tv Book TV CSPAN August 11, 2013 10:00pm-11:16pm EDT
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hold the fizz, you know, and they relatively cold longer. let me introduce my other books really quickly. this is actually my latest book. not the new edition -- it's a wonderful children's book. you can find them on my website, which my website is my name. this is "jack in the bean soup" which is an elaborate book. this is "uncommon grounds "history of coffee. this is "mirror mirror" a history of mirrors. unbelievely broad ranging and kind of interesting. [laughter] "japan's tipping point" which is rented. i went looking to see if whether they were doing a lot about
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renewable energy after the fukushima mementdown, and one more -- let's see. victims of memory. it's probably my most important book. it's about the repressed memory of epidemic of the late '80s and early '90s. it's amazing people can come up with things that never happened and remember them very clearly. [laughter] i wanted to open this with a quote from 1985, i presume from you are interested in coca-cola, that you know what happened in 1985. they changed the flavor of coca-cola and the entire world -- [inaudible] [laughter] it's amazing. so i think think of another product that people would have gone so behysteric over. i started the book with the
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story about the flavor change because it strikes me as being em beliematic. it was a history lesson what they taught the company of what the drink meant too much. it wasn't so much the taste. that was part of it. but what it meant. i'm going read a few letters. the company was kind enough to have a file with some of the letters. i'm a heavy coke drinker. i do not drink coffee, tea, milk, water nothing but coke. i drink coke all day long. i also have a glass or can of coke. always. i have now to try to find something to drink i will tolerate. it will not be new coke. never. [laughter] another changing comb is not --
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millions of dollar worth of advertising cannot overcome years of conditions, or in my case generations. the old coke is in my blood. until you bring the old coke back i'm going drink rc. [laughter] i do not drink alcoholic beverages, i don't smoke, i don't chase over women. my only vice has been coke. now you have taken that pleasure from me. [laughter] my dearest coke, you have betrayed me. we went out just last week as so often. when we kiss i knew our love affair was over. it goes on and on. it's amazing. i wanted to start out with that introduction. how in the world did it happen? a drink 99 percent 50s gar water come to representative yek and
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have so much power in the world? including politics and the environment, and now they're being blamed for the obesity epidemic. how did it happen? i'm going try to take you through a quick march through it. i'm sure i'm not going cover everything anybody wants to hear. make note about questions and i'll try to answer them. coca-cola was invented in 1886 by the gentleman. it's the only known picture of him named john. he was born in 1831, and rural town in georgia. he became a pharmacist. he was a doctor, and he was a patent medicine maker. he was convinced he was going to make the fortune. he made extract of -- globe flower cough super and a number of other patent medicines you have never heard of. he was not a very good businessman. he would make money and give it
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away. he was also in the civil war, and he was wounded, and i believe that's one of the reasons why he became a morphine addict. which many, many civil war veterans did become. he also had, of course, ready access as a farmist, although it was perfectly legal until 1914. anyway. he became very interested -- he moved to atlanta, the big city of atlanta in 1869. determined to make his fortune. he was sure he had in 1886 two years before he invented coca-cola because he a made drink that was an imitation of the world famous -- you have never heard of van. if you had been alive in 1885 within you would have known all about him. everybody knew attendant. angela was moved to paris and began to make this wine with an
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infusion of coca leaf. it had a healthy portion of alcohol but cocaine. everybody thought cocaine was a wonder drug including freud. and he had endorsement from the like of queen victoria, frank, thomas edison, and sara burn heart and pope leo xiii loved the stuff. naturally, with such a popular drink many people imitated it including john. he created a drink called french wine coca. and it was very clearly a wine ripoff. in interview with the atlantic constitution he said as much. he said mine is better. i have made a superior product. i want to read you from one of the ads for it because it will give french wine coca --
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pardon me. give you a good flavor of the style of advertising. americans are -- i'll try a southern accent. i've been living up north so for long. he was a southern gentleman. americans are the most nervous people in the world. [laughter] all suffering from any nervous complaint we dmoand use the wonderful and delightful remedy. [inaudible] all are inflicted with my -- [inaudible] mental and physical -- [inaudible] it's quickly cured. it's proven that the greatest blessings of the human family nature's [inaudible] lawyers, literary men, merchants, bankers, ladies, and all sedentary employment causes nervous frustration, irregular laity of the stomach, bowl, and kidney --
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[inaudible] stimulant will find it invaluable. assure to restore health and happiness. it's the most -- [inaudible] and cure weakness, impolitical impotent sincerity, et. cetera, when other remedies fail. he went on and on and on about the drink. he was selling it like gang busters. sam jones came to town and haves hell fire preacher who convinced everybody that liquor was evil. so atlanta was one of the first cities, fullton county voted go dry. there was a vote in november of 1885. to give people time adjust-going to take effect on july 1st, 1886. john frantically tried to figure out how he could move french wine coca to make the drink. that's what coca-cola is, ladies and gentlemen.
