One of the world’s most recognizable packages was born in Terre Haute.
“It’s the Real Thing,” and some Terre Haute officials are banking that “Things go better with Coke.”
The campaign’s purpose is to brand the city of Terre Haute as the birthplace of the Coca-Cola contour bottle — as a symbol of innovative ideas.
“We want to promote Terre Haute as a place where innovative ideas happen,” said Teresa Exline, chief of staff in the president’s office at Indiana State University. “Obviously the Coke bottle is an innovative idea that was actually in response to a contest. The bottle is now over 100 years old and has become an iconic worldwide symbol, probably the best known package that exists in the world.”
Exline is part of a 22-member committee that is working to link the city to the famous bottle. It is similar to other cities, such Hershey, Pennsylvania, which brands itself as the chocolate capital of the world. Then there’s Alma, Arkansas, which claims to be the spinach capital of the world, and even Casey, Illinois, with “big things in a small town.” There you can find a huge rocking chair. Then there’s a big pitch fork, bird cage, mailbox and golf tee.
“They have all these incredible things to go see and post to social media,” Exline said. On a recent trip to Casey, Exline said people with out-of-state license plates were stopping to pose for photos with the chair and pitch fork. “While they are there, I am sure they are getting gas or stopping to eat,” she said.
“We think with all the people who are interested in Coca-Cola, if we have things throughout the community that promote that, it would be a plus not only to bring tourism to Terre Haute but eventually economic development to Terre Haute,” Exline said.
As an effort to fizz up immediate interest, the committee has several projects planned over the next two years, including a public art program, with 5-foot tall fiberglass Coke bottles to be placed throughout downtown. It’s a tried and true concept that was first done in 2007 with small painted Colts, when the Indianapolis Colts had its training facility at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Then again in 2010, with small painted cars as part of a “cruising around in Terre Haute” fundraiser for the Swope Art Museum.
“Le Mars, Iowa, call themselves the ice cream capital of the world and did a very effective public art project with ice cream cones, so the ice cream cone in front of a bank is covered in coins, while a cone in front of Blue Bunny celebrates that brand of ice cream, which is why they are known as the ice cream capital of the world,” Exline said.
“We think that is something that can have an immediate reaction,” Exline said, adding one obvious place for such public art is in front of Root Hall on ISU’s campus. After all, it all started when the Root Glass Company won a 1915 contest to create a “bottle so distinct that you could recognize it by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground,” according to contest rules sought by the Coca Cola Company.
On a more permanent level, Art Spaces Inc. has agreed to be “the organization that will figure out a permanent art sculpture that will celebrate this innovative idea [of the Coke bottle] that came out of Terre Haute,” Exline said.
Mary Kramer, executive director of Art Spaces, said an outdoor Coke bottle sculpture would likely be a project for 2018 or later. “We would do our general search process with a national artist search. When this Coke branding effort was started, it was a natural fit for us, and it revived discussions on the Coke bottle,” Kramer said, which had been previously considered as a project for Art Spaces.
Another project is to paint the bridge at the intersection of U.S. 41 and Interstate 70 with “Welcome to Terre Haute, birthplace of the Coca-Cola bottle, so when you come to Terre Haute, you know this is the birthplace” of that innovative idea, Exline said.
Additionally, to promote tourism, other ideas include a culinary crawl that features food items that have Coca-Cola as an ingredient, Exline said. That crawl is slated for 2017, along with a 5K fun run. “Eventually, we look for a festival or tying into some other festival so that these things are promoting Terre Haute as the birthplace of the Coca-Cola bottle.”
This all started, Exline said, because the Terre Haute Historical Society has a display on the Coke bottle. The historical society is in a fundraising campaign to open a new downtown history center that will have a working soda fountain and a new enhanced display of the origin of the Coke bottle.
“We just think it is something as a community to be proud of,” Exline said.
On the side of the Ehrmann Building that will house the history center, a mural of the Coca-Cola bottle is being planned.
“There used to be a big Coca-Cola mural on that building, and we would like to put a mural back that says welcome to Terre Haute birthplace of the Coca-Coal bottle,” Exline said. “If the bottle is tilted sideways, since it is a long building, there is a potential it could become the world’s largest mural of a Coca-Cola bottle. We hope to be somewhat distinctive.”
The branding also considers the future, Exline said.
“We are looking at developing a packaging design contest so our youth can get excited about design as a potential field, have the fun of participating in some type of contest and give some serious thought as to what does it take to make a good package and what does it take to attract people to an item because of its package,” Exline said.
A pilot program on that is being planned with public schools for next year, Exline said. The idea is to have contest winners displayed at a festival or in the new history center.
Terre Haute already has a start on the Coke bottle, with the historical society display, a historical marker on Third Street and a display at the Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau. That can be expanded with the finalization of renovated Hulman Center and new convention center, which could even target hosting a Coca-Cola memorabilia convention, Exline said.
“This is all about celebrating innovation and big ideas. We think it would be great for Terre Haute to be known for this and for people to see all of these things and experience all these elements of the [Coke bottle] idea,” Exline said.
By Howard Greninger, Terre Haute Tribune Star [The Tribune Star is a news-gathering partner of WTHR]
