0:03 Coca-Cola spend endless billions on
0:05 Advertising every year but will never
0:08 once try to sell you on their products
0:11 they sell an idea happiness Harmony
0:14 togetherness but some would say it's a
0:16 distraction from the disturbing truth
0:18 there were a lot of serious accusations
0:19 against the company that they've caused
0:22 disease droughts exploitation and much
0:24 much worse so buckle up we're going on a
0:26 journey through K's incredible history
0:28 spanning three different centuries we'll
0:31 be examining how coke Cola really became
0:34 one of the most recognized Brands ever
0:36 and at what cost because one thing is
0:38 for sure you don't build an Empire
0:41 selling sugar water by telling people the
0:41 the [Music]
1:01 truth King's eyes Coca-Cola gives you
1:03 that refreshing new feeling there's
1:10 Coca-Cola back in the 1880s there was a
1:13 bit of a backlash against doctors and
1:15 people started using home remedies
1:17 instead and a bunch of deceitful
1:18 entrepreneurs pounced on this
1:21 opportunity and started creating potions
1:23 in alexas that they claimed had a wide
1:25 variety of medical
1:28 benefits the truth was that they were
1:30 mostly dangerous ineffective concoctions
1:33 of various different chemicals but with
1:35 no regulation they could claim whatever
1:37 health benefits they wanted so business
1:39 was booming one popular patent medicine
1:41 was called Vin marani which contained a
1:44 mix of wine and cocaine that supposedly
1:46 cured almost any elment or sickness
1:48 whatsoever as long as you drank three
1:50 glasses every day and one person who
1:52 absolutely loved this drink was a man
1:54 named John pton a war veteran who had
1:56 been severely injured in battle the
1:57 doctors had actually thought he was
1:59 going to die and dosed him up on
2:01 morphine to try and mash the pain for
2:03 his final few hours but Jon somehow
2:05 survived however he did develop a
2:08 serious morphine addiction which is why
2:09 when he discovered viin Mariani he
2:11 became hooked on the drink he thought it
2:13 was helping him overcome his morphine
2:15 addiction and of course after drinking
2:17 it he really did feel better but that's
2:19 not because it was medicinal it's
2:21 because it contained wine and
2:24 cocaine but since pton loved the drink
2:26 and he was a chemist himself he decided
2:28 to create his own version and in 1884 he
2:30 launched French wine coca which was
2:33 basically a ripoff of VI Mariani with a
2:35 couple more ingredients added and yet
2:37 this knockoff drink would soon become
2:40 cocaa now to be fair to pton he wasn't
2:42 some snake or salesman trying to
2:44 deliberately rip people off he really
2:46 believed in his products however Pim
2:49 button's timing was terrible just a year
2:51 later prohibition hits with many states
2:53 banning alcohol pimberton had to take
2:55 the wine out of his drink and replace it
2:58 with carbonated water but this left the
3:00 drink tasting very bitter so he added a
3:09 that now that the wine was removed he
3:11 could continue selling French wine coca
3:13 but they needed a new name luckily
3:16 pemberton's bookkeeper Frank Robinson
3:17 came up with a catchy sounding
3:20 suggestion Coca-Cola now the company
3:22 would later claim that the name doesn't
3:23 mean anything and it's just a nice
3:26 sounding alliteration of course this
3:28 isn't true the name was a reference to
3:30 the drink's two main ingredients
3:32 the colon nut which contained caffeine
3:34 and the coca leaf which contained
3:37 cocaine to this day Coca-Cola deny their
3:39 formula has ever contained cocaine
3:42 despite the fact it's extremely well
3:44 documented it contained the coca leaf
3:46 which contains cocaine eventually by
3:48 1929 they would find a way to remove all
3:51 the active cocaine from the coca leaves
3:53 once it became clear that cocaine wasn't
3:55 quite the magical medicine they'd first
3:58 thought but back in the 1880s nobody was
4:00 worried about the cocaine in the Dr
4:02 so now that the wine had been removed
4:05 Coca-Cola could continue being sold the
4:06 only problem is not many people were
4:08 buying it pimberton was still trying to
4:10 sell people on the medicinal aspect of
4:12 the drink early ads for Coca-Cola
4:14 described it as a harmless wonderful
4:16 brain tonic that relieves headaches and
4:19 upset stomachs but sales were slow
4:21 because there were countless other
4:23 patent medicines offering the same thing
4:25 so coke didn't really stand out
4:27 meanwhile pimberton was becoming
4:30 increasingly ill his pain was worse and
4:32 his addiction growing stronger and by
4:35 1888 John pimpton was
4:38 dead the tragedy is he had absolutely no
4:40 idea that his drink would soon become