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[laughter] he kept the coca leaf, he a lot of sugar because it was very bitter with cola nut which he added. it was a very popular new drug that contained caffeine. and he -- this is the formula for coca-cola. the new one i have in the third edition inspect is the reason you should buy the book. have me autograph it tonight. this is the handwriting in frank robinson early partner and when he died two years after inventing it in 1885 frank robinson took the drink. convinced him it would make a for and cure the headache, which it did. and so this is his handwriting. if you look at the coca-cola flavor. doesn't that look familiar it he named coca-cola. which guess why it's named
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coca-cola? it has cocoa leaf and cola nut. it had cocaine and caffeine. so -- but this nobody ever found the recipe for french wine coca. s there it is. i want to show you what they were. there is real plants. they take these leaves and make fluid extract with it. they do it still in importing it from peru and maywood new jersey. they decocainize it now. they have done it since 1903 coca-cola hasn't had any cocaine. they had a -- [inaudible] they got out in the '20s. this is a cola nut. and i took this picture in 2006, when i was doing research for inside the outbreak in the -- i choose one of these. i bought one from the beautiful young and chewed it and spit it out immediately. it's incredibly bitter. i can see why he added so much
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sugar. they advertised it to children. this is an 1894 ad. and they advertised it -- this is 1896 calendar, they put it on things you had to look at a lot. they would giveaway free matchbooks, with coke can coca cola logo or calendars. and they early on had very wholesome nice looking young women although this one looks like a little bit stoned. [laughter] and it was a delightful summer and winter beverage. they are trying to sell it in the winter specific for headache, relief. it was at the same time a medicine and a soft drink. and it was served in soda fountain with carbonated water. around this time, frank robinson
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who in a letter, i believe, as i recall women keep contacting me and stop with the medicinal advertise it as a drink. he began to get the idea and gradually they began to change the advertising. this is one from 1905 two years after they took out the cocaine. they advertise it with little children. as, you know, men, women, and children all healthy and happy and drinking coca-cola. let me mention why they took out the cocaine. cocaine had ban wonder drug in the 1880s but gradually it became clear that it was an -- adingtive drug that was a problem. the reason they really took it out cocoa will was a southern
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drink. there were rumor that black people were drinking too much coca-cola getting high on the cocaine, raping white women, murdering their bosses. and this was in newspapers they found at the time. i'm quite convince that's one of the reason or the main reason from racism they removed the cocaine from coca-cola. this is another one showing a kind of, you know, rx. it's a prescription for students. and brain workers. it's supposed to make you smarter. as the drink was quite controversial even after they took the cocaine out, the company decided to try to make it a patriotic beverage. you see uncle sam pulling a coke out of the white house soda fountain. it didn't do them any good. this man, whose name is harvey
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wiley hated coca will. he was kind of like a ralph neighedder of his day. very powerful, very popular. he was the one who got the pure food and drug act passed in 1960. he was the first head of the fda. or what came to be known as the fda, and he got the u.s. government to sue coca-cola in 1911, which almost put them out of business. one of his big complaint was that cafe -- caffeine was an added ingredient they were trying to promote to children. and coke barely survived this lawsuit. if you want -- i hope you'll read the chapter about it. i'm not going to go in to detail here. one of the things that came out they agreed never to show children under the age of 12 drinking coke in an ad again. as far as i know, they never have. here is as harvey in a 1912 good
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housekeeping article warning the public against the gremlin of nervousness, habit, and -- that's what a coke glass looked like. he wanted to have very wholesome women and no overt sexual appeals more just kind of sexual appeals. this was his bottler in chicago, who showed the prostitute who is very happy and tired and said satisfied underneath. [laughter] you can see the empty coke bottles. he didn't like that. but he took the idea and made the ad from it instead. coke early on realized they should have sports celebrities advertising their drink. robert woodruff who took over the company in 1923, was very good friends with ty cobb, and convince them to buy coke stock in 1919 when it went public, and
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it was the basis of his fortune as it should been the basis of my fortune and father's fortune who is sitting in the front row here because my father's father jb was the pharmacist in little five points and bought coca-cola stock in 1919 but sold it a few years later for what he thought was a good profit in order to build a house. [laughter] unfortunate. this is an ad from 1922 showing the relatively new at that time skirt bottle or the contour bottle. what happened was coke had a contest in 1915, to select a bottle that people would recognize a blind man would recognize in the dark or, you know, -- [laughter] that anybody would know would was coke. the reason they did it was not for advertise but legal purposes. they wanted to sue people who were imitating them. they wanted not to be able to
