
The Coke bottle was designed by a small team in a competition - jimsojim
http://qz.com/551682/the-coke-bottles-iconic-design-happened-by-sheer-chance/
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api_or_ipa
One of my absolute favourite podcast/radio shows is "Under the Influence" on
CBC Radio. Recently they aired a terrific episode on product packaging and
discussed Coke's signature bottle and it's origin.

Interestingly, it came up in a conversation I had with my mother recently that
one of the most distinct memories she has of growing up is going to the corner
store and selecting a soda from the icebox. Each bottle had a unique shape and
texture that uniquely distinguished it from all other brands just from touch
alone. I really enjoyed hearing the tinges of happiness in my mothers words as
she recalled a memory from so long ago.

These two experiences really shaped me. Before I thought marketing was
glorified manipulation of buying habits. Now, I see it as shaping the
experience of enjoying the product. It can be a very powerful thing, as my
mother's recollection from over 60 years ago demonstrates.

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Someone1234
Fair warning: There is nudity on the page that may not be work-safe (YouTube
video's freeze frame contains topless individuals).

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johansch
Oh how I relish living in a country where someone witnessing me viewing this
page at work this wouldn't be grounds for immediate dismissal or reason for
some stupid lawsuits.

(Sweden. I hate living here for a bunch of other reasons though. In fact I am
about to emigrate, again.)

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theworstshill
Whats your reason for emigrating?

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johansch
In no particular order:

Craving a warmer climate.

Not feeling fairly taxed. (My marginal income tax rate is 58 or 60%, I forget
which. And it will increase next year. And then again. And so on.)

Having stock option vestings taxed at my marginal income tax rate PLUS an
additional ~30% for the company's social security payments.

Not feeling very hopeful about the economic future of Sweden, with the current
flow of economically speaking worthless immigrants/"refugees". (A third of
them or so satisfy the UN critera for being a war refugee.) For the past month
the rate has been about ~2k/day. It will likely go up exponentially over time
unless policies are changed. In Africa alone there are probably half a billion
people who would prefer Sweden.

Living in a country that has become so twisted that it is social suicide to
publicly suggest that having a 10-20x higher immigrant rate of illiterate and
uneducated people from e.g. Somalia and Afghanistan than the rest of Europe
might be somewhat problematic in the long run.

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theworstshill
58% in tax is ridiculous, especially if you know its not going towards you but
towards people with 2nd grade education at best who aren't accustomed to a
peaceful society.

"~2k/day"... Sweden is doomed.

~~~
johansch
Yup.

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natewevans
pretty cool to see the industrial design elements and what resonated with the
designers based on their cocoa pod inspiration.

shape: "an elongated shape and distinct ribs"; "curvier, with more girth"

color: "German Green"

material: "made of heavy, durable glass"

weight: "no less than 14.5 ounces"

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apapli
I love how coke essentially crowdsourced their bottle design. Silly me
thinking crowdsourcing was some sort of "disruptive innovation".

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joezydeco
There are other examples of this in history.

A good one is the invention of the modern billiard ball. Balls were made from
ivory and were very expensive, which prevented the mass popularity of the
game.

Michael Phelan put in an ad in the paper offering $10,000 (the equivalent of
millions today) to anyone that could develop a substitute for ivory. The
result was cellulose, which later begat Bakelite, a perfect substitute.

[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-post-billiards-
age...](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-post-billiards-age/)

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542458
The title here confuses me. I don't see anywhere in the article that they make
the case that it happened by chance. Seems like it was designed by a small
team who were trying to design a distinctive bottle - The complete opposite of
chance!

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jmilloy
Agreed, though I guess they _happened_ to see an illustration of a cocoa pod
when looking up coca.

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MBCook
Yeah, I think the 'chance' is that coca and cocoa are so similar in English.