4:42 one of the most well-known drinks on the
4:45 entire planet [Music]
5:02 right before pton died he sold the
5:03 company for
5:06 $2,300 to an ambitious workaholic named
5:09 Asa Candler kandler then began buying
5:11 out any outstanding shares owned by
5:12 other people so he could have the
5:15 company fully under his control later
5:17 investigations would find that canler
5:18 may not have really bought all those
5:20 shares as some of the documents
5:22 contained Forge signatures we may never
5:24 know exactly what happened because
5:26 Candler then had the early records of
5:29 the company burned most likely to cover
5:30 his track
5:32 but all that was irrelevant Because by
5:34 the 1890s ACA Candler was fully in
5:36 charge of Coca-Cola but remember the
5:38 drink wasn't actually that popular at
5:40 first so Candler started filling the
5:42 town with Coke branded banners
5:44 Billboards and placards they even
5:46 painted the logo on barns and basically
5:49 plastered the Coca-Cola logo on anything
5:51 they could so people started seeing the
5:53 logo everywhere they went but one of
5:55 Coke's first Strokes of marketing genius
5:57 was to contact every Pharmacy in the
6:00 area get a list of their top customers
6:02 and send them a free coupon for
6:04 Coca-Cola the logic was that by giving
6:05 people a free trial they'd become
6:07 customers for life especially since the
6:09 drink contains several addictive
6:12 chemicals however it soon became clear
6:14 that advertising Coca-Cola as a medicine
6:16 was the wrong strategy rather than just
6:18 Market to people who were ill they could
6:20 Market it to everyone by simply
6:22 positioning it as a tasty relaxing drink
6:24 that anyone could enjoy this had the
6:26 added benefit of disassociating
6:28 Coca-Cola from the patent medicine
6:30 industry which would soon face a lot of
6:32 scrutiny once people realize that most
6:34 of their claims were complete lies
6:36 Coca-Cola's Mass marketing strategy was
6:39 a huge hit as the SES started to grow
6:41 rapidly kandler reinvested more and more
6:43 money into advertising and even started
6:45 paying movie stars and athletes to
6:48 endorse the drink is that Coca-Cola yes
6:50 sir so much of coke success has been
6:52 about creating such a positive wholesome
6:54 image in people's minds of what the
6:57 drink represents and what better way to
6:59 do that than pay popular celebrities to
7:01 recommend drink they even started
7:03 heavily featuring Santa Claus in their
7:05 ads at Christmas always holding a Coke
7:06 to make the connection in young kids
7:09 Minds between Coca-Cola and the joy of
7:11 Christmas of course none of this
7:13 marketing may sound particularly special
7:16 but at the time it was Coca-Cola
7:18 pioneered many marketing strategies that
7:21 soon became common place for example sex
7:24 sales may be an advertising cliche these
7:27 days but very few mainstream companies
7:29 exploited this as much as cope did with
7:31 their use of Coca-Cola girls attractive
7:33 women who always had a Coke in hand Coke
7:36 even created a statistical Department to
7:38 analyze car traffic and movement in
7:40 supermarkets so they could determine the
7:43 most effective places to put their ads
7:45 and as new technology was introduced
7:48 from radios to TV Coke was always ready
7:50 to throw money into advertising on these
7:52 new mediums to ensure everyone
7:55 everywhere knew about its product
7:57 initially though Coke was mostly sold in
7:59 soda fountains this allowed Coke to save
8:01 huge amounts of money because they
8:03 simply had to distribute the syrup and
8:04 then it would be mixed with carbonated
8:07 water by whoever was selling it so the
8:08 shipping and distribution cost for Coke
8:11 were much lower but then one day two
8:14 lawyers named Benjamin and Joseph came
8:16 to ASA kandler with an idea let's bottle
8:18 it kendler thought this was a really
8:20 dumb idea bottling was very expensive
8:23 and complicated but Benjamin and Joseph
8:25 said they would take on all the cost and
8:28 risk themselves so kandler agreed and
8:29 signed a contract granting them full
8:31 bottling rights for Coca-Cola for just a
8:34 nominal fee of $1 kendler figured he had
8:37 nothing to lose in the unlikely scenario
8:38 that this bottling idea actually went
8:40 well it simply meant he would sell lots
8:43 more of the coke syrup of course as we
8:45 now know bottled Coke wasn't
8:48 unimaginably huge success customers Lov
8:50 to bottle Coke so at first this was
8:52 great for kler it meant the bottlers
8:53 were buying loads and loads of coke
8:55 syrup from him and this was a great
8:57 Revenue stream for the business but
8:59 there was one very major problem because
9:01 kandler hadn't believed bottl and Coke
