1909 Coca-Cola ad with six-day rider
Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by Josh in Marketing, Sponsors
In November, Coca-Cola’s in-house historian and blogger posted this ad featuring six-day rider Bobby Walthour. The ad quotes him as saying:
When I first went into a six-day race I took a jug of Coca-Cola to New York with me and drank it all the time I was there. I won the championship and came out of that great contest ten pounds heavier than when I went in. After that experience I have never been without Coca-Cola, because it keeps me fresh, but does not stimulate and then leave me all broken up.
According to Mooney, the ad ran in 1909 but it seems like he’s talking about his 1901 win at the New York six-day in Madison Square Garden. If so, it means that Bobby Walthour was famous enough that people still cared about something he did eight years earlier. It was a different era, but still – that’s pretty famous.
Back then, a continuous, 144-hour-long Madison was the bee’s knees or whatever Bing Crosby would have said. Today, a 4-minute individual pursuit is too boring for television. I suppose that’s progress.
