Soda Girls from Yesterday & Today

By Frank Laughlin

Print ads and point-of-sale advertising from The Coca-Cola Company provided us with many wonderful images, beginning in the 1890’s and continuing for over 60 years. Each year many ads featured an attractive, wholesome, stylish woman, or women. The featured women in these ads have been called “Coca-Cola Girls,” and hundreds of them have been shown drinking Coke or posed in scenes and activities with Coke. The ads remain very collectible today because, in many ways, they’re works of art. Top artists created paintings, top models and celebrities were painted and photographed, and the best printing methods were used. The Company created original and attractive ads that represented the essence of their time and that also carried a specific targeted advertising message.

Point-of-sale ads include window displays, festoons, cardboard cutouts, cardboard and paper posters, bottle toppers, and other items. Many of these ads were seen at about the same time as print ads in dozens of magazines and newspapers. A very few were also featured on a calendar and/or metal serving tray, two primary print advertising items of any given year. In many years both featured the same “Coca-Cola Girl,” creating a memorable group of images. From the 1890s through 1925 only ONE year didn’t feature a “Coca-Cola Girl” calendar/tray; they remained a majority of those issued into the 1950s.

To get an overall perspective on ad content and quantities, I looked at pictures of 1250+ point-of-sale ads in the latest editions of three popular Coca-Cola Collector reference books. They were sorted, by decade, into (1) ads with women, and (2) all others. Ads with women were further sorted into (1) those with only a woman (or women), (2) those with a woman focal point but with other people (i.e. a couple, a child), and (3) those with the woman in a “sports outfit,” with or without other people. Some ads were only in one book, some appeared more than once, but my overall conclusions from each book are similar on the types of ads and when they appeared. Outdoor tin and porcelain signs weren’t included in the review. This is in no way a scientific study, but ads in these books, especially after the earlier years, reflect general content and relative volume of all Coke point-of-sale ads.

The overwhelming subject choice in ads, from the very beginning through the 1940s, was a beautiful woman, the “Coca-Cola Girl.” Why a woman? I don’t have all the answers, but in the earlier years Coca-Cola was primarily sold at soda fountains, a location frequented by families, women and children. Ads showing a “Coca-Cola Girl” drinking a glass of Coke were meant to encourage others to do the same. Some ads included a woman with Coke and food, a next logical step, to encourage drinking Coca-Cola with snacks and meals at the lunch counter. Bottle sales were growing, and more ads began to show a woman in different activities, drinking Coke, whether from a glass with a bottle nearby or directly from a bottle. The thinking must have been that women made many shopping/buying decisions; they could project themselves into the scenes in the ads, and men didn’t mind looking at the attractiveness of the scene. Several “Coca-Cola Girl” ads are seen in two versions, one with a glass of Coke and one with a bottle. That practice ended c.1930, and afterwards all trays, most calendars, and most other point-of-sale ads only featured a bottle.

An important ad objective was encouraging drinking of a Coke, almost anywhere and in all seasons. Showing a woman in outdoor activities with a Coke nearby, and with a logo and the current slogan added, met that objective. Many ads feature a “Coca-Cola Girl” in some sort of attractive “sports outfit,” from a bathing suit to a short skirt for tennis or ice-skating. This type of ad is found in every decade, but from our collector book review, about 25% of ads during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s that featured a woman show her in some sports outfit. The 1930s had several famous bathing suit ads that made it to the calendars and trays. That decade also featured celebrity trays as well as paintings from great artists of the time such as Norman Rockwell. Gil Elvgren, of later pinup fame, was also among the prominent artists creating “Coca-Cola Girls.” Even with the quantity and variety of artists, poses and outfits, I know of no criticism or outcry directed against any of these ads. They reflected the style and look of their time.

Many collectors can easily name a few favorite “Coca-Cola Girls.” Collector values, however, are based on quality (in colors and print quality), scarcity, and most of all, condition. Collectors might pay a little more for one of their favorites, but the other factors used in determining value are the ones that count.

Through the 1920s festoons, window displays, posters, and other items, used mainly at soda fountains, provided great ad art. However, the results from reviewing the 1250+ ads show clearly that the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s produced the greatest quantity and variety of ad art that is so collectible today. By the 1930s, bottle sales increased places available to buy Coke, creating an increased need for a variety of point-of-sale materials. 1940s ad numbers exceeded the 1930s. Content was similar except for 1940s ads relating to WWII. After the War just two calendars/trays were issued featuring a “Coca-Cola Girl,” but not in a sports outfit. They were called “Girl with Wind in Hair,” by Haddon Sundblom (the Santa ads artist), and “Menu Girl,” with its unique tray edge of sports icons from all seasons. “Menu Girl,” issued in several years in the 1950s, is the LAST known original Company tray with a “Coca-Cola Girl.”