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imitated. so that's how the classic bottle was created. by the way, the bottling began in 1899 in a big way when these two lawyers went to them and said we want to tboatle. he said i don't want it bottled. it's not a good product. the top blows off. i'll give you guys the rights to tboalgt across the united states, but you have to use my my sur -- numerous lawsuit came out. you'll have to read the book to find out when they were. during the depression era, robert worked with an ad man named archie lee. between them, nay came up with some of the best and most
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classic coke advertising ever. robert said no more defensive ads, we're not going say it's not bad for you. and we're not going worry about the fact government sued us and the army banned it from army bases in 1970. we're going say it's a wholesome product and it's wonderful kind of affordable luxury. during the depression, this was a great thing, you know, for only 5 cents you could give yourself a little pause that refreshes. that was this wonderful adline that archie lee that came up. it became someone ?an mouse with cloak. that would be good. here is a serving tray, again, stuff you look at or use all the time. it they were good at doing this. this is a norman rockwell picture of wholesome freckled
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boy drinking coke. he looks close being under 12, but i don't think he is. this was during a time when the united states was urbanizing quickly, and even then coke was heart attackenning back to a mythical past. very good at doing that, still very good at doing that. they couldn't show children drinking it, but they sure did want to get children to drink their drink from an early age and to become loyal and literally addicted to it. so who better to represent the drink than santa claus? this ad is a wonderful artist. i perform him to norman rockwell painted the santa claus started in 1931 they are still going on, as you know. and it really defined the way we think of santa claus. up until them some were fat and jolly and addressed in red.
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some were gaunt and tal and wore green. foafer more, santa would look like this and prefer coke. when i was growing up, he a cute coke santa claus by the fireplace. remember that? with a tiny coke? mom and dad, would you stand up? just far moment. [applause] [applause] my dad made part of the living making display rack. he introduced me to many people when i was first writing the book. during world world war ii, which is beyond comprehension. they -- when pearl harbor happened, robert woodruff said we'll provide a coke for the fighting men no matter where they are in
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the world for only a nickel. no matter thatch costs u. it was a great patriotic gesture. it was a brilliant marketing move. as a result coke was deemed a central morale booster for the droop -- troops. they sent coke men overseas dressed in army uniforms with to on the shoulder hood for technical observer. it was a civilian who was essential to the war effort. most did things like fixing airplane. these guys set up coke-64. bottling plants behind the lines to give to the troops. and it really was a morale booster. again, i have all the letters, i won't read to you now. they are in the book what it meant to people to gate coke. in the middle of warfare in the trenches. it set them up after the war with, you know, everybody knew coke was g.i. drink.
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pepsi was screaming bloody murder. they didn't get the same treatment. i thought it was a funny ad by a cartoon by bill. congratulations, you're the 100th soldier who posed with that bottle of coke. you can drink it. [laughter] at the same time, that coke was the big patriotic drink, it's amazing he had become the patriotic drink after the u.s. government had sued them. not that long ago thirty years or so before. it was very popular inside nazi germany. this is a 1937 cover of coke news. in 1938, i found that max kite, the head of coke in germany and had a little mustache like hitler was leading -- while there was a coke logo next a
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huge swastica. it was shocking. now max was not a nazi himself. he had to go along to get along. for him, it was coke for everything. he actually almost was sent to a concentration camp himself because he refused to nationalize it. but he came up during the war with fan ta. a drink called fanta. it wasn't a fruit drink. it was left over of the left over. the company used that when they went to fruit drinks. after the war, coca-cola was launched for international expansion, this is a cover from "time" magazine from 1950, love that.
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coke had become a symbol of the american way of life for good and bad. the communists spread all of these rumor that it turned your hair white overnight and made you impotent and it was awful for you. coke piers -- persevered. i have a chapter in the book called "coke columnization "and the communists which i found interesting. coke was good at doing advertising on the radio. when television came along they jumped on too. they sponsored ozy and harriet to drink coke with little ricky doing so also. at the same time, they -- robert woodruff did not like change. he didn't want to change from the one drink, one size, one price. it was six and a half ounce bottle for a nickel.
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that's all there was. coke -- pepsi had come along during the depression, and put pepsi in twelve ounce old beer bottles. and they had a little jingle that said, you know, pepsi cola hits the spot. twelve full ounces that's a lot. twice as much for a nickel too, pepsi cola is a drink for you. they got an image of being a low-quality drink for cheep people. it sold a lot of pepsi. and coke refused to match them and was above them all forest fire years nobody at coca-cola would say the word pepsi. you would say the p-word. you wouldn't name them. finally they broke down and matched them ounce for ounce and came out with king size coke and sprite and with fanta and tab, the first hideous diet drink. i don't want to offend people.
