Coke Dealers

Coca-Cola ⇒ is a beverage corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia most noted for soft drinks. The company produces the syrup that is then sent to franchised bottling companies and those businesses that sell pop through a fountain. Those businesses will add water, carbonation, and sweeteners for the finished product. In addition to the soft drinks, Coca-Cola has a thousands large portfolio of other drinks that includes bottled water, juice, and others.

The corporation produces an eponymous flagship brand of cola. The ingredient list currently includes the trade secret Merchandise 7X ⇒ that is a subject of perennial speculation ⇒ while only supposed to be known to a few corporate executives. Cocaine was a substantial part of the formula until 1903, but now the cola only includes coca leafs that have the cocaine extracted from them ⇒. Coca-Cola gets these leaves from Stepan ⇒ which is the only company allowed by the U.S. Government to import coca.

The corporation is a relentless advertiser. That a couple of shirts from this company would make it on to this site is probably not surprising to the reader. The company used to pay people to paint their buildings in a simpler time. Coca-Cola was an equal participant in the Cola Wars of the 80s with nemesis ⇒ PepsiCo ⇒. Personally, I do not like that secondary schools signing contracts with either company to sell their products in the lunchroom are only getting football scoreboards out of the negotiations.

Fumbling Around

The National Football League ⇒ is the top league for competitive American football. An iconic Coca-Cola ad featured Mean Joe Greene ⇒ and a kid exchanging a game-worn jersey for a bottle. The league and the beverage company had a sponsorship agreement at the time of the donation that has since been taken over by Pepsi.

Donor, Receiver, & Donor Ian* did not directly give me the shirt. Instead, he gave me a winning bottle cap; I had to find an envelope, and pay shipping & handling to receive this shirt. This setup was so not free. As an individual shirt is now properly cataloged within the Less Than Free Shirt Archive.

Carry A Torch For You

The Olympic Games are an international sporting event with Summer and Winter editions organized by the International Olympic Committee ⇒ 1996 Summer Olympics ⇒ were held in Atlanta. All acknowledged countries of the time sent athletes for the first time in history. Unfortunately, a terrorist bombing conducted by pro-life activist Eric Robert Randolph ⇒ at a spectator gathering directly killed 1 person, inspired a heart attack in another person, and injured 110 people.

Criticism about the hyper-commercialization of these particular games was expressed. The local beverage corporation was among the worst offenders. Among other things, Coca-Cola sponsored 1996 Olympic Torch ⇒ Relay ⇒. The relay went from April 27, 1996 through July 14, 1996 along a winding path around the United States that covered 15,000 miles through 42 states. One of the stops on the relay was through the Sarasota 4th of July Downtown Festival, an held in Sarasota, Florida replete with fireworks.

This shirt was provided to me without cost of any sort. Therefore, at all time is was correctly cataloged within the Free Shirt Archive.

Cold Turkey

I no longer drink pop. Burnout and changing taste turned me off to all colas. A few years ago, Donor & Receiver Mac* gave me a can of Coca-Cola produced lemon-lime Sprite. I found the carbonation levels completely disagreeable. Even if I could get beyond the carbonation, I do not have interest in redeveloping an addiction to caffeine.