9:03 would work he'd put almost no thought
9:06 into the contract he signed so there was
9:08 no time frame set on the deal and no
9:10 mention about changing the price if the
9:13 cost to produce the coke syrup increased
9:15 what this meant is that ACA Candler had
9:17 given the bottlers a NeverEnding
9:19 contract to supply them with Coke syrup
9:21 at the same low price no matter how much
9:23 the cost of the raw ingredients went up
9:25 this would lead to multiple lawsuits
9:27 Between Coke and its bottlers over the
9:29 next few decades the Coca-Cola Company
9:31 would end up paying countless millions
9:32 of dollarss to buy back some of the
9:34 rights that kandler had sold away for
9:38 just $1 but back in the early 1900s this
9:40 wasn't a worry for Candler because sales
9:42 of Coca-Cola were higher than ever and
9:44 growing every year of course this wasn't
9:45 really because of the product there were
9:47 countless very similar drinks out there
9:49 I remember Coca-Cola was a knockoff of
9:52 another drink anyway the reason for the
9:54 rapid growth was marketing every single
9:56 year Coca-Cola spent more and more money
9:58 on advertising and every single year
10:02 sales of Coca-Cola grew however arguably
10:04 Coca-Cola's biggest successes of all
10:23 Source once the second world war broke
10:24 out it was announced sugar would be
10:27 rationed however Coca-Cola made the
10:29 Absurd claim that they should be exempt
10:30 from the sugar rationing because Coke
10:33 was an essential wartime product and
10:37 even more absurdly the government agreed
10:39 this was largely because Coca-Cola spent
10:41 huge amounts of money on lobbying the
10:42 government kooch funded countless
10:44 studies to try and convince the
10:46 government of Koch's benefits and they
10:48 claimed that Koke would keep up morale
10:50 and provide an energy boost for soldiers
10:52 eventually the US government agreed to
10:54 appoint a Coca-Cola executive onto the
10:56 rationing board who then gave Coca-Cola
10:58 an exemption from sugar rationing whilst
11:00 every other company had to reduce the
11:01 quantities of sugar they used during the
11:04 war and Coca-Cola didn't stop there K's
11:06 president publicly promised we will see
11:08 the every man in uniform gets a bottle
11:11 of Coca-Cola for 5 cents wherever he is
11:14 and whatever it costs our company now by
11:16 selling at this low price Coca-Cola
11:18 would lose money on each drink sold and
11:22 yet this decision was absolutely genius
11:24 firstly in the eyes of the public and
11:26 especially soldiers it created a strong
11:27 connection between kooch and the war
11:29 effort and helped kooch gain huge public
11:32 support and Goodwill in the minds of
11:34 millions of Americans Koch and
11:36 patriotism became connected Koch seized
11:38 upon this opportunity to run new wartime
11:41 ads showing soldiers holding Coke
11:43 bottles but not just that behind the
11:45 scenes Koke had made a deal with the
11:47 government about getting money to help
11:49 them set up Coca-Cola Bottling plants
11:51 overseas they claimed it would spread
11:53 American influence and boost Soldier
11:55 morale but what it really meant is the
11:58 tax payout was helping to fund K's
12:00 International expansion during the war
12:02 64 Coke bottling plants were set up
12:04 around the world on different continents
12:07 mostly funded by the government in fact
12:08 the technicians who installed Coca-Cola
12:11 plants during the war were deemed just
12:13 as vital as the people who were fixing
12:15 tanks and planes and because Coke was
12:17 now accessible to soldiers wherever they
12:19 were in the world they started sharing
12:21 the drink with the locals helping Coke's
12:23 expansion into even more new countries
12:25 the soldiers were so thankful for Coke
12:26 sending them A Taste of Home during the
12:28 hell of war that they became the drink's biggest
12:29 biggest
12:32 Advocates the US military basically
12:34 became a Coca-Cola sales force
12:36 introducing new people to Coke wherever
12:38 they went so whilst the war had a
12:40 devastating impact on most companies and
12:43 people Coca-Cola were expanding faster
12:46 than ever all over the globe as of today
12:47 there's only two countries in the world
12:50 that don't sell Coke Cuba and North
12:52 Korea and that the deals Coke made
12:53 during the war were largely responsible
12:56 for Coke's rapid Global expansion across
12:58 the planet now there's just one tiny
13:00 little problem with this heartwarming
13:03 idea of Coca-Cola as a patriotic company
13:06 looking out for American soldiers which
13:08 is that during the war the Coca-Cola
13:10 company was supplying Nazi Germany with
13:14 Coke as well yep whilst in the US Coke