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many people loved it. everybody likes something and they become used to it even if it tastes like kerosene. [laughter] so coke had never addressed a huge market. the african-american market was very big for coke cola. but they only showed black people in ads as domestic servant and throughout the' 20s and' 30s. here in the 1950 they show sugar ray robinson. the ad was in ebony, or another publication for black. they had separate but unequal ads. it wasn't until the 1960 they were basically forced by the civil rights movement to not only show blacks and their ads, this was a real thing ad. but also incredible story in the
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book of charlie bottom the first black sales rep that coke had. what they went through together as a team in the 1960 with death threat and people dumping foods in the lap when they tried eat together in restaurant. martin luther king won the nobel peace prize, you will go to the dinner in honor of martin luther king. when he was killed in 1968, coca-cola helped to pay for the funeral and make sure that atlanta didn't blow up the way the rest of the country was. but it's been an interesting thing. it's a racial decision lawsuit not long ago that coca-cola finally settled. but there have been rational
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issues right along. the real thing campaign i think it was brilliant. they wanted to appeal to hippies, they wanted to appeal to the old generation, at the same time, and the hippies were looking for authentic things, you know, they wanted to their thing and be real in term of authentic. this ad managed to appeal to them as well as the authentic thing meaning it's also not pepsi, et. cetera. and then in 19 71 as part of the real thing campaign this iconic commercial, which we know so well. in which these -- they lip sync to the group new seekers. who sang the song. but it's a very moving ad. and it shows everybody holding
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coca-cola as if it were a tallas man of peace. the world would be at peace if everybody drank coke. it seems absurd. i kind of think that is fry in a way. -- true in the way. at the end of the book i talk about the power of capitalism to coke country want to see people at war. you can't sell very much coca-cola if people killing each other. and so in many ways, they have tried to keep the world at peace. they were very much involved with the transition to power from white apartheid south africa to tell me -- nelson mandela in a good way. anyway, we know that commercial. let me see. ♪ i like to teach the world to sing in perfect arm --
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harmony ♪ >> thank you. [laughter] there was a commercial from 1979, that is also absolutely wonderful. somebody said he looked like a fellow when he was turned around and said hey kid and threw the sweaty jersey after the kid said mr. green, mr. green, i think you're the best ever. i found out in my research they made him do 18 takes and that he threw up after. [laughter] and then they use the first take. [laughter] the poor guy. so here is 1985, which i've already talked about. are we are tow was a brilliant ceo who to coke from cuba. because of castro, and he worked for coca-cola in cuba before castro nationalized the business. he came in and said there are no
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sacred formula. there are no sacred -- nobody considers that he meant it. but coke had been losing market share to pepsi for twenty years. they had great ads. what was a matter? they had this annoying pepsi challenge, and they decided, well, we're going change it and make it change better. they did about 51% of people preferred the taste of new coke to pepsi. the other 49% was almost burned down the country. [laughter] so for three months, there was these huge protest and they finally brought back coke classic. and then it reminded people of what coke meant to them. and the same drink losing market share has been gaining market share ever since. so much so many people think it was a hoax that coke intended do this. let me tell you, they did not intend to do it. i'm going jump to --
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i need to finish things. this is an fraud the killer coke campaign, it was launched in 2003. a guy named ray rogers, who is a long time union activist started this. now within the fact is that there were union members in coca-cola bottling plabt -- plant in columbia that were murdered in the 1990s. the question is did the coca-cola bottler -- was the coca-cola bottler in collusion with the para military group that committed the murder. i think it's entirely possible they were. it's difficult prove it. i doubt anyone in atlanta had anything to do with it. on the other hand, the company has always, you know, said, well, those are the bottlers. that's not us. but the fact is the bottlers can't do business unless you sell them this concentrate or
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the syrup. it was a huge campaign, which is still going on. they tried to a lawsuit, which got thrown out of court eventually. but this is the kind of thing that coca-cola absolutely hates for very good reason. but it also has made them going pay attention to a lot of human rights allegations around the world, i think which is a good thing they have begun to pay more attention. let me say i think coca-cola is essentially a pretty good company in many ways. every major corporation does awful things. coca-cola is held accountable in a way that many companies aren't because this image it's the perfect drink to protest. because you can protest them. my boot is not an anticoca-cola
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book. it's not prococa-cola book. it's a very-well researched book that offers you the fact as i came to know them on both sides of the issue. for instance, they were accused in india, quite recently, of depleting water table. now india has terrible water problems. but 98% of the problems come from the very poor way they irrigate, and they do agricultural coke, some of the bottlerring plant they shouldn't have put them -- they contributed to also depleting the water table. but it's a hard blame entirely for this. say that will have now gone replenish with the water with rain water harvesting under the guy who came in 2004 as the ceo. they began to focus on water issues around the world. for instance, when i went to
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kenya, as part of the research for inside the outbreak. cbc is doing something called the safe water system, which teaches people to put dilute bleach in containers and then they have narrow top you can't stick your hand in to dip anything out and repollute it. low and behold there was coke paying for the program in elementary school. that was heartening to me. so i take the allegations seriously. in this particular case, i think they perceive more blame than they deserve. coca-cola has been having -- have you used these free style machines they are kind of cool. you can go and choose different things. this is part of coca-cola trying to be more interact with the advertising, and with their
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marketing. they want to involve consumers. they had a hidden camera when they were testing this someplace in atlanta. they caught a woman who kissed the side of the machine. [laughter] that was quite funny. but you can sort of mix and match here in a modern version of what they used to call the suicide at the soda fountain. -- is from ireland originally grew up a in large measure in south africa and antiapartheid activist when he was a student. and he brought back him to be the sort of second in command and when he retired in 2008 as the ceo, he took over. he's a turkish-american. his father was the ambassador to the united states and many ore countries as he was growing up.
