Earl Moore Photography
Coca Cola 5¢ a bottle

I’m always on the look out for advertising painted on the sides or roofs of buildings. It’s a form of advertisement seldom used any longer and with age and demolition the remaining examples are becoming rarer to find.

From 1887 to 1959 Coca Cola was selling for five cents per bottle. In 1928, Coca Cola was present at the Olympic Games and introduces the six pack. You could get it a few pennies cheaper If you bought a six pack of Coca Cola in 1945.


19 Comments

  1. Great one Earl. Love it. I’m drawn to those too… guess that’s one reason I’d rather prowl the alleys than walk the streets…

  2. I’m right there with you and Paul. In fact, I shot something very similar today in an alley while up in Fort Collins. I remember that price and the old cooler where the bottle hung by it’s neck. My grandpa would take me there and buy me a soda and Cherry Mash candy bar. Living the good life then. :-)

    • Monte, I not one for large crowds and much prefer the joy of finding things along the outskirts. I remember see that price on a number of old coolers when I was a small boy. Sounds like some good memories.

  3. I like the treatment on this one, Earl. And it looks a little familiar! :)

    When I was a kid my brother and I used to pick up discarded “pop bottles” along the freeway near our house and returned them to the local pizza shop for the 2 cent deposit, then used the money to buy pizza.

    • Tom, I can’t imagine why it’d look familiar? ;-) Yeah, those where the days when parents didn’t worry about kids being out on their own…now kids are getting snatched out of their own bedrooms while they sleep.

  4. This is something special for me, Earl, because I love these old signs. It may not be readily apparent to the casual observer but there was a lot of care and precision in producing these signs. I like the treatment on this, too.

    • And not only that, Ken, they lasted a very long time, as witnessed here!

    • Ken, thanks. I really like the ones they use to do on barn roofs. I don’t know of any of those left locally but I’ve seen a few during longer road trips. It took real artist to produce these with paint on the scale they did them and keep the detail they achieved. Like Paul said, they’ve lasted a long time.

  5. nice composition and edit…

  6. Just want to add my compliments, Earl. It’s a wonderful image – and, as you say, one that is becoming harder and harder to find. What I really like is the vignette you’ve created. It drives the eye straight to the “5”.

    • Thanks, Paul. Coca Cola kept that 5¢ price a long time and it was the most enduring element of this advertisement painting. It seemed only right to emphasize it in this photo.

  7. With Tom – This looks very familiar, but your treatment is fantastic! I remember talking about this, or similar advertisements. I love the way that they used to paint the advertisements on the sides of buildings.

    I don’t remember soda being 5 cents, but I certainly remember going around with my wagon and collecting bottles out of empty lots, taking them home, washing them out with the hose and taking them to our local store, Lawson’s, and redeeming them for 2 cents each. It was big time if you could an empty, gallon milk jug. Those babies were worth 10 cents! That’s how I made my living as a youngster, that and cutting grass. :) Great memories.

    • Paul, it looks familiar to you too! Wow, there must have been something “very similar” you took a photo of once. ;-)

      I grew up too far out in the country to be able to collect bottles but I do remember how cold those small glass bottles would get in an icy cooler — almost too cold to drink and that first swallow would seem like it was gonna take the top of your head off. :-)

      You’re right, lotta good memories.

  8. Very appealing shot – and a great treatment as well. I think we all have an attraction to old fading advertisements such as these. They make intriguing subjects, much like rusted out vehicles. Lots of character.

    • John, thanks. Maybe too we like these type of things because they’re a link to our past, a simpler time many of us can remember.

  9. A great monochromatic picture.