Coca-Cola Girls: An Advertising Art History

by Chris H. Beyer

As sparkling and effervescent as the soft drink she symbolizes, the Coca-Cola girl has lived for more than a century as the perfect American beauty. In Coca-Cola Girls, the first ever art book the Company has licensed for publication, the author traces significant Company mileposts while underscoring them with lavish illustrations. Coca-Cola Girls covers the way celebrities, such as Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, lent their faces and cachet to the product. Gil Elvgren painted luscious pin-up girls, and even Santa Claus got in the act. For decades, the Coca-Cola girl has lived gracefully in the overalls of a World War II factory worker and the sleek swimsuit of a sunbather. Dedicated to the Coca-Cola collector and art connoisseur, Coca-Cola Girls compels each to “pause and refresh!” with some of the world’s most recognizable art.

Genres: Art

282 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a very large and very beautiful book on the history of how beautiful women were used in Coca-Cola advertising. This included their portraits on trays, calendars, cardboard cutouts, metal signs and other means of advertising.

Each chapter covers one particular decade and explores what was going on with the Coca-Cola company during that decade, what advertising methods they were using, and what was going on in society at that time, showing how those two things related. For example, a lot of the Coca-Cola advertising in World War II featured women in military uniforms, or women at home awaiting the return of their boyfriends or husbands.

Each chapter also has small asides, as it were, of even more information relating to Coca-Cola. The illustrations themselves are incredibly colorful and beautiful. In some cases the actual models used are shown in photos. The various artists are also discussed. The book even talks about Coca-Cola's overseas advertising.

If you want one book to cover your interest in Coca-Cola advertising, this is the one.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly well written account of the use of pinups in Coke advertising