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his father was one of the people who saved juice during the holocaust from being accept to the gas chambers. so this is very much a coke man. delivering the first case of coca-cola in burma. leaving only -- last year leaving only cuba and north korea as places where you cannot legally buy coke. you can buy it on the black market anyway. coca-cola is the world's most largely distributed product. it's probably the second known word on earth after the word okay. i don't know if that's still true or not. [laughter] it has huge amount of money flowing in. it has really good profit margin. it has given huge amount of money to good causes particularly here in the city of atlanta, but they also have
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given a lot of money to the world wildlife fund, to aids prevention, and fleement africa because they are the largest single private employer in africa. and a number of other things you probably don't know about. now, they have been blamed for the obesity epidemic, they have reacted this year by coming out with ads saying we're part of the solution. not the problem. and some of that rings quite hollow to me. for instance, they say look, we reduced how much sugary soft drink and calories we give to children in school. they were basically forced out of schools in 2006. so now they are bragging about it. but they do offer about a quarter of their products now are low-cal rei or no-calorie. it's good business because sugar
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soft drinks peaked in 1988. they have been dwindling down. they came out recently with coke zero which is aimed primarily at men who don't like to say is a drink is a diet drink. it use the real coca-cola formula, where as diet coke doesn't. i think at some point in the future, the combine sales of diet coke and coke zero will surpass regular coke. so, but, and, you know, a 12 ounce can of coke has nine teaspoon of sugar or high-fructose corn super, -- syrup. they should be held accountable not for the entire obesity epidemic but trying to encourage people to drink a huge amount of the sugar-laden soda.
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the thing i wish they would do. i'm glad they are supporting exercise programs, and -- i'm glad they're paying attention to the issue. i wish they would not spend millions of dollars through the american beverage association to fight tax on soda. i think they should embrace that because, you know, until they put high taxes on cigarettes, you know, you preach to people until you are blue in the face. but preaching doesn't make people change their behavior, money makes people change their behavior. so, you know, -- this is a controversial thing say even among nutritionist. i think we should have higher taxes on sugary beverages because it will reduce the consumption.
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to beat one of the most serious complex issues. i applaud them for doing that. they are right. they now offer something like 3,500 drinks around the world. this was a company that offered one drink in one size until 1955. they have done that in large measure by buying a lot of other companies. they spent $4 billion to $4.1 billion to buy victim water. they are not that being good at creating new cries. they have a section of people who just look at new drink and try to find the next winner so they can buy it. the future for coke and other soft drink companies is china. where they have formed business partnership with the chinese government, and the chinese government has committed many
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human right abuses including right before the 2008 olympics which coke paid for the torch run. they cracked down hand on [inaudible] that was a huge issue a few years ago. so there's a lot of politics involved. i want to mention one other thing. coke has been involved with getting various presidents elected beginning most notably with eisenhower who is a great buddy of robert woodruff, and then when jimmy carter was running for president coke was helpful to him. carter, when he was governor, called coke his state department because when he went to a foreign country, he could ask the coke people for the lo down on the politics and everything else. they would know better than anybody else. i thought i would mention that
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since i'm here. at the carter center. with that, i think i will turn it off and thank you very much for your attention this long. [applause] we have time for about ten or fifteen minutes. raise your hand and ask your question. begin there. >> you mentioned that coke zero had the original coke flavoring as opposed to diet coke, which does not. can you address why diet coke has more caffeine than coke zero? why more caffeine? >> look at the can. >> i didn't know that. >> he coke zero has 34 as does the drink you are drinking. >> i have no idea why. why?
