This is, says the publisher, "the first licensed Coca-Cola art book," and Beyer is a devout ad art collector whose hoard proliferated from one old Coke serving tray. So expect no trenchant analysis, let alone criticism, and nary a peep about that centennial fiasco new Coke from the text. This is a book to be eyeballed more than read. Its main attraction consists of page after page of pretty young women posing with the Atlanta elixir. The "Coca-Cola Girl" was the image the company preferred for pitching its potion, from the 1890s to the 1960s. Very rarely did a boy or young man appear, and after 1930 only in support of the girl. The quality of the color reproductions is deliciously lush and sparkling, some of the artists are famous (N. C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell), and each girl is perfect
and wholesome, regardless of how one feels about the drink.
Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Reader Reviews
Long before "the pause that refreshes" became a national catch phrase and "Coke" a euphemism for any soft drink, there were the Coca-Cola models - winsome rosy-cheeked young women often engaged in a domestic task or posed invitingly with frosty glass close by. While always smiling, the Coca-Cola girls have many faces and all of them are stunningly reproduced in this full-color volume brimming with illustrations from the Coca-Cola Company archives. An 1897 advertisement features a Victorian lady seated primly on a pillow, while another from that era introduces a pensive miss seated at her flower bedecked desk with pen in hand. A Coca-Cola bride smiled at us in 1906, while a 1919 shot presented a beautiful girl against an early airport scene. Of course, the 1940s war years showed women in uniform, and the 1950s brought girls at work and play. Perhaps the most appealing illustrations are from the brush of N. C. Wyeth. Whatever the case, history buffs, Coca-Cola collectors, art connoisseurs, and those who simply want to remember will find much to enjoy in this colorful archival volume.
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