Anniversary of an Icon: Coca-Cola Contour Bottle Celebrates 90 Years

Phil Mooney, director of Archives for The Coca-Cola Company, shows one of the two remaining original contour bottles and displays earlier prototypes

2006 marks the anniversary of a true icon. It was 90 years ago, in 1916, that the now famous Coca-Cola bottle began appearing on store shelves, having been patented on November 16 the year before. Called the Coca-Cola "contour" bottle, this unique package remains an instantly recognizable symbol that distinguishes the world's best known soft drink from all other products.

Widely recognized as a pioneering example of package-driven branding, the contour bottle is one of the few packages to ever receive a trademark from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, helping to make Coca-Cola one of the most famous brands in the world today.

"The contour goes to the very root of what makes Coca-Cola special," explains Phil Mooney, director of Archives, The Coca-Cola Company. "It creates a unique visual identity for the brand that is, arguably, as cherished as the beverage itself."

Over the years the contour bottle has carved out a career beyond simple refreshment. In the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy," a tribe of Bushmen assume that the Coca-Cola contour bottle is a message from heaven, resulting in total pandemonium. The contour bottle also has appeared alongside Hollywood stars in movies such as "A Walk on the Moon," "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Catch Me if You Can."

Originally designed to hold 6.5-ounces of Coca-Cola, the contour bottle has become bigger than life in some parts of the country. A 38-foot folk art contour bottle made of batting helmets, gloves, bats and baseballs sits above the left field fence at Atlanta's Turner Field; in Las Vegas, a four-story bottle marks the entrance to the Coca-Cola store; and in New York, a 30-ton, 40-foot, sculptural, interactive sign often featuring the familiar contour shape welcomes visitors to Times Square.

In 1916, when most beverages were packaged in generic, straight-sided glass bottles, The Coca-Cola Company sought out a package that a person could recognize as a Coca-Cola bottle when feeling it in the dark and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was.

Drawing inspiration from an illustration of a cocoa bean with a convoluted shape and grooves running the vertical length of the pod, Alexander Samuelson and Earl R. Dean of the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana, created the first prototype of the contour bottle.

The prototype was patented in Samuelson's name on November 16, 1915. Subsequently, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the trademark to The Coca-Cola Company, indefinitely protecting the unique design.

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company. Along with Coca-Cola, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five soft drink brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite, and a wide range of other beverages, including diet and light soft drinks, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees, energy and sports drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1.3 billion servings each day. For more information about The Coca-Cola Company, please visit our website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com .