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>> i think to keep the skinny folks jittery. [laughter] that could well be the case. [laughter] >> see, i don't know everything about coca-cola. my question is two weeks ago i toured the corporate headquarter of coke. it's weird seeing their version of what coke is and more unbiased version. i had a couple of comment. they gave me some of the fact and maybe you knew it, maybe you know or don't know. is on the "times" article with the world with coke, they originally wanted robert woodruff to be on the cover but he didn't want to be. that's why they put the symbol and then, the other one is for the free style machine you can't buy them. it's more of renting them from coca-cola. that's also another thing.
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with the high-tech technology. >> right. you have to rent -- they don't call them vending machines. they call them soda fountain. you are absolutely right that robert woodruff refriewzed. robert was known as mr. mr. anonmouse. he didn't want attention. he didn't want people asking him for money. nobody knows woodruff twhawnt happy about it. but let me clarify something. you did not take a tour of the corporate headquarter. you took a tour of the world of coca-cola museum. is that right? >> you really did get to go to the corporate headquarter? at north avenue. i'm impressed. the world of coca-cola museum, as you know, also, every time i go there i ask the guide whether coca-cola ever had cocaine in
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it. they always tell me no. [laughter] it hasn't had any in so long. i can't see why they can't -- yeah, that sounds like fascinating tour you had. very recently i learned read that the person who actually combined the syrup with the carbon dioxide was then a guy named -- [inaudible] i confirmed that with a member of the family. that's the first time i've ever heard that. have you heard that? >> he was the one that ran the soda fountain in 1886. he would be the first person who mixed it together with carbonated water. that's absolutely true. there's a myth that coca-cola was accidentally mixed with carbon ated water. it was intended to be mixed with it from right along. that's what he did.
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carbonated drinks came out of this tradition of thinking that water at spa is naturally carbonated water were good for you. then joseph priestly in the late 1800 figured how to artificially carbonate things. that's why a lot of the soda fountain were in pharmacy because it was supposed to be good for you. i've traveled around internationally a lot, i found that every country i've been to, the coke tastes a little bit different. does that have to do with the water? or do they change the formula a little bit depending on the audience, i guess? >> coke is proud of the fact have a uniform product in the world. they would dispute what you said. i think the main difference is cane sugar. they put real sugar in coca-cola in many countries in the world,
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they don't do that in the united states because we have protective tariff. so high high-fructose corn sewer sewer people will pay a lot of money for the coke imported from mexico. it's possible that there are other differences. i'm not aware of them. >> i have a political question. i think coke is a pretty good company in the united states. is that because many of us knead back better company. the time when you couldn't buy a bottling company in i have been working for coke in the last ten years in brazil where they made the largest investment in brazil. [inaudible] but africans and the brazil
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towbt advance in coca-cola. we have been trying to tell them the fallacy of that. i hope it doesn't -- [inaudible] >> this is joe beastly, i believe? >> that's correct. >> you have been an activist trying to get coca-cola to behave i.t. in term of racial issues for quite some time; is that correct? >> absolutely. all over the world. [inaudible] change the market they have tremendous problem in africa. [inaudible] they only ship coca-cola outside of africa. nibble the information age that's going blow up on them. we want to help them. we like coca-cola. we want to help them be a better
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company. i hope they listen. >> they make a big deal out of the fact africa, particularly, they have the little drink stands that sell few things besides coca-cola, and they really do help many people to make living. that's true. nonetheless, the big bucks are being made by the shareholders. and that's not the africans. we cautioned about it to restructure themselves. i hope will heed -- we are still in the helping mode. we don't want to get a mode where we start litigating again like in brazil, which i think is a distinct possibility that i'm talking to lawyers that we sued coke for -- [inaudible] yes. i recall that. i wrote about that. i do not know about brazil.
