Coke

Re: "Coke Pulls 'Mafia' Film From Theaters," Dec. 6: Oh, so the Coca-Cola Co. has admitted to offending Italian Americans by running a short film (read "advertisement") showing Mafia toughs intimidating patrons and will no longer screen the film. Take the next logical step, Coke, and admit insulting all American moviegoers with your inane, annoying, interminable commercials that buzz around the brain like a pre-waking nightmare you can't shake. Pull them all. Carol Provisor Los Angeles

Mark Tercek had some horribly awkward moments after he left Goldman Sachs to run a U.S. environmental charity, the Nature Conservancy. At one of his first big staff meetings, he committed a total eco no-no by drinking from a plastic water bottle. When he got to work the next day, his new colleagues had left him a batch of reusable Klean Kanteen bottles. At about the same time, he went to a big event packed with luminaries in the environmental field and found himself face to face with Russell Train, founding director of the World Wildlife Fund in the U.S. "Who are you?"

Coca-Cola soon will be competing with Pepsi Cola for sales in the Soviet Union, officials said Wednesday. Coke initially will be sold only in Beriozka's, special hard-currency stores for foreigners, and will be limited to the capital, said a spokeswoman for the Soviet import agency Soyuz Plodimport. President Donald R.

Danielle Fishel is opening up about a rather awkward encounter with "Full House" patriarch Bob Saget that happened while she and others from the "T.G.I.F. " crew - ABC's '90s Friday-night lineup comedies - were en route to the Magic Kingdom. "One time we were all on a private jet going to Disney World, and my mom, dad and brother were also with me," the "Boy Meets World" actress said in a Q&A with Maxim. "We had these four seats facing each other with curtains, so we had our own little private family area.

I am aghast at the actions of the New York University and the University of Michigan related to Coke ("University of Michigan Bans Coke Products," Dec. 31). Shouldn't institutions of higher learning allow their students and staff the opportunity to express their own opinions relative to Coke's foreign practices through their individual choices of beverage consumption? It is inappropriate for these universities to make this choice on their behalf. Couldn't this controlling action be tantamount to a constitutional freedom-of-speech violation?

Gay Mullins would like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. Unfortunately for the Coca-Cola company, what Mullins would like to teach the world to sing is that it hates the new taste of Coke. From his Seattle headquarters, Mullins has launched a grass-roots media blitz designed to force Coke to return to its old formula.

The bottles being carried by the four young women through customs at Heathrow Airport said "champagne" on the labels but were stuffed with $4.3 million worth of cocaine, government officials said. The 33 pounds of cocaine, one of the biggest hauls in British history, were seized Sunday by customs officials when the women were stopped as they walked through the "nothing to declare" route, the Customs Department said.

Coca-Cola has entered into an agreement in principle to sell the assets and certain liabilities of Embassy Home Entertainment to a new company to be controlled by Andre Blay, chairman and chief executive of Embassy Home Entertainment, for undisclosed terms. The agreement in principle is subject to the execution of a definitive-purchase agreement, the approval of Coca-Cola's board of directors and completion of financing.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are squaring off for the right to dispense their soda at Burger King, the second-largest U.S. burger chain, in a deal seen as crucial for Pepsi, but not necessarily for Coke. Burger King, a recently acquired subsidiary of British conglomerate Grand Metropolitan, said Thursday it is holding talks with Coca-Cola Co., which lost the Burger King account in 1983, and PepsiCo Inc., the current contract holder, as part of a "normal, periodic review" of accounts. The Burger King business is crucial to PepsiCo, analysts said, because Pepsi lags far behind Coke in its share of the U.S. fountain soda business.

Two decades after adding the designation, Coca-Cola Co. is removing the word "classic" from its cola sold in the U.S. The "classic" tag line was added in 1985, when the company introduced a formula that consumers called "New Coke." New Coke never caught on and was dropped in 2004.

Famed fashion and accessories designer Marc Jacobs has added Diet Coke cans to his design repertoire. Jacobs, who was recenlty appointed creative director at Coca Cola, is launching a set of limited-edition cans of Diet Coke to celebrate Coke's 30th anniversary campaign: "Sparkling Together for 30 Years. " Each can represents a decade with the '80s, '90s and the Noughties. For the '80s, miniature bow ties are scattered around the classic silver can along with an illustraton of a woman in a suit and top hat. Possibly a nod to Broadway?

