POP KOLA
BIGGER BOTTLE, BETTER DEAL
Pop Kola was invented in 1919 by the Summers Brothers in Jackson, Tennessee. Pop Kola changed the market by underpricing competitors with a larger 12-ounce bottle while still selling for 5 cents. Because of that, its slogan, “Biggest Thirst Value Under the Sun” was not just advertising, it was a claim that customers were getting almost twice as much soda as they would from Coke or Pepsi for the same price.
REMEMBERING POP KOLA
Unlike every other brand, Pop Kola did not have a set packaging design. Since the soda was heavily localized the Braser Company supplied only the syrup and allowed regional bottlers to handle packaging themselves. This led to the glass bottle being different in every town with bottle designs varying from town to town; some used green glass, others clear bottles, and some even featured embossed glass with a red-and-yellow checkered paint design. By the 1970s, the soft drink industry in the U.S. was becoming dominated by a few huge companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi and Pop Kola did not make it.
