. I thought that it was put together very nicely.
In one of the rooms they had a giant display of various things people have made out of Coke bottles, cans and caps. Or stuff that was modeled after Coke. Do you see the two helicopters on the shelf?
And there was an airplane hanging up at the top….
Plus one ready for take-off on a lower shelf. As I was looking at all of these creations the number one thing that ran through my mind was: How badly did these people cut themselves up when making these things??
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Twister” then you know what I’m talking about…
I don’t have a picture of it, but the last room was the Tasting room. I didn’t really want to hang out in this room for long because a) there were a ton of kids running around in there and we all know how they act after drinking a lot of sugary beverages and b) the floor was incredibly sticky!
Overall it was a very interesting visit! I would love to go back if I could figure out a time when there wasn’t a billion screaming kids in there trying to play with whatever interactive display you are trying to read. I will also continue to avoid the creepy polar bear. He’s the stuff of which nightmares are made!