13:15 were preaching about supporting the
13:18 troops in Germany they were busy trying
13:20 to disassociate themselves from anything
13:22 American and often showed the coke logo
13:25 alongside swers Coke was even
13:26 distributed at Hitler Youth rallies and
13:29 advertised on Nazi educational pamphlets
13:31 Coca-Cola was literally playing both
13:34 sides after all Germany was a huge
13:36 market for them however as the war
13:38 progressed restrictions were introduced
13:40 that cut off the supply for many Goods
13:42 to Germany for most multinational
13:44 corporations this meant they couldn't
13:46 sell their products to Germans anymore
13:47 but the head of kooch's biggest bottling
13:50 operation in Germany a man named Max Kai
13:52 had an idea to counteract these
13:54 restrictions he got local chemists to
13:56 create a new drink that was vaguely
13:57 similar to Coke but rather than being
13:59 made with the coke syrup which could no
14:01 longer be imported it was instead made
14:03 from the leftover scraps from other food
14:06 produce like apple fiber this new drink
14:08 would later be named
14:10 Fanta and since so many other drinks had
14:12 been banned because of the war Fanta
14:14 became a huge hit in Nazi Germany some
14:16 sources even suggest that kyth used
14:18 Force labor from concentration camps to
14:21 help produce it what we know for sure is
14:22 that at the end of the war the profits
14:24 of this new Fanta drink all went back to
14:26 the Coca-Cola headquarters and Max was
14:28 given a promotion in the Coca-Cola
14:31 Company and by 1955 Koch was selling
14:33 Fanta in many different countries around
14:35 the world of course like so much of
14:38 their history Koke tried to distance
14:41 themselves from what really
14:43 happened however Coca-Cola would never
14:44 have been able to expand across the
14:46 world so rapidly if they didn't have a
14:48 team of polygot who could speak multiple
14:50 languages which brings us to our video
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15:56 story Koke will try to tell you that
15:58 their biggest secret is the drink secret
15:59 formula which is hidden in a high
16:02 Security Vault for dramatic effect but
16:04 the formula isn't that secret it's on
16:07 Wikipedia of course Coca-Cola success
16:09 has very little to do with the formula
16:10 you could create a clone product but
16:12 you're never going to be able to compete
16:14 with them let's look at why one day a
16:16 teacher a new school suggested to the
16:17 Headmaster they add some healthier
16:20 choices to the school vending machines
16:22 like some fruit juices she was horrified
16:23 when she was told it wouldn't be
16:25 possible because the school had an
16:27 exclusive contract with Coca-Cola Koch
16:30 paid the school 3,00 000 a year or
16:32 around $1 per student in order to
16:34 dictate which product the school sold it
16:36 turns out contracts like this had been
16:38 struck with countless different schools
16:40 as part of Coke's Cradle to grave
16:42 strategy basically the best way to make
16:44 someone a Coke customer for life is to
16:45 ensure they drink it from the earliest
16:48 age possible one Coke marketing Chief
16:49 pointed out that it's far easier to get
16:51 them at a young vulnerable age to become
16:53 a Coke customer for life than try to
16:55 convert them later on when they're older
16:57 in some of the contracts the school
16:58 could even earn additional money by
17:01 selling more Coca-Cola to its kids and
17:03 since many schools were underfunded and
17:04 in desperate need of money they would
17:07 shell Coke's products to their children
17:08 this is just one of many ways Koke have
17:10 managed to circumvent the rules about
17:12 advertising to children another way is
17:14 that Koke has produced countless
17:16 collector's items including Barbie dolls
17:19 playing cars board games delivery trucks
17:21 and other toys that they claim are for
17:23 adults then of course there's all the
17:26 Christmas ads deliberately tying Santa
17:28 and Coca-Cola together in the minds of
17:31 impressionable children in 1982 K even
17:32 bought Columbia Pictures so they could
17:34 easily integrate product placement into
17:36 their films although they later sold the
17:38 film studio and decided just to pay
17:39 other companies for Coke product
17:41 placement instead but product placement
17:43 in family films is a clever loophole
17:45 that allows them to circumvent rules
17:48 about targeting children and it works
17:50 research has shown that even for babies
17:51 Koke is one of the most recognized
17:54 brands in the world but back in the'80s
17:56 a problem was emerging for Coke more and
17:58 more data was piling up about the
17:59 negative negative health effects Coke
