The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company

The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company

By Constance L. Hays

Random House $200

During the mid-1990s, there was a series of histories of the Coca-Cola Company. Constance Hays obviously thought we needed another chronicle of perhaps the world's best known brand name. She brings us up to date with developments at the corporate goliath, which has been going through a sticky patch.

Hays, who spent several years on the food and beverage beat as a New York Times reporter, focuses on the recent efforts by Coca-Cola to become the world's most dominant beverage. Early chapters jump back and forth between Coke's modern global strategy and problems (such as the New Coke marketing debacle) and the company's first century of increasing dominance in its home market.

First promoted for its claimed medicinal properties, Coke's original formula contained cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeine from the cola nut. As Asa Candler - who bought the formula from its inventor, John Pemberton, in 1888 - enthused at the time: 'The medical properties of the coca plant make [Coca-Cola] a medical preparation ... [recommended] for mental and physical exhaustion, headache, depression, etc.'

Narcotics were liberally prescribed in 19th-century America. However, not everyone shared Candler's enthusiasm for the medical properties of cocaine. As the country became less tolerant of such drugs, the coca content was dropped from Coca-Cola. Company executives later denied the beverage had ever contained cocaine. The marketing pitch was changed first to Coke's refreshing qualities and later to a less tangible lifestyle choice.