Royal Crown Cola Ad – June 26, 1962

Friday's blog post highlighted Pepsi-Cola. Today we take a look at a cola competitor: Royal Crown Cola – or RC Cola.

Above is an ad that appeared in the Lorain Journal back on June 26, 1962.

According to its Wiki entry, "It was originally created for Cole-Hampton-Hatcher Grocery Store as an early generic brand, to avoid the high cost of purchasing Coca-Cola syrup.

"As a grocery wholesaler, Claud A. Hatcher purchased a large volume of Coca-Cola syrup from the local company salesman, Columbus Roberts. Hatcher felt that the company deserved a special reduced price for the syrup since it purchased such large volumes. Roberts would not budge on the cost, and a bitter conflict between the two erupted. Hatcher told Roberts he would win the battle by never purchasing any more Coca-Cola, and Hatcher determined to develop his own soft drink formula.

"In the 1950s, Royal Crown company was leading the beverage industry to sell the first canned soft drinks, followed by the first caffeine-free cola.

"In 1958, the company introduced the first diet cola, Diet Rite.

"In 1984, RC Cola accounted for approximately 4-5% of soft drink sales in the United States, behind Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and 7 Up. 

"RC Cola is owned and distributed in the U.S. by Keurig Dr Pepper. In the rest of the world, it is distributed by RC Cola International."

Keurig Dr. Pepper's fizzy roll call of soda pop brands

Click here to visit a great blog that has a comprehensive look at the innovative celebrity ad campaigns of Royal Crown Cola over the years. Besides pretty starlets like Gene Tierney shilling for the brand, the celebrity roster also included the Our Gang kids and John Wayne!

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I hadn't thought about RC Cola for a long time until recently, when I bought a 2-liter bottle at Discount Drug Mart – for 99 Cents! While the taste was a long way from Pepsi or Coke, it wasn't bad at all. And since I was in the mood to guzzle pop, it was nice to have a huge bottle.

Maybe the brand ain't dead yet.