18:01 was having there had always been
18:03 concerns about Coke rotting your teeth
18:05 but new data was showing the serious
18:07 effects Coke was having on Obesity
18:09 diabetes and a string of other health
18:11 issues for example one study of children
18:13 found that even just one extra sugary
18:16 soft drink a day gave them a 60% greater
18:18 chance of becoming overweight another
18:19 showed that if babies are exposed to a
18:21 high intake of sugar they will be
18:23 conditioned to depend on sugar for the
18:28 lives for a brand that is built upon its
18:30 image of wholesomeness it was a major
18:32 setback being so directly connected to
18:35 such a wide variety of health problems
18:36 especially since Koke was actively
18:38 pursuing a strategy of offering bigger
18:40 and bigger portion sizes of its drink it
18:42 also didn't help that the drink
18:44 contained caffeine Coca-Cola claimed
18:46 that this was purely for Taste purposes
18:48 but in blind taste tests people couldn't
18:49 tell the difference with a
18:51 non-caffeinated version this left some
18:53 people wondering why Coke continue to
18:55 add this addictive caffeine to a drink
18:57 that's being sold so much to kids
18:59 however the soda industry had come to a
19:01 similar realization that the tobacco
19:03 industry had come to it's easier to cast
19:05 doubt on the science than debate on
19:07 policies because you can always just
19:09 claim that more research is needed so
19:11 behind the scenes Koke was pouring
19:13 hundreds of thousands of dollars into
19:15 studies to cast doubts on the connection
19:17 between soft drinks and obesity and
19:19 diabetes unsurprisingly the studies paid
19:22 for by Coke generally claimed that coke
19:24 wasn't causing many health problems
19:26 however they conveniently didn't mention
19:29 who'd funded those studies
19:31 Coke also spent endless millions of
19:32 dollars on lobbying State officials
19:34 against sugar taxes and stronger dietary
19:37 guidelines they reportedly made deals
19:38 behind closed doors about donating to
19:40 certain politicians campaigns in favor
19:43 of special treatment for Coke they also
19:44 continue to throw billions of dollars
19:46 into sponsoring athletes and major
19:48 sporting events to try and create the
19:49 illusion of a connection between great
19:56 Coca-Cola however K good sense they
19:58 could only store for so long before the
20:00 science became too undeniable to dispute
20:02 so they began expanding into other
20:05 drinks for example a bottled water brand
20:07 called danani however this immediately
20:10 backfired when it launched in the UK as
20:11 it was quickly discovered that this
20:13 expensive bottled water had essentially
20:16 just come out of a local tap now cat
20:17 tried to defend itself by explaining
20:19 they run the water through some kind of
20:21 purification process but this just made
20:23 things worse because it turns out they'd
20:25 accidentally added a bad batch of
20:27 minerals that contaminated the water as
20:29 a result of half a million bottles in
20:31 circulation had to be withdrawn from
20:34 shops over safety fears in other words
20:35 Coke's attempt to produce a healthy
20:37 drink had ended up with them being
20:39 accused of selling expensive
20:42 contaminated tap water however this
20:44 wasn't the worst of Coke's contamination
20:47 problems in 1999 in Belgium children
20:48 started becoming ill after drinking
20:50 Coca-Cola eventually leading to the
20:53 recall of all Coke products France also
20:54 reported more than 100 people sick from
20:56 bad coke and temporarily banned their
20:58 products as well the company was very
21:00 very slow to respond to any of these
21:02 issues and was accused of not taking the
21:04 problem seriously enough then in India
21:06 Koch was accused of contaminating the
21:08 ground water with Wastewater Koke
21:10 actually admitted they had a Wastewater
21:11 issue but insisted they'd fix the
21:14 problem however later independent tests
21:16 still found traces of toxic sludge
21:19 produced at Coca-Cola's Indian plants
21:21 which reportedly has made the land baren
21:23 killed local animals that drank it and
21:24 destroyed the livelihoods of local
21:27 farmers the Center for Science and
21:29 environment in New Delhi also announced
21:31 it found pesticide in both Coke and
21:32 Pepsi that if consumed over a long
21:35 enough period could cause cancer birth
21:37 defects and severe disruption to the
21:38 immune system one woman from a local
21:40 Village told journalists before this
21:42 company came our lives were comfortable
21:45 and beautiful after the company came
21:46 within 6 months the taste of the water
21:49 changed another said when we bathe our
