Celadon Icon Coming Soon to the High

Ranking the world's most recognized logos or icons, few are on par with the Olympic rings.

And when it comes to most recognized brands, Coca-Cola is also tough to beat.

Coke is also known for famous product packages -- starting with the "contour bottle" -- and the South's leading art museum is preparing to host an exhibition in celebration of the container's 100th anniversary.

As noted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and via museum press materials, the exhibition “The Coca-Cola Bottle: An American Icon at 100” will open Feb. 28.

It's all happening in the home town of the Atlanta-based beverage giant, in the galleries of the High Museum of Art (a client).

Since its inception in 1915, the Coca-Cola “contour bottle” became one of the world's most recognized icons. Originally designed by a team at the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Ind., the bottle emerged as a distinct package for an already ubiquitous product launched in 1886.

The design was the result of a competition challenging bottle manufacturers to develop a container recognizable even if broken or touched in the dark.

The winning design’s curves and celadon-tinted glass ultimately had an outstanding impact on 20th-century visual art and culture (the term "bottle green" eventually followed in the realm of color nomenclature). 

The exhibition features over 100 objects, including more than 15 works by Andy Warhol and dozens

of photographs inspired by or featuring the bottle. The items will be arranged in sections by history, photography and pop art (no pun intended).

When I first learned of this exhibition, it intrigued me given its overlap with the World of Coca-Cola's year-long exhibition of Howard Finster folk art works featuring, inspired by or painted on actual contour bottles of varying size.

It also surprised me the High is not including its own Finster/Coke item (a hand-painted, oversized contour bottle) from the museum's permanent collection in the exhibition. But then, Finster's painted items don't fit the trio of exhibition sections.

Another permanent collection item -- a vintage magazine illustration (ad) featuring a couple with two six-bottle cartons -- also remains behind-the-scenes, as does a 1974 bottle-free Elliott Erwitt image of a Coke vending machine positioned with several rockets.

Only time will tell whether the High will mount the permanent collection Coke items in tandem with "An American Icon at 100" (I hope they do).

Briefly getting back to the Olympic rings, their creator -- modern Olympic founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin -- first sketched and hand-colored the design in 1913 and 1914 as a single row of intertwined circles, just a year or two ahead of the guys in Indiana embarking on their bottle contest entry.

Whether de Coubertin was inspired by five pre-contour bottle condensation rings (on his desk or table as he sipped a Coke while sketching) is one iconic backstory we may never know.

Images via the High Museum of Art. Image credits:

-- nendo (Japanese, founded Tokyo, 2002) Bottleware, 2012. Photo c. The Coca-Cola Company. Diagram courtesy of nendo
-- Jan Saudek (Czech, born 1935), Broken Bottle, 1973. Collection of Joyce Linker. c. Jan Saudek
-- Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987), Three Coke Bottles, 1962, silkscreen, ink and graphite on linen, The Andy  Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc., 1998.1.20 c. 2015 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists

Happy Olympic Day 2013

June 23 marks the worldwide celebration of Olympic Day.

What is Olympic Day? Here's what the International Olympic Committee has to say about it for 2013:

On 23 June, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Movement are celebrating [the] 65th Olympic Day! The IOC celebrated its first World Olympic Day on 23 June 1948 with nine National Olympic Committees hosting ceremonies in their respective countries. Today, Olympic Day has evolved to become a key date in the Olympic Movement’s calendar and has gained momentum worldwide with last year, almost 4 million participants from around the world and over 150 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) taking part.

The official page for Olympic Day also provides an interactive map of the NOCs taking park, and a cool video featuring Kobe Bryant encouraging participation. Here in the United States, there's a Team USA directory of participating communities -- it's not too late to participate like 2010 Vancouver Olympian/Sochi 2014 Olympic hopeful Julia Clukey and participants did at the camp she created in Maine.

I plan to participate by taking a brisk walk from Midtown Atlanta to downtown's Centennial Olympic Park, home of the statue honoring modern Olympic founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Hope you will also make it an Olympic Day.

Olympic Day logo image via this link; Olympic Day photos via IOC Facebook page; Centennial Olympic Park photo via The Eternal Optimist blog by Sara Bondioli

Cincinatti 2024 Olympic Bid

You read it here first, folks.

Cincinnati, the Ohio metropolis that is home to the International Olympic Committee's new TOP Olympic sponsor Proctor & Gamble (P&G), is planning a bid for the 2020 or 2024 Olympic Games!

Just kidding.

But with today's announcement that P&G will share its wealth with the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee now through 2020, a decision by Cincinnati to dust off its 2008 and 2012 Olympic bid books would not be as much of a stretch as, say, this time yesterday.

According to P&G's press release, quoted executives from the company are "proud" and "thrilled" about the 10-year Olympic partnership (unfortunately, proud and thrilled are, in this public relations writer's opinion, two of the most overused press release executive canned quote buzzwords).

But even with (Pringles?) canned quotes, P&G is embarking on an interesting global program titled "Raising an Olympian, The P&G Momumentary Project," through which a "video series will tell the stories of Olympic hopefuls as seen through the eyes of their moms."

