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Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress

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Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television Advertisements: Highlights from the Motion Picture Archives at the Library of Congress presents a variety of television advertisements, never-broadcast outtakes, and experimental footage reflecting the historical development of television advertising for a major commercial product. The online collection includes five excerpts from stop-motion advertising developed for Coca-Cola between 1954 and 1956 by the D'Arcy agency and makes public for the first time eighteen excerpts from the Experimental TV Color Project of 1964, which determined the best lighting for the cans, bottles, and performers in television advertisements. Featured advertisements include the 1971 "Hilltop" commercial with an international group of young people on an Italian hilltop singing "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke"; the "Mean Joe Greene" commercial from 1979; the first "Polar Bear" commercial from 1993; the "Snowflake" commercial from 1999; and "First Experience," an international commercial filmed in Morocco in 1999.
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The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers.

Special Presentations:

Highlights in the History of Coca-Cola Television Advertising

 Timeline: Advertising Themes
The "Hilltop" Ad: The Story of a Commercial Television Advertising: A Brief History
Biography of Dr. John S. Pemberton, Inventor of Coca-Cola Beverage Industry: Celebrating 50 Years of Service
About the Collection Building the Digital Collection
Television-Commercial Finding Aids from the
Library of Congress		 How to View Videos
Selected Bibliography Copyright and Other Restrictions
Collection Connections Acknowledgments
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Nov-29-00