21:52 heads swim it pains and we scratch all
21:54 over and Koch's environmental record
21:56 continued to get worse you see the
21:58 company also runs bottling plants in
22:00 several drought played daras and
22:01 officials have blamed Coke for a
22:04 dramatic decline in available water this
22:05 problem was particularly bad in parts of
22:09 Mexico because between 2000 and 2006
22:10 Mexico's president was a man who'd
22:12 formerly been the head of Coca-Cola
22:14 Mexico the president started giving his
22:16 former company favorable treatment after
22:18 getting elected and during his
22:21 presidency he gave Coca-Cola 27 water
22:23 concessions which many claim allowed
22:25 Coke to pollute water and even steal
22:27 water owned by indigenous people one
22:29 local resident claimed there used to be
22:30 a lot of water here now there is a
22:33 scarcity they are not paying anything
22:35 and they are just taking our water away
22:37 during this presidency Coke sales
22:39 increased 50% and became the most
22:41 popular drink in the country critics
22:43 claim this is yet another example of
22:47 coke benefiting from Shady deals with
22:49 politicians of course Coca-Cola has
22:51 always had to acquire vast quantities of
22:54 Natural Resources in order to succeed in
22:55 fact it's the largest sugar buyer in the
22:58 world however as the '90s arrived Coke
23:00 began to face yet more negative
23:02 publicity for example in Mexico City one
23:04 shopkeeper said she was told her
23:06 deliveries of coke would stop unless she
23:07 removed an alternative Cola from her
23:10 store meanwhile in Brazil Coke TRS a new
23:12 type of vending machine that would
23:14 increase the price of coke depending on
23:16 how hot it was outside also to further
23:18 boost sales figures and trick investors
23:20 Coke engaged in Channel stuffing forcing
23:22 Distributors to buy more syrup than they
23:24 needed at the end of quarters to make
23:25 kooch's profits look better than they
23:27 really were however the backlash against
23:30 kooch reached its p when in 2003 a
23:32 campaign was launched called stop killer
23:34 Coke that claimed the Coca-Cola company
23:36 was responsible for the murder of union
23:38 members who worked in Coke bottling
23:40 plants in Colombia now Coke deny this
23:42 and the exact truth remains unclear but
23:45 what we do know is that since 1989
23:46 countless unionized workers employed at
23:48 the Coca-Cola Bottling plants in
23:50 Colombia have been killed and many more
23:52 have received death threats in fact in
23:54 2001 the international labor rights fund
23:56 filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola
23:59 Butlers claiming they'd openly engaged
24:01 death squads to intimidate torture
24:03 kidnap and even murder Union officials
24:06 in Latin America a few years later
24:07 another lawsuit was brought about by
24:10 Guatemalan workers alleging that they
24:11 and their families at the cocone
24:13 bottling plant had been victims of
24:14 violence after the workers decided to
24:17 join unions they wanted to join a union
24:18 because some workers were earning just
24:22 $15 per day for 15-hour shifts however
24:23 again there were allegations of kidnap
24:26 torture and murder of union leaders and
24:28 their family members now Coca-Cola argue
24:30 that the Guatemalan plant is
24:32 independently owned and kooch had
24:33 absolutely no knowledge of these
24:35 incidents and kooch genuinely may be
24:37 telling the truth there we don't know if
24:39 they actually colluded or knew about the
24:41 violence or if they just indirectly
24:44 benefited but either way the unions have
24:46 been decimated by the attacks and
24:48 threats and in parts of Latin America
24:50 Koko has been referred to as the sparkle
24:53 of death what we do know for sure is
24:55 that the deeper you look into K's past
24:56 the more you chip away at their
24:58 wholesome image they try to present for
25:00 example ACA Candler the entrepreneur who
25:02 Incorporated the Coca-Cola company and
25:04 played a pivotal role in popularizing
25:06 the drink once said the most beautiful
25:08 site that we see is the child at Labor
25:10 the younger the boy began work the more
25:12 beautiful however before we all get the
25:14 pitchforks out I think it's important to
25:15 acknowledge that if you look at any
25:18 giant company with such a long history
25:19 you're probably going to find some
25:21 ethical disasters in their past that's
25:23 not an excuse but a reminder that
25:25 business is brutal many of the same
25:27 criticisms of Koch also apply to many of
25:29 their competitors
25:30 and of course Koke has done plenty of
25:32 good for the world too we can't come to
25:33 conclusions from just one side of the
