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.

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.