Coca Cola was created in the city of Atlanta in 1865 by a medicine man known as John Styth Pemberton. Pemberton had an addiction to morphine; this is where his cause began. He constructed a drink from the cocaine in the coca leaf and the caffeine from the cola nut; the cocaine was supposed to help him get off of morphine and the caffeine gave the beverage a buzz, therefore stimulating pleasure. To make Coca Cola they extracted the alcohol from the drink, it was then sold as an elixir. On May 29th the first ad was presented to the public, this is when Pemberton came up with the red logo we see today. Pemberton eventually partnered with a man by the name of Jacobs, Pemberton then sold the business to Asa Candler in 1888 for $2300.00. This was the beginning of a new era.
Candler also looked at Coca Cola as his Golden Elixir, because he also saw it as a way to cure something in his life; he had suffered from headaches. At this point he had bought the formula and modified it calling it 7x. The formula remained the "holy of all holies", he had taken all the labels off the cans and never wrote it down. The product was directed to mainly businessmen, one of their first slogan's was "A Coca Cola at eight will energize the brain till eleven". It became so pleasing to the consumers that women had wanted it to stop being patented as a medicine. The drink was then targeted to sell image to women. The advertisements were painted all over the United States by 1904, they sold 36 million Cokes a year and 20% went to advertising. Candler then commissioned a sky scraper in his name.
Soon competitors were arising; the first competitor drink Coke encountered was the production of Pepsi Cola. Pepsi was created in North Carolina by Caila Bradhound, a pharmacist at the time. Pepsi was known as Brad's drink. Pepsi's main ingredient was pepsin, much like cocaine was in Coca Cola's drink. Pepsi was southern tonic used for indigestion.
