RC Cola Ad – June 28, 1972

 

RC Cola has 'popped' up on this blog before in a vintage ad, and here's another one. It's from the June 28, 1972 Journal and as you can see, uses Uncle Sam in his famous "I Want You" pose. What he wants is for RC Cola drinkers to buy their favorite soft drink in the 16 ounce glass returnable bottles.

It's a pity we don't use those kind of bottles anymore. 

Anyway, I have a personal reason for posting this ad. I suspect that it's the reason that I won a poster contest when I was in eighth grade!

Let me explain. As I noted back on this post, the Ford Motor Company sponsored the Fire Prevention Week Poster Contest in Lorain County back in the 1960s and early 1970s. For the 1972 contest (held in early fall that year), my art teacher gave me the idea of using Uncle Sam in his iconic pose, but wearing a fireman's hat, with the slogan "I WANT YOU to prevent fires."

It was a great idea, and not surprising since my teacher had some ad agency experience.

Anyway, I won in my age division (which I wrote about here) and my poster was on display at Midway Mall in October 1972. It's not a stretch to believe that this full-page newspaper ad from June 1972 might have still been fresh in my teacher's mind a couple months later and triggered his award-winning poster concept.

Just another example of serendipity in the great scheme of life, how one simple event (the publishing of a newspaper ad) might have lead to unexpected results (my winning $50 and a tour of the Ford plant).

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UPDATE (July 23, 2023) 

RC Cola was pretty busy in the summer of 1972, marketing-wise. Here's an ad for RC and Diet Rite Colas with a neat contest theme that ran in the Journal back on July 19, 1972.

The $100,000 Guessing Game challenged participants to guess how many cans and bottles of RC and Diet Rite Colas were in the Honda. Prizes included $10,000, a Honda, a Mini-Bike or a Lolli-Clock. I'm not sure how many of these prizes were involved to achieve that $100,000 price tag.

Gee, I wonder who won?

I guess finding out would involve a trip to the Archives and Special Collections files at Columbia State University, since that is where you'll find all of the historic Royal Crown Cola Marketing materials.