Secret Formula: The Inside Story of How Coca-Cola Became the Best-Known Brand in the World

by Frederick Allen, Kyle Tait (Read by)

Overview

"A clear, convincing, anecdotal, often fascinating portrayal not just of Coca-Cola's corporate brilliance, but of how it inveighed its way into the center of American, and world, consciousness."--The Financial Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798874851545
Publisher:	Tantor
Publication date:	08/13/2024
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Frederick Allen was an award-winning reporter and political columnist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1972 to 1987, after which he joined CNN as a chief analyst and commentator covering the 1988 presidential election. His essays for the program Inside Politics earned CNN a CableACE Award, and Allen was called the "best political analyst" by the editors of the Hotline.

Allen is the author of three books, including his history of the Coca-Cola Company, Secret Formula; Atlanta Rising, a history of modern Atlanta; and A Decent, Orderly Lynching, an account of the vigilantes of Montana. He was honored by the Western History Association with the inaugural Michael P. Malone Award for his research into vigilante symbolism and is currently working on a book about Theodore Roosevelt.

Allen graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover) and earned a BA in journalism from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He and his wife, Linda, live in Atlanta, Georgia, and Big Sky, Montana.

Kyle Tait is a professionally trained voice actor and narrator in Atlanta, Georgia. His first brush with a microphone came in sports radio, calling baseball in the Atlanta Braves' organization. To pass the time in the off-season, he started voicing audiobooks, and a few years later he left baseball and went into narration full-time. Now his voice can be heard on a variety of audiobook and corporate voice-over outlets worldwide.

When not in the studio, Tait can still be found moonlighting in the sports world, calling football, basketball, baseball, and softball on a variety of TV and radio outlets. He's also a studio host with IMG College, anchoring football and basketball broadcasts for schools like TCU, UConn, and Arizona.

Table of Contents

• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: Red Scare
• One: Stirrings
• Two: Dope
• Three: Dobbs
• Four: Bottled-Up Anger
• Five: “Get Your Readiness”
• Six: Short Sales
• Seven: Pepsi
• Eight: War
• Nine: Black and White
• Ten: Politics
• Eleven: “Octogenarians!”
• Twelve: New Coke
• Image Gallery
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author

Editorial Reviews

The Coca-Cola Company's secretive top executive, Robert Woodruff, threw his support behind presidential candidate Lyndon Johnson, then spurned the loser, Richard Nixon, when he applied for a job at Coca-Cola. Nixon later became senior partner in Pepsi-Cola's outside law firm, while President LBJ, a close ally of Coca-Cola, arranged political favors for the company. These are among the charges presented in this highly entertaining history of a firm that traces its origins to Confederate war hero John Pemberton and his Yankee business partner Frank Robinson, who developed the soft drink in the late 1880s. The book provides a juicy look at wheeling-dealing, litigation, global hustling, cola wars and the marketing savvy that carved a niche for Coke in the American social psyche. CNN commentator Allen charts Coke's fortunes through two world wars, European anti-American backlash and the civil rights era, and tells how Woodruff, though a plantation-owning Georgian, supported desegregation in Atlanta with an eye toward selling Coke to people of color around the world. Photos not seen by PW. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this company history, Allen, a political columnist and commentator for CNN, emphasizes corporate internal politics and Coca-Cola's role in the inner councils of Atlanta. Allen traces the history of the drink from its origins as a drugstore formula to its present multinational success and chronicles Coke's unceasing efforts to preserve its trademark and "secret formula." In researching his work, the author consulted numerous primary sources, including the papers of Asa Candler and Robert Woodruff, both heads of Coca-Cola. Access to one of Woodruff's longtime aides surely provided many of the intimate details studding the text. At times the book reads like a Russian novel combined with a thriller. It will appeal to the general reader as well as to students of history and complements other recent titles on Coca-Cola, including Roger Enrico's The Other Guy Blinked (LJ 3/15/87) and Mark Pendergrast's For God, Country, and Coca-Cola (LJ 3/15/93).-Mary Chatfield, Angelo State Univ., San Angelo, Tex.

Library Journal

"A clear, convincing, anecdotal, often fascinating portrayal not just of Coca-Cola’s corporate brilliance, but of how it inveighed its way into the center of American, and world, consciousness.” —Financial Times
 
“[A] highly entertaining history . . . A juicy look at wheeling-dealing, litigation, global hustling, cola wars and the marketing savvy that carved a niche for Coke in the American social psyche.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“At times the book reads like a Russian novel combined with a thriller. It will appeal to the general reader as well as to students of history.” —Library Journal
 
“Allen seems to have had unprecedented access to company insiders, corporate archives, and private papers, and he uncovers a trove of information about corporate political clout at home and abroad. . . . Allen successfully contributes to the fascinating lore surrounding this symbol of American culture and enterprise.” —Booklist

From the Publisher