Ah, it's the time of year when avid football fans and people who have no interest in the sport gather to laugh or cry among heaps of buffalo wings and nachos -- some watching the game, others the commericals. A few Super Bowl commercials have been leaked in advance of the event and they're already drawing various reactions. Below is a sneak peak of some of the commercials, which cost close to $4 million to air in a 30-second spot, according to Forbes. Here's a Mercedes-Benz commercial featuring supermodel Kate Upton, which begins with sultry music playing as the camera pans from Upton's feet to her head.

A perennial target for critics of sugary drinks, Coca-Cola Co. took to prime-time TV broadcasts to acknowledge its role in the fattening of Americans - and to defend itself. In a two-minute advertisement that was to debut Monday night on cable news channels, the world's top beverage company addressed what it called the "complex challenge of obesity. " In a spot it called "Coming Together" - a similar phrase Starbucks Corp. used in the fall to try to get fiscal cliff negotiations moving - Coca-Cola showcased its efforts to be transparent about the nutritional content of its products and to expand its line of drinks with low or no calories.

Bret Easton Ellis, the author of the controversial "American Psycho" and other novels, has created quite an online reputation for himself with his Twitter feed, through which he has picked fights with Nikki Finke, Lindsay Lohan and now Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow. Three years ago, Bigelow became the first woman ever to win a best director Oscar for her film "The Hurt Locker. " This year, she appears to be a contender again with her Osama bin Laden manhunt movie, "Zero Dark Thirty.

Spotify has closed a new round of funding for $100 million that would give the streaming music service a valuation of about $3 billion. The popular Swedish music service, which launched in the United States in 2011, has attracted investment from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Fidelity Investments, a person familiar with the situation confirmed. Coca-Cola Co. also took a small stake, the person said. The investments were first reported in the New York Times . Coke and Spotify formed a partnership last April that gave the burgeoning music-streaming service access to Coca-Cola's global marketing engine to help it grow internationally.

Tony Cokes' short videos, currently on view at REDCAT, expose the hypocrisy of consumer culture, the navel-gazing of the art world and the malfeasance of American politics. But they are a hard sell, often composed of little more than screen after screen of text set to music, and if you're lucky, some heavily processed images.  It's as if Cokes hit on a formula in the late 1980s and never looked back, filling his works with lengthy lists of facts, quotes and musings. The REDCAT exhibition includes 45 works from the last decade or so, divided into eight themed groups.

Less than a month after arch-rival Pepsico agreed to acquire Seven-Up, Coca-Cola--the world's largest soft drink maker--agreed Thursday to buy No. 3 Dr Pepper for $470 million. The purchase is still subject to antitrust review by the federal government. But, if it and Pepsi's bid for Seven-Up are consummated, about 80% of the nation's $25-billion soft-drink market would be in the hands of the nation's two largest beverage makers.

Coca-Cola, gulped first, declared victory today over Pepsi in their great space race. NASA said, yes, "Coke Was It" in space--for at least eight hours, or until astronauts popped a Pepsi too. Space agency officials confirmed what Coke was bragging about with full-page ads in papers around the country that proclaimed: "The first soft drink enjoyed in space was a Coke. Of Course." Pepsi public relations director Becky Madeira commented: "It's about as relevant as who's first in the birth of twins.

The Detroit Tigers didn't come into Yankee Stadium with the idea of taking the crowd out of the American League Championship Series games. But by the middle of Detroit's 3-0 win over the New York Yankees on Sunday, the fans were too busy booing their struggling hitters to pay attention to anything the Tigers were doing to make them struggle in the first place. "That's just what they do anyways, right?" Tigers first baseman Prince Fielder said. "You just try to play good baseball.

With cities pressing to limit the intake of fattening foods and drinks, the nation's major soda makers will start listing calorie counts on vending machines next year, a move critics said was aimed at averting calls for special taxes and other regulations. Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. unveiled the initiative Monday in conjunction with a competition between Chicago and San Antonio municipal employees for a $5-million grant from the American Beverage Assn., an industry trade group.