But do you know who created it? He was John Styth Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia, United States (US) who created Coca-Cola on May 8, 1886. The discovery of Coca-Cola occurred when Pemberton wanted to make a painkiller substitute for morphine. The husband of Ann Eliza Clifford suffered severe injuries from the US civil war which made him consume morphine to become addicted. Along with his success with Coca-Cola, Pemberton was not really able to escape from morphine. His addiction just got so much worse that he almost went bankrupt because of the high cost of buying the morphine.
Reporting from My Allred Family, Sunday (20/6/2021), to meet the needs of the family, Pemberton sold the rights to the formula and part of his company. He still believed that his drink was going to be big in the future and wanted to retain ownership. Pemberton wanted to give the company to Charley Pemberton. Unfortunately his son was more interested in making quick money so he sold what was left to business tycoon Asa Griggs Candler.
In August 1888, Pemberton who had been sick for several years finally died of stomach cancer. By the time of his death, he had fallen into poverty and was still addicted to morphine.
According to Mark Pendergrast, who wrote For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Made It, Charley Pemberton also turned out to be suffering from addictive substance abuse. In Candler’s hands, Coca-Cola thrived by employing the most innovative marketing tactics ever undertaken. He hired a traveling salesman to hand out free Coca-Cola coupons.
The goal is for people to try the drink, like it, and then buy it. In addition to coupons, Candler also decided to market Coca-Cola by pasting the logo on calendars, posters, notebooks, and bookmarks to reach customers.
Candler made a controversial move when he sold Coca-Cola syrup as a patent medicine, claiming that it could treat fatigue and headaches. In 1898, Congress passed a Spanish-American postwar tax that levied all medicinal products. It made him no longer sell Coca-Cola as a drug, but only as a drink. That moment became the end of the controversy over the cocaine content that was originally found in Coca-Cola. In 1929 the company claimed to have removed all cocaine-related ingredients.
