Leading beverage company Coca-Cola has kicked-off a year-long campaign to celebrate the 100-year old bottle design.

The campaign will include new advertising, a music anthem and a series of art exhibits featuring works from some of the world’s leading contemporary artists including Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Peter Blake, said a statement.

Born on November 16, 1915, the Coca-Cola bottle was the creation of the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana, it said.

With its unmistakable curves and a distinctive contour, the bottle has become a global icon, inspiring a century’s worth of signature moments in film, social history, design and the fine arts.

Marcos de Quinto, chief marketing officer, said: “Since its creation in 1915, the Coca-Cola bottle has achieved iconic status as a symbol of refreshment and uplift and it remains an important asset for our business today.

“The campaign, which will be executed in over 130 countries, is our invitation to consumers around the world to share in the specialness of an ice-cold Coca-Cola.”

The High Museum of Art, in collaboration with The Coca-Cola Company, will present ‘The Coca-Cola Bottle: An American Icon at 100,’ a four-part exhibit that will salute the Coca-Cola bottle and its special place in the worlds of art, design and commerce over the past 100 years.

For the first time ever, two original Andy Warhol Coke Bottle paintings will be displayed alongside more than 100 original bottle-inspired artworks and photographs.

The exhibit also includes original bottle prototypes and sketches, which opened to the public on February 28 and will close on October 4.

A traveling art exhibition, ‘The Coca-Cola Bottle Art Tour: Inspiring Pop Culture for 100 Years,’ will take consumers on a unique, multi-sensory journey featuring an array of Coca-Cola bottle themed art, historical artifacts and interactive experiences which showcase the Coca-Cola bottle’s role in art and popular culture.

The exhibition will visit more than 15 countries and travel 62,000 miles around the world this year.

The Coca-Cola bottle’s legacy will be explored through 14 television and digital films, that will be aired globally.

One spot from Ogilvy & Mather Paris tells the epic tale of the creation of the Coca-Cola bottle, as narrated by a big brother to his younger sibling. The bottle travels through distant lands and curious settings, captivating the boy’s imagination. It is through this journey that the bottle obtains its unique features - its iconic curves, its flutes and red ribbon - and gets filled with icy-cold Coca-Cola as it ends its ride back in the hands of the refreshed older brother.

“Nobody Like You” is the new music anthem for the Coca-Cola bottle campaign from 19 year-old, Canadian singer/songwriter Francesco Yates. The anthem’s lyrics tell both a traditional love story and serve as an ode to the contour shape of the Coca-Cola bottle and the specialness of shared moments.

The anthem debuts today (March 2) and is available via digital download. The song will also appear on radio and in Coca-Cola television commercials throughout the year.

Iconic pop-stars and notable Coca-Cola fans Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles unite in the new ‘Kissed By’ global out of home, digital and retail campaign. The images feature the stars being ‘kissed by’ the Coca-Cola bottle, an experience shared across generations for the last 100 years.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola, in partnership with French publishing house Assouline, will release a limited-edition book highlighting the rich history of the Coca-Cola bottle, titled ‘Kiss the Past Hello.’

In addition to famous artwork featuring the Coca-Cola bottle, The Coca-Cola Company has invited contemporary artists and designers from around the world to reinterpret the bottle in their own signature aesthetic. The result is an array of ‘mash-up’ artwork, which will be showcased in the book when it is released in March. - TradeArabia News Service