Frank Robinson, Pemberton's bookkeeper, became Coca-Cola's first marketing genius in short order, convincing Pemberton of the urgency for advertising the brand, and designing the famous Coca-Cola script and trademark. He pressured Pemberton to engage in lavish advertising promotions, issuing free drink coupons and plastering Atlanta with oil-cloth banners and streetcar signs to promote the brand. The extravagant advertising budget paid rapid dividends, quickly promoting Coca-Cola to become the most popular local beverage of it's kind.
Ironically, Pemberton then sold the rights to the Coca-Cola formula--he'd developed cancer and his morphine addiction had likely become very serious--but in 1887, he sold Willis Venable and George Lowndes two-thirds of the rights to the formula. "I am sick, and I believe I will never get out of this bed. The only thing I have is Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola some day will be a national drink. I want to keep a third interest in it so that my son will always have a living". With these words to Mr. Lowndes, Dr. Pemberton relinquished his control of Coca-Cola. Tragically--and even more ironic--Dr. Pemberton's son Charley would be dead from a morphine overdose only six years after Dr. Pemberton's own passing. Atlanta druggists--Asa Candler (below) among them--closed their stores on the day of Pemberton's funeral "and attended the services 'en masse' as a tribute of respect," according to Atlanta newspaper accounts from the era. Pemberton's wife--his only remaining heir--eventually died penniless.
No comments:
Post a Comment