Sir Peter Blake

"Summer on the Coke Side of Life" MAKING OF VIDEO
In this video you can see Blake and his team creating the 7m high work of art on the SouthBank. Blake's enthusiasm for the project shows in his large-scale piece; it is at once an icon for Coke and for his signature style.


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The Southbank of the River Thames is one of London's most vibrant locations; jugglers, mime artists, silver human statues, this place has got the lot. But what would happen it you added the Godfather of UK Pop Art and creator of the legendary Sgt. Peppers album cover, Sir Peter Blake?


Photography by Russell+, Flickr. All Rights Reserved.

Last Summer, Sir Peter Blake has been commissioned by Coca-Cola UK to create a stunning piece of pop art celebrating "Summer on the Coke Side of Life". Here you can see the end result.


Photo by Slimmer_Jimmer, Flickr. All Rights Reserved.

Trick or Treat?

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. 2,000 years ago, Celts believed that on the night before their new year (November 1), the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. During the Samhain celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins.



In Ireland, where Halloween originated, bonfires are lit as they were in the days of the Celts, and all over the country, children get dressed up in costumes and spend the evening "trick-or-treating" in their neighborhoods. After trick-or-treating, most people attend parties with neighbors and friends. At the parties, many games are played, including "snap-apple," a game in which an apple on a string is tied to a doorframe or tree and players attempt to bite the hanging apple.



Today, Halloween, is still celebrated today in countries around the globe. In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls' Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas observance, is the most important part of the celebration for many people. In the UK and several other European countries, the US and Canada, Halloween, which was once a frightening and superstitious time of year, is celebrated with fun for all ages.

Remix Art Gallery

For the Coke Side of Life Remix Art Gallery, RockAndRoll Agency creatively managed 15 artists/agencies/collectives from around the world: Idokungfoo, Japan // Vault49, USA // Caos CC, Spain // Adhemas, Brazil // 013a, Romania // Creative XL, India // Extraverage, Hungary // Buro Destruct, Swiss // Mienandi, Senegal // The Designers Republic, UK // Rex (South Africa) // Todd Alan Breland (USA) // Spinbalon, Venezuela // Pixecute, Indonesia // Armchair & Josh Boston, USA // Fung Wee Lim, Canada.
Here you can see their artworks exposed on the SouthBank, London, UK.





The work of the Remix artists reflects various styles, personalities and cultures and the project shows how vibrantly creative the collaboration of a design network can be.
The diverse backgrounds of the contributing artists have resulted in a multifaceted world of imagery that draws its freshness from the mixture of approaches. Their mission is to spread an optimistic look at the world and help people realize how contagious happiness is. By combining iconic Coca-Cola images with up-to-date illustration techniques and styles, the artists have given rise to a progressive style of visual expression.





Designed within the “Coke Side of Life” concept and format, the Remix artworks are colorful explosions of positive thinking.
The experimental, playful and humorous collages of historical Coca-Cola milestone images are a true tribute to the brands unique and undying creative spirit.









Photography by RWDave, Russell+, Slimmer_Jimmer, Simpson_eh, Bergs Eye View, Hallywoods, Owizard (Flickr). All Rights Reserved.

Golden Autumn

Autumn has officialy started. The colours are beautiful, chestnuts fall from the sky...
Here you can see some Coca-Cola ads from the 40s to 60s. Everyone knows the summer and winter artworks of Coca-Cola best, but these autumn illustrations and paintings are also wonderful. As you can see, thirst really knows no season!

Andy Warhol Exhibit

A traveling exhibition of select Andy Warhol artwork is now on display in the Pop Culture Gallery at the new World of Coca-Cola, Atlanta, US. See the world’s most recognized beverage as interpreted by the pope of Pop Art. The paintings, pencil sketches and screenprints (all about Coca-Cola except for a self-portrait) are on loan from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (up to May 2008).
"Warhol took art and he made art available to the everyday man and everybody understood it," tells Ted Ryan, the exhibit's curator for Coca-Cola. "Everybody owns a piece of Coke, or a piece of Marilyn, at least in the imagination."
World of Coca-Cola: 121 Baker St., Atlanta, USA.
Website: http://www.woccatlanta.com.





All images and artworks are property of The Andy Warhol Foundation © All rights reserved.