25:36 story it's never black and white what's
25:38 ironic though is that some of the worst
25:40 press Coca-Cola has ever received was
25:41 nothing to do with any of these moral or
25:44 legal issues nope Coke's biggest
25:46 backlash of all came from changing the
26:05 the Coca-Cola company has been offered
26:07 the chance to buy Pepsi's business
26:09 multiple times including for only
26:13 $50,000 in 1933 but Koch turned them
26:15 down instead Coke tried to sue Pepsi for
26:17 using the word Cola in their ads
26:18 claiming that they were trying to rip
26:21 off Coca-Cola's product this backfired
26:23 when Pepsi countered that Koke was using
26:25 anti-competitive tactics to build a
26:27 monopoly the courts agreed and ruled
26:29 that Cola was a generic term anyone
26:31 could use however since Koke missed
26:33 their chance to buy Pepsi they ended up
26:34 getting locked in an ongoing marketing
26:37 battle with them a one point Koke and
26:38 Pepsi both started cutting their prices
26:40 and offering discounts to try and
26:42 compete with each other but they soon
26:44 realized this was hurting both of them
26:45 whether they made a secret deal behind
26:48 closed doors or not is unknown but soon
26:49 they both reverted back to their normal
26:50 pricing and tried to compete on
26:53 Advertising instead but eventually Pepsi
26:55 had the simple but genius idea to
26:59 actually compete on taste in 19 1975
27:01 Pepsi launched the Pepsi challenge where
27:03 they gave people two white cups one
27:04 containing Pepsi and one containing
27:06 Coca-Cola people didn't know which was
27:08 which and were encouraged to taste both
27:10 to see which they preferred the test
27:12 results showed that Pepsi was preferred
27:14 by slightly more people and so Pepsi
27:16 started using the stat in all of their
27:18 advertising and all across America more
27:21 people pick Pepsi Time After Time After
27:24 Time pep Coke completely denied this was
27:26 true but when they conducted their own
27:28 tests they found that Pepsi did indeed
27:30 score slightly higher in a blind taste
27:32 test meanwhile Coca-Cola was slowly but
27:35 steadily losing market share they tried
27:37 everything huge marketing campaigns and
27:39 price promotions but every year Coke's
27:42 market share slightly declined and Pepsi
27:44 slightly increased it started to seem
27:45 that perhaps the Pepsi challenge was
27:47 right the problem was that more people
27:49 simply preferred the taste of Pepsi and
27:51 thus Coca-Cola began an incredibly
27:53 secret mission they were going to change
27:55 Coke's formula after rigorous testing
27:57 and trials they discovered a new color for
27:58 for
28:00 that consistently performed better than
28:02 both original Coke and
28:04 Pepsi over and over they repeated the
28:06 blind tase test and the data was clear
28:09 the new formula was more popular and so
28:11 just short of Coca-Cola's 100-year
28:13 anniversary they did the unthinkable
28:15 they changed the Coca-Cola formula and
28:18 replaced it with new Coke Coca-Cola is
28:20 about to announce what it called the
28:21 most significant development in its
28:24 history Pepsi Cola says Coke is merely
28:26 trying to match Pepsi's success these
28:28 two products Pepsi and Coke have been
28:31 going at it eyeball to eyeball and in my
28:34 view the other guy just blinked and
28:37 immediately the chaos began every single
28:39 day thousands of phone calls and letters
28:41 arrived at kooch's offices they were a
28:43 mixture of distraught people begging for
28:44 the old version of K Mac and people who
28:46 were downright Furious kke had had the
28:49 nerve to take away the original formula
28:50 Koke expected the Uproar would soon die
28:52 down especially once people actually
28:55 tried the new formula but the outrage
28:57 simply intensified the media was equally
28:59 full of out ra reports and at the coke
29:01 phone lines that were constantly jammed
29:03 with complaints for months when new Coke
29:04 advertisements were shown on giant
29:07 screens and stadiums people loudly booed
29:10 it became popular to hate New Coke of
29:11 course many of the people complaining
29:14 hadn't even tried the new formula as one
29:15 Coke employee put it we could have
29:17 introduced The Elixir of the Gods and it
29:19 wouldn't have made any difference it was
29:20 soon very clear that taste hadn't been
29:22 the issue it didn't matter if New Coke
29:24 technically tasted better in blind taste
29:27 tests Coke success had never been about
29:29 taste in the first place thanks to its
29:31 incredible marketing the world viewed
29:33 Coca-Cola as an old friend a piece of
29:35 everyday life for around a 100 years
29:37 Coke had been present never changing no
29:39 matter what was going on in the world it
