Product placement in Not One Less: Coca-Cola China

Coca-Cola China
Originally uploaded by Marc van der Chijs

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines internationally. The Coca-Cola Company claims that the beverage is sold in more than 200 countries.[1] It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke, writes Wikipedia.

Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century.

The first sales were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886.[8] It was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents[9] a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time due to the belief that carbonated water was good for the health.[10] Pemberton claimed Coca-Cola cured many diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence.

Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time in 1894. The first outdoor wall advertisement was painted in the same year in Cartersville, Georgia.[18] Cans of Coke first appeared in 1955.[19] The first bottling of Coca-Cola occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the Biedenharn Candy Company in 1891.

Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose; in 1891, Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton's original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Coca-Cola did once contain an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass, but in 1903 it was removed.[31] Coca-Cola still contains coca flavoring.