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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.
The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to offer broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning.

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 These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times.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