King of Pop Art

In the 1960s, Andy Warhol began to make paintings of famous American products such as Campbell's soup cans and Coca-Cola. He switched to silkscreen prints, seeking not only to make art of mass-produced items but to mass produce the art itself. He hired and supervised "art workers" engaged in making prints, films, books and other items at The Factory, his studio. A lot of Warhol's works revolve around the concept of American culture. He painted money, food, women's shoes, celebrities, newspaper clippings and everyday objects. To Warhol, these subjects represented American cultural values. For instance, Coca-Cola represented democratic equality.



"What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV ans see Coca-Cola and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it." Andy Warhol


While all colas are colas, only one is Coke!
Warhol & Coca-Cola fashion collection by Cultura.

When Warhol started painting, he wanted to find a niche for himself. At that time Pop Art
-as it was later to be called- already was an experimental form used by artists as an alternative to abstract expressionism. Warhol turned to this new style where popular subjects could be part of the artist's vocabulary. His early paintings show images taken from cartoons and advertisements, hand-painted with added paint drips. He added these drips to give his paintings a seriousness by emulating the style of the abstract expressionists that were en vogue at the time. He wanted to be taken seriously and to sell his paintings.



Andy Warhol’s images have appeared in magazines, on TV, clothes and billboards. Everywhere. The visual impact of his best work is stunning: fresh colours, great composition and thought-provoking subjects.
Along the way, Warhol defined modern-day USA, consciously or unconsciously exposing the ambiguities of US society. The amount of material he produced is phenomenal: film, audio, paintings and prints, books and interviews.



Warhol’s subjects were quintessentially American. His 210 Coca-Cola bottles depict mass production for the masses. They are produced in 1962, shortly after his silkscreen innovations allowed him to mass produce pictures of mass production.



Warhol’s art is larger than life. He paints from a place far back in his mind, away from everyday ways of looking, although his subject matter is always ordinary and available. He paints real, humble things, so that they seem dreamt, visionary. “A Coke is a Coke”, Warhol said, and yet the even rows of bottles filled to varying levels in his Coca-Cola paintings are depicted with a clarity that pushes realism into a sense of wonder. These Cokes are mystical Cokes, bottled life.



Source: "Warhol - Accident & design" by Socialism Today; "The Life & Death of Andy warhol" by Victor Bockris. All images and artworks are property of The Andy Warhol Foundation © All rights reserved.

Perfect Harmony

Togetherness - feeling connected to your family and friends, a community and the planet is the first step to tear down the barriers between cultures.
Deep down inside, we are all social creatures who find our greatest fulfillment and happiness when we are connected in positive ways to the people that surrounds us. Perhaps this is our real goal: to feel good about our lives and share this feeling of happiness with others.

In the 21st century global community, lives all over the planet intertwine more than ever through communication technology and the travel democracy. If nowadays generation is taught that our interpersonal, cultural differences are a rich heritage, a tribute to the unique character of our species, they will enthusiastically embrace diversity.

In many ways, we could say that ‘Coca-Cola’ has always embraced this idea: make the world a little bit better by passing on happiness by building understanding of and appreciation for the differences in human beliefs and cultures. By fostering the sense that, in the most profound way, we are all one family, the human family.

No wonder that ‘Coca-Cola’’s ‘Hilltop’ spot was one of the most successful TVCs ever produced. Its huge success can not be explained simply because the images were appealing and the tune catchy, but because the message taps into a profound, human longing for community.






Hilltop - Coke Art Remix by Pixecute


Hilltop - Coke Art Remix by 013a

*** HILLTOP - BEHIND THE SCENES***

* Hilltop" is the first historical ad ever to be restored in High Definition (HD). It can still be viewed by the public as it was donated to the Library of Congress in Washington DC in 2000.

* The international cast included actors from more than 20 countries.

* The opening scene was shot at a horse racetrack outside of Rome forcing unusual camera angles during the opening scene as the director tried to avoid having telephone wires in the background of the shots; the rest of the commercial was shot on the hilltop.

* Within 10 days of the U.S. release of "Hilltop," The Coca-Cola Company received 10,000 letters from consumers thanking the Company for the message in the ad. Consumers also called television stations asking when the commercial was scheduled to air.



* The song "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" was written in less than 24 hours.

* The cast did not actualy sing "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke," but rather lip-synced to a New Seekers recording.

* "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" has been recorded and released more than 75 times since 1971. It's most recent appearance on the top 40 charts was in a song performed by British tribute band No Way Sis' in 1998. Four years earlier, Oasis used the song as inspiration for their hitsingle "Shakermaker".

Source: The Coca-Cola Press Center