29:41 was an icon and changing something that
29:43 meant so much to people was considered a
29:45 betrayal one angry letter commented that
29:47 changing Coke is like making the grass
29:50 purple another claimed you've taken away
29:52 my childhood even months later the
29:54 protests were not dying down and it soon
29:56 became clear the company had to revert
29:58 back to the old formula they had made a
30:00 gigantic mistake there were very few
30:02 instances in history of such strong
30:05 backlash against the company's decision
30:07 and yet despite that the new coch
30:09 disaster ended up being one of kooch's
30:11 greatest marketing triumphs you see when
30:13 Coke caved in and brought back the
30:15 original formula under the name classic
30:18 Coke suddenly all of the anger turned to
30:20 Euphoria and praise suddenly all the
30:22 letters and phone calls arriving at the
30:24 company were filled with adoring fans
30:25 thanking the company and commenting how
30:27 much it meant to them one Coke marketer
30:28 said you would have thought we'd
30:31 invented a cure for cancer immediately
30:33 after reintroducing the old flavor Coke
30:35 sales dramatically increased business
30:37 week named the whole thing the marketing
30:39 blunder of the decade but some skeptical
30:41 analysts felt the company had staged the
30:43 entire thing for publicity and to remind
30:46 customers how much coke means to them if
30:48 the hor stunt really was planned it
30:49 would be one of the greatest marketing
30:51 strategies imaginable but that was not
30:54 the case at all new Coke was a
30:56 catastrophic misjudgment by Coke they
30:57 really had thought people would prefer
31:00 New Coke in fact even after they
31:01 reintroduced the classic version they
31:03 kept New Coke available in shops as well
31:05 because they thought once people
31:06 actually had more time to try the new
31:08 flavor eventually people would convert
31:11 to the new formula I'm Don K president
31:13 of the Coca-Cola Company when we brought
31:15 you the new Taste of coke we knew that
31:17 Millions would prefer it and millions do
31:19 and we knew that it would beat the taste
31:22 of our major competitor and it does what
31:24 we didn't know was how many thousands of
31:25 you would phone and write asking us to
31:28 bring back the classic Taste of original
31:31 Coca-Cola well we read and we listened
31:33 and you know the rest they're both yours
31:36 the new Taste of coke and Coca-Cola
31:38 classic your right of choice is back but
31:40 they were wrong again cells of New Coke
31:42 never improved and eventually it was
31:45 removed from circulation completely
31:47 however despite being so completely
31:49 wrong the end result was that New Coke
31:51 had unintentionally made people realize
31:53 how much they loved original Coke the
31:54 whole thing helped people feel more
31:56 attached and loyal to Coke than ever
31:58 before which is why New Coke was one of
32:01 the most successful mistakes ever but
32:03 here is the craziest part of all this it
32:05 was proven time and time again that in a
32:06 test where people didn't know which
32:09 drink was which people rate New Coke the
32:11 best Pepsi second and original Coke
32:13 third and yet customers had
32:15 overwhelmingly decided they wanted
32:17 original Coke they wanted the drink they
32:20 like the taste of the least and that is
32:21 the biggest compliment Coca-Cola's
32:23 marketing could ever hope to get the
32:25 image of coke they created in people's
32:27 minds is so powerful that it overrides
32:30 tast logic or data in many ways Coke was
32:32 still operating off the same principle
32:34 that the patent medicine industry had
32:36 used all those years ago it's not about
32:38 what your product really is it's about
32:39 what your customer thinks your product
32:42 is it's about what it represents and
32:44 that's the reason Coke continue to spend
32:46 billions and billions on Advertising
32:48 every year even though around 94% of the
32:50 world's entire population recognized the
32:52 cat logo already and over two billion
32:54 servings of Coca-Cola is drunk every day
32:56 Coke is built on an image that needs to
32:58 be constantly reinforced because sure
33:00 you can hear about Coke's devastating
33:02 impact on the health of children their
33:04 lobbying of governments and countless
33:05 controversies they've tried to sweep
33:08 under the carpet but does it really make
33:11 any difference because ultimately Coke
33:12 have never tried to sell you on their
33:14 sugar water they sell you on the good
33:18 times friends family and happy memories
33:20 Coke positions itself as an old friend
33:22 and hey what's a little controversy between
33:24 between
33:34 world [Music]