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let me talk to you after the event, please. >> all right. >> thank you. >> i found your presentation fascinating. i'm actually a coca-cola employee. i'll be having my anniversary as a coke below next month. two very small corrections to a couple of things you said. first of all, actually, i agree with you about coke wanting to have a known product and a something that when you get a coke anywhere in the world, you know what you're going get. we modify it somewhat for local tastes. coke in mexico will be a little bit sweeter than somewhere else that you go in the world that also uses sugar. same sweetener. the local taste preference is a little bit different. >> there you go. the woman -- >> second, you can get coca-cola in cuba. i have been there twice and have been able to purchase it without
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problem. the difference is that it is sold by our mexican independent bottler. and so you can't have direct, you know, there's no direct relationship with any kind of commerce that goes on in cuba, but certainly mexico has very good relations with cuba, and -- >> you don't have to buy it in the black market? >> no. it's ?raibl restaurants. not necessarily where local goes. it's excite expensive with respect to the local economy. for a tourists that are there, it's -- >> no problem. >> it's very easy to find. >> i wonder if that's true in north korea. [laughter] >> thank you. i'm relieved those are the only two things i got wrong. thank you. i understand there are people that have seen the original formula of coca-cola, i mean, not the original but the present formula for coca-cola. one being --
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[inaudible] of atlanta so that he could pass on judgment whether coca-cola was kosher for pass over. that has been a legend here in atlanta, and i know that coca-cola sells coke for pass over that orthodox jews consume. it has -- >> [inaudible] let me interrupt you for a second. rabbi was the [inaudible] who did the rabbi verify that coke was kosher in the 1930s. it was important coke that he do so. they did not give him the formula. they gave him the ingredient. they didn't -- it's an important distinction. i looked through his papers very carefully. and pretty sure about this. they did change the formula because of him. they had glycerin made from animal fat and changed that and something else too. let mention one of the things really interested. i said coke was doing well
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inside in the city germany. a german competitor who put out something came over to the united and went on a tour of coca-cola bottling plant in new york and swooped up some bottle caps that had the kosher sign on them. brought them back to germany, and made huge stink about how coca-cola was this jewish drink inside germany. i want to ask you also, i'm a shareholder in coke. since i retired i go to the annual meetings and hold them in atlanta. and do you comment in your book about the old networking among the directors where it's self-perpetuating? now they are beginning to get newer blood, but it's still ab old boy networking. i wonder if you comment on that? >> well, i commented on that they have rather elderly board
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of directors, and there's been a lot of comment about that. but that's about as far as i went. i went to the annual meeting last year, i didn't go to the one this year. it was interesting. the one last year, the killer coke people had this coordinated thing of point of order -- did they do that this year? [inaudible] [laughter] what is coke's relationship with emery and georgia tech university? well, i don't know as much about georgia tech. i know that i know stretching back to -- [inaudible] who gave a million dollars to emery at oxford to help them move to atlanta, and then robert woodruff game huge amount. millions and millions to emery
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so, you know, emery has been known as coca-cola university. i don't know as much about georgia tech. you can probably tell me. >> i know that the architect, robert smith, did the original georgia tech campus. >> that would make sense. they are all near each other. thank you. >> let's do two more questions. [inaudible] two more questions. >> first of all, fortunately if anyone cares, i find that you can get cob cola with sugar at kroge in the etd knick it's a $1 a bottle. was there any thought of keeping the new coke and the classic coke or once they brought the classic back the demand for new coke, which was supposed to
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replicate pepsi just died out? >> well, first let my say they kept both of them for some time. they refused to admit that new coke was a failure. he drank new coke himself. he said this is the real coca-cola, and we have just brought back coke classic for the few misguided people who prefer it. [laughter] in fact, it did not do well. i thought what you were going ask which was an interesting question did they consider keeping the old coke and coming out with the new coke in the first place. they considered that. they quickly rejected it because that would have split their market. it would have had two coke can cola which was inconceivable to them. it was possible that pepsi would have surpassed, you know, one or the other of them to be the best selling soft drink in the country. now, by the way, pepsi the
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third-best selling soft drink in the country. coca-cola is number one and diet coke is number two. [applause] [laughter] >> last question here. yes, i know that santa has quit smoking cigarettes in the hands at least, i was wondering for there's any progress on an that reducing his coke intake and lose some weight? [laughter] >> that's a brilliant ad. twont -- santa drinking coke zero and slimming down. [laughter] i think they're on to something. perhaps you will take this back to the company. [laughter] yeah, thank you very much. [applause]
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>> thank you. >> what a great crowd. >> there is a big flying to buy the book. i thought i did and now i'm realizing probably not. >> i had a different kinds of events. [inaudible conversations] >> the first 1i think that's why we start with the turnout. >> okay. great to see you. >> i work here at edelman.
