What Does Aamir Khan Have To Do With Coke’s Popularity in India?

Here’s one piece of information on Coca Cola we bet you didn’t know!

Coca Cola was first bottled today. 

(Photo Courtesy: iStockphoto)

On 12 March 1894, the first bottles of Coca Cola were sold in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Dr John Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia, had invented Coca Cola eight years earlier.

Biedenharn, the owner of a soda fountain in Vicksburg, was the first to install a bottling machinery in the rear of his store. This way, the customers could buy their drink and take it with them. Sale of Coke skyrocketed, and Biedenharn’s profits soared.

Coca Cola came to the Indian market in 1958: A drink that started out as an aspirational drink, denoting the American dream, and eventually became the ‘thanda’ of every house.

However, the drink was pulled out of India in 1977, after the country toughened up its foreign exchange act. It re-entered 15 years later, with a solid marketing plan in place. In its second innings, the drink made a paradigm shift from the ‘aspirational cola’ to the ‘household thanda’.

The brand latched on to Bollywood actors, relevant to the country’s youth at that point, and drove the narrative through them. Their target audience was the young, cafe-going generation of the country.

Aamir Khan remained a loyal brand ambassador through the 90s, well into the millennium. He acted as the representative of young India in each of these campaigns. Two decades hence, the campaigns seems to have worked and the drink is undoubtedly one of the most popular drinks in the country.

Hello, Chat Rooms

The advent of the internet has been one of the most significant developments in modern India. The setting up of chat rooms could probably be the second most important thing for young India. In this ad, two strangers who converse over the internet, are brought together in real life with some help from a bottle of coke.

It was an interesting thought that immediately caught the attention of the youth. Coca Cola could act as the wing man/woman, and they ain’t gonna say no to that, right?

Every House’s Thanda

The year 2002 witnessed the birth of the hugely popular series, 'Thanda Matlab Coca Cola', which started off with Khan as a Mumbai 'tapori' asking for his 'thanda' drink at a local eatery. With this ad, the target audience dramatically changed. Each and every person on the street became a probable Coca Cola consumer. They wanted to replace every thanda in the house with Coke.

The drama continued till 2005, when the playful 'thanda' campaign took a backseat to Piyo Sar Utha Kar – a brand thought aimed at empowering consumers. With Khan as the man with the message – on how the act of consuming a drink is akin to acts which require people to look at life with pride and optimism.

Bengali Babu Aamir

In 2007, when the pesticides controversy broke in the country, Khan, instead of annulling his contract with the brand, chose to stay with them. He donned a critical and ‘typical’ Bengali man’s hat and questioned the drink.

It was a strategic characterisation because this ad questioned the brand itself. It questioned, reasoned, and understood – three stages of human understanding of anything contentious. When the actor in the ad was satisfied, he drank. Something that every consumer would have done if the drink allegedly had pesticides.

Sabka Thanda Ek

From ‘Thanda matlab Coca Cola’ to ‘Sabka Thanda Ek’ was an interesting move. The drink was now no longer a single act of having the drink, it worked as a collective, an act of doing something together. The ad released at a time when the country needed external unifying factors, and Coke tried to become that person.

And lastly, these ads have been so minutely Indian that they have always stayed with us.

Do have a glass of Coke today to celebrate its first day!