The 1950s produced the greatest number of different ads, but ad content began to show some changes. The post-WWII years were full of major changes in our society. Coca-Cola ads, as they had always done, reflected the changes. Supermarket shopping, automobiles driving everywhere, fast foods, and especially the addition of television in our homes, are some of these changes. Plus, more women were working outside the home, and their viewpoints underwent some changes.

In the ads reviewed, during the 1950s and 1960s those without a woman slightly exceeded those with a woman! Ads featuring the product, or with Coke and food (at home, not a soda fountain) were the most common! Beauty from ham and pickles. TV trays, showing Coke and food, were issued beginning c.1956. Ads with a “Coca-Cola Girl” were still plentiful, including many with bathing suits and other sports outfits. They did not disappear! BUT ads that posed a “Coca-Cola Girl” with other people DID increase (i.e. home entertaining, couples in activities, and many beach scenes). This type became the most common “Coca-Cola Girl” ad of the 1960s. It was reflective of the times.

Coca-Cola’s Mexican ads had similarities with the US. From the 1940s through the 1960s Mexican ads, including calendars and trays, feature a beautiful woman with Coke, in a variety of poses, including bathing suits. Mexican TV trays were issued in more variations than the US; most had Coke with food.

By the 1960s the number of point-of-sale and print ads dropped quite a bit, as television ads and other promotions and campaigns gained increased use. Serving trays, calendars, and other items no longer provided the desired exposure and many were discontinued. Calendars, trays, and other items evolved into Coke’s licensing program. They were offered for sale as a decorator accent or as “new” memorabilia. The 30+ years of print ads in The National Geographic Magazine, a popular collectible group, ended in 1964 (although a few ads were done over 20 years later). The last known Company-issued serving tray (a bottle of Coke being poured into a glass positioned in a flower garden) was dated c.1961. The era of great printed Coca-Cola ad art was coming to a close.

We are left today with a rich collection of “Coca-Cola Girl” ad art. While celebrities appeared in ads in almost every decade, many of the most popular and recognizable ads are known by names they have been given over the years by collectors. Names such as “Betty Girl” from the 1910s, “Flapper Girl” from the 1920s, “Running Girl” from the 1930s, “Sailor Girl” from the 1940s, and “Menu Girl” from the 1950s are just some of the familiar “Coca-Cola Girls.” Many more “nameless” but beautiful women, in ads that didn’t make it to a calendar or tray, are still valuable collectibles, commanding hundreds and thousands of dollars. Quite a few of these ads have reappeared since the 1980s, in quality reproductions on licensed trays, most priced under $20. At least these give some of us a new and economical way to own at least a small view of the ad art of the “Coca-Cola Girls.”

Frank Laughlin is a writer and Coca-Cola collector who has written numerous excellent books on Coca-Cola tray collecting. E-mail: FLaughing@aol.com.

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Why pay sky high prices for vintage ‘Coke Girl’ Trays? This collector explains:

By Mark Peterson
I have been at this hobby for about 26 years. I feel that Coke trays have a mystic with soda pop collectors. It’s not only the investment value but the history behind the women and men who modeled for Coke as well as the history of Coca-Cola itself.

The trays are the most desirable out of all Coke memorabilia, except maybe the calendars. Remember now that the men on Coke trays are very collectible too - the soda jerk, the tarzan and the sandwich boy are probably the most desirable.They can go for as much as $1,100 and as low as $400 in near mint shape.

Now, the ones before 1920 are just getting so rare. Just to see a good one on eBay makes a person’s heart rate jump.

I think people are now holding on to them for their grand kids. Coke made millions of these trays to be used as advertising as well as serving trays for food and drink. They were also used for various needs around the house.Over the years I have seen them used as cutting boards for food, paint can storage and believe it or not, hot plates.It’s so sad to see a soda jerk tray with cut marks and paint on it. It just makes my heart sink.

The women of Coca-Cola, I have been told, were under strict contract to work for Coke and Coke only, or be sued for breach of contract.

The lady on the menu tray is still alive and living in St Louis, MO. She once was at a large flea market in St Louis and a friend of mine met her and had a long conversation about her life and her dealings with The Coca-Cola Company. Wow, I wish I could have been there.

Editor’s Note: I recently spotted Mark Peterson bidding on a 1910 Coke Girl advertising tray on eBay. The auction brought 52 bids and a staggering winning bid of $4,000 US. Tray collectors had estimated its value to be in the neighborhood of $2,500 US. The tray is shown below.