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thank you so much for coming out to support a good friend, eric and his work. the bush administration have the privilege of running the white house web site, so i also -- every morning we started with a blank slate whether it was tests or video or what have you but i always told him it was like the day the house how the story of the george w. bush presidency. it was good to see so many former colleagues in the room to host the event tonight. with that i would like to introduce the former chief of staff mrs. laura bischoff. [applause] >> good morning everyone. thanks for coming. this has been an incredible turn out. in fact, as you know, he was on
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fox news has one of his interviews. i went on facebook and i said when are you going to do your party in washington? and he responded like that. would you be willing to host it? [laughter] >> immediately. >> thank you so much for hosting us here at edelman and brian mccormick and all the coasts that are here. i don't want to start with names because i will forget all of 30 of you that were willing to support this and also your book. so we thank you so much for doing that. we know that we had an incredible turn out. we could sit about 200 people and we have responses as you know for the waiting list. so, we know we've run out of books. i was just told, however, we were told there was possible. you can still order the book and these are bookplates. they are nice and big and
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beautiful and they will go on the page he's signing. he is still signing tonight. you can take your book, and will be in your book. we don't want you to wait anymore. the books are selling off like crazy everywhere that the are on sale. we are so proud of you come all of the photographers that for on the staff that support us as well for eight years. so we congratulate you and look at this incredible turn out. >> yes, it's great. thank you. [applause] >> especially though waiting outside, please if you can get to the refreshments, you guys earn it. there's a year and a wine and we have had one wonderful sponsors with the wine and rebecca that supported us with the beer that is here. so thank you for making it
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possible for us to enjoy a lovely evening. thank you. [applause] first of all i want to thank david for hosting the event and it's overwhelming to see everyone here. most of all, anita, for responding. i'm so glad i got message from you. [laughter] wonderful. i can't thank you enough to do this for me i really appreciate and i never thought something like this could happen to someone like me, an ordinary guy. but all of you out there, especially the folks that worked in the administration i need to change you all because you helped me with my success and i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. i'm overwhelmed and what i would like to do, which i am more comfortable behind the camera then in front of the camera -- i would like to show you some
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photos. a little presentation. what i decided to do is to take a favorite photograph from each chapter because one of the questions i get a lot is what is your favorite show? i will pick a favorite photo from each chapter starting with chapter 1. this chapter is called the beginning to get a lot of you that no president bush know how timely she is and we know how timely he is because he started his meetings online or early, typically early. this is a great illustration. this picture was made the first week of the administration. and obviously the vp is in sync with the president, which is great.
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>> chapter 2. this chapter is called life in the bubble. by the way, this isn't representative of the relationship with the president and mrs. bush. don't get me in trouble here. let me set the stage. this is inside buckingham palace and they are actually clowning around for the camera for me. this really helps show the president had a great sense of humor. buckingham palace is like the white house but bigger, as you can see. [laughter] chapter 3 is called family. whenever the two presidents were together for me it was like a magical moment. first of all, you have the history. the only second son of a president to become president coming and one of the first things i learned is whenever you say mr. president around them, they both turnaround. so i refer to them as president 41 and president 43.
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chapter four, the western white house. this is probably one of my favorite photographs in the book and this is an illustration of the president on the ranch, product xm and something you probably can't see that he is sitting on his lap and i think that we will all miss him. >> chapter 5 is on 9/11. this moment here is critical and you might notice the clock on the wall. it's around 9:25. and the president was so focused on gathering information, gathering his thoughts were preparing for a statement to the country and to the world. and at this moment on the television they were replaying the video of the second tower getting hit and that horrific image of the fireball. and we haven't seen it at this stage in times of than dan
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bartlett awarded every one of the stage and the president turned around and saw that terrific image burned into everyone's memory. chapter six, war president. this moment in terms of intensity is probably obviously 9/11 was off the charts. but this was the moment after the president decided to commit the troops to iraq. he made that in the situation room just moments earlier before this moment. and i photographed the beginning of the meeting and i photographed the president walking along the south lawn. and i noticed that he was very emotional. and i knew something was big. i didn't know exactly what was happening. so you can see the weight of the decision and the president actually spoke to me right after i made this picture. and he said are you interested in history and all i could say
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is yes, sir. he said the pictures are very important. the one in the situation room and on the south lawn. as he said that out of the corner of my eye secretary defense rumsfeld and vice president cheney came out of the office and the president walked over to greet them and they were deciding on the timing of the start of the war. chapter seven. i traveled to nearly 70 countries that president bush and on this trip, i believe this was 2007. the president traveled to kosovo and there was a small town and he was the first american president to visit that country and you can see they are very happy to see them and it's a unique moment the only time i've seen this many hands on the president, i am sure the secret service you can see agent there. [laughter]
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>> the final chapter is called sprint to the finish. this is a moment the president leaves the oval office for the very last time john reid 20, 2009. i was there eight years earlier today the president walked through that door for the first time. through the years i always wondered what would that moment be like. i thought it would be emotional, i thought there would be crying and hugging the there was very simple. the president of round-the-clock called and walked out without turning backup. [applause] again i want to thank all of you for coming here and i want to give a special thanks to mary
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on book tv from much money if anniversary stanley kurtz discusses "spreading the wealth: how obama is robbing the suburbs to pay for the cities" this is about half an hour. >> speaker stanley kurtz. she's going to talk on spreading the wealth. he's a senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center and an adjunct fellow with the institute with a special-interest in america's cultural war. she writes on family, feminism, homosexuality, affirmative action and campus political correctness. she helped publish a book entitled radical and chief which was exposing obama's lost years that nobody knows
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