Even all these years later, I can still close my eyes and envision the warm summer days of my idyllic youth, 
when all you needed to enjoy yourself was a bike, a local swimming hole and a cold Coca-Cola drunk straight from the glass bottle. I guess it’s no secret why I remain an avid collector of soda tin signs: Coke memorabilia reminds me of a simple, carefree time that will never be seen again.
My husband and I have acquired so much Coke merchandise over the years, in fact, that we’ve been forced to devote the entire spare bedroom to the tin signs. There’s a special nook for the company’s famous holiday campaigns. I especially like looking at the way Coca-Cola advertising has morphed over the years to appeal to different trends and demographics.
The first Coca-Cola recipe was invented in Columbus, Georgia at a drugstore owned by John Pemberton, originally as a cocawine called Pemberton’s French Wine Coca in 1885. He may have been inspired by the formidable success of Vin Mariani, a European cocawine. By the time of its 50th anniversary, the drink had reached the status of a national icon for the USA.
Coca-Cola was not the first soft drink company to utilize the modern image of Santa Claus in its advertising – White Rock Beverages used Santa in advertisements for its ginger ale in 1923 after first using him to sell mineral water in 1915. Before Santa Claus, however, Coca-Cola relied on images of smartly-dressed young women to sell its beverages. Coca-Cola’s first such advertisement appeared in 1895 and featured a young Bostonian actress named Hilda Clark as its spokesperson. These retro soda pop signs are still available today