I like the program -- probably would have considered "Olympic MOMents" as an alternative title (maybe in creating the word "Momumentary" there was a MOMentary lapse of ... hmmm, I don't know), but I will tune in regardless.

Today's P&G and IOC press event in Manhattan included several top Olympians' mothers, which may be viewed in an online photo gallery.

Other noteworthy items from the announcement:

• " ... due to the success seen during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, P&G is in the early stages of evaluating plans to host a family home facility at the London 2012 Olympic Games for all U.S. athletes, similar to the one in Vancouver at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The P&G Family Home was a place where all U.S. athletes and their families could relax, do laundry, entertain their children, and participate in other family activities.


• "For P&G, [the sponsorship] is about partnering with the IOC to make life better for athletes, moms and their families as we take the Olympic Movement to our four billion consumers around the world that our brands already serve.


• "P&G will continue helping athletes, moms and families immediately. As part of the 'Proud Sponsor of Moms' campaign, the company will continue its 'Thank You Mom' program in conjunction with the IOC's inaugural Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore from Aug. 14-26, 2010.


• "P&G will help up to 25 moms of Youth Olympic athletes from around the world, including three mothers of U.S. athletes, with their travel and lodging costs so they can be in Singapore with their children as they compete." (NOTE to P&G P.R.: If you are sponsoring either of the moms from Edmond, Okla., with YOG athletes heading to Singapore, email me for my news reports, in progress, on these two Oklahoma athletes)
  

P&G began as a candle manufacturer in the 1800s, so one may ponder ... did IOC founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin draw some inspiration while reading by P&G candlelight in 1894?

Sadly we may never know the answer to this burning question.

The P&G and Olympic Rings illustration is a blend of images at this link and this link, respectively

100 Days from Olympic Day

Today was Olympic Day around the globe, and the morning started with a great NBC TODAY Show segment about the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid.

It was a low key holiday in Atlanta. I tried, but could not find details on the apparent local celebrations listed by Olympic Day organizers (until tonight, too late, I stumbled upon a listing on a website -- if I missed something big, read the following with a grain of salt).

To pause and commemorate things, this evening I took a walk through Centennial Olympic Park (which has a great virtual tour online) and asked a mix of locals and visitors if they knew what Olympic Day is or when it takes place -- to my surprise, one woman from Puerto Rico, who was posing for a photo with the park's monument to Modern Olympic Founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin, exclaimed "TODAY is Olympic Day, and my birthday, too!" (not surprising, no one else quizzed had any idea).

The walk provided a mixed bag of sentimentality and cynicism about the Olympic Movement and Atlanta's place in Olympic history.

On one hand, the Atlanta Olympic legacy including the vast urban park, other legacy venues and Turner Field (in view as I type this from high rise office downtown) are priceless. Almost every downtown Atlanta structure that borders Centennial Park -- except for The INFORUM, CNN Center and Tabernacle -- would not exist if the Games went to another city in 1996. And now that Centennial Olympic Park is in its adolescence, it is booming (remember when the trees were sticks in the ground? Now a gorgeous urban forest in bloom, and the fountains are all working again, post-drought!).

On the other hand, it seems sad that in spite of an army of employees and even larger army of volunteers rallied with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) from 1989 (bid days) to 1996, very few in Atlanta seem to celebrate or remember the Games on what is supposed to be its biggest day of celebration in a non-Olympic year.

They do come out of the woodwork every so often, getting out the pin collections and donning Olympic shirts from the glory days. There was a good (and large) celebration of ACOG's/Atlanta's 10th anniversary held in 2006, so that balances out some of what's negativity on the brain (the BBC's Kurt Barling filed an excellent report on the Atlanta Games legacy just after the 10th anniversary event -- be sure to watch the videos, too).

And then you look at the Los Angeles area's ambitious 25th anniversary gathering on the horizon and wonder "what will Atlanta remember/celebrate in 2021?"

Looking forward, it is cool to note that the 2016 host will be selected just 100 days from now. Here's hoping the 2009 Olympic Day celebrations across the U.S. only helped in that decision before the I.O.C. And perhaps, sometime in 2041, Chicago will celebrate its 25th Olympic anniversary.

Olympic Day Just A Week Away

The modern Olympic movement is celebrating its 115th birthday next week, and everyone is invited. According to the June 15 press release issued by the U.S. Olympic Committee, June 23 (next Tuesday) welcomes "Olympic Day" celebrations in more than 150 communities across the U.S.

This worldwide celebration honors the day Baron Pierre de Coubertin convened the International Olympic Committee in 1884. There's a song that goes "I left my heart in San Francisco" -- a free pin will be mailed to the first person to post a comment correctly identifying where in the world de Coubertin's heart is buried in accordance with his wishes.

The 2009 Olympic Day events are marshaled by the City of Chicago and the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid, so you can show your support and help bring the Games to Chicago just by checking out the bid website (be sure to check out the videos featuring Michael Jordan).

Anyone can find a nearby Olympic Day Celebration with this convenient U.S. map created for the occasion. I personally plan to take lunch at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta with a visit to the de Coubertin monument titled "Gateway of Dreams." (photo via Olympics.org)