It worked so well that by 1968, Coca-Cola was personally flying Martin Luther King, Jr.’s widow to his funeral (while still reportedly discriminating against black employees, however). They aggressively courted the black dollar, hiring all-black sales teams and placing advertisements featuring black entertainers in black publications. In fact, Coca-Cola’s troubled history with the black community is the whole reason Pepsi managed to enter the market so successfully in the ‘40s. Related: America's Tomatoes Taste Like Garbage (Because Of Racism) 8 The Real Reason Pepsi Became a Competitor Note that Coca-Cola still contains coca leaf extract, it’s just had the good stuff removed first. Rumors started to spread that Georgia was beset by black men assaulting white women in Coke-intoxicated frenzies, and Candler wasn’t about that bad press, so he removed the cocaine and also cut all ties to black consumers for good measure. Related: 5 Flat-Out Wrong Things About Religions You Probably Believeĩ They Only Took The Cocaine Out Because of RacismĪs for the cocaine, it had already been removed in 1903, but not for any DEA-y reasons. In the end, Coke had to cut its caffeine content in half. #Coca cola death squad trial#The trial was a real roller coaster, featuring expert witnesses whose testimony backfired when they said that caffeine was actually fine, a successful argument by Coke that it wasn’t a naturally occurring ingredient rather than an additive, and then the swift reversal of that decision. government sued Coca-Cola to remove a dangerous stimulant from its product - not cocaine but caffeine. Related: The 6 Least Solemn Funerals Around the World 10 Its First Controversy Was About Caffeine According to legend, Candler bought the name at Pemberton’s funeral by offering his distraught widow $300 for it, and Charley Pemberton soon conveniently died of a drug overdose and a mysterious fire destroyed all evidence of the Pemberton family’s legal rights to the business. After he died the next year, the rights to the name passed on to his widow and the formula to his son, Charley, who was also something of a wayward drug addict. You OK?īy 1887, Pemberton had brought several investors into the Coca-Cola Company as partners, including Asa Candler, a move he would have certainly regretted if he’d lived long enough to see its consequences. He even claimed it was “a most wonderful invigorator of sexual organs." You heard it here first: Coke makes your junk better. Pemberton was quick to seize on this opportunity by marketing Coca-Cola as a medicine, treating and preventing everything from indigestion to malaria. Pre-Google society was shockingly dumb and easily wowed by things like bubbles, so they assumed carbonated water was better for you than stupid tap water. Related: The 6 Most Surprising Ways Alcohol Is Actually Good for You 12 Then It Was Sold As Medicine Pemberton was ever adaptable: Soon after he started selling his coca wine, the Georgia county where he lived outlawed alcohol consumption, so he simply replaced the wine with a sugar syrup, changed the name, and created the slogan “Coca-Cola: The temperance drink.” Keep in mind that it was still totally cocaineful, and even now, Coca-Cola contains tiny traces of alcohol as a natural byproduct of its manufacturing processes. 13 Then It Was Sold As An Alternative to Alcohol
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