Coca-Cola, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., & The Rise in Corporate Social Responsibility

Have you heard the story of how Cola-Cola gave the white business community of Atlanta an ultimatum to help Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? So, I’m not sure if this unofficial content series will eventually become an official one, but I do want to more frequently share obscure CPG industry historical stories that I find interesting. I’m highly motivated to do this mostly because as every year I grow older (and hopefully a bit wiser), I’ve found it more important to study the American history that they don't teach in schools. History is an academic subject. But the "history of history" and how subjective observations became objective truth is rooted deep in marketing strategy. It’s vital to remember that before the greatest marketers in the world sold consumer packaged goods, they sold stories that became truth over time. So, how did I stumble on this lesser-known intersection of the CPG industry and civil rights history? Maybe some of you already know this, but I publish a weekly curated strategic newsletter called funCPG (Sign Up - https://bit.ly/3FrO7Oa). A few editions ago, the publish date was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I started curiously exploring if he had any favorite CPG products. While I couldn’t find much, I did uncover a letter MLK had sent to The Coca-Cola Company in March 1965. A bit more queries into the Google machine and bam…I’m deep down a rabbit hole of American history that I hadn’t heard about until that moment. And though the story is extremely interesting by itself, you know me…I want to pack this with edutainment value, so I’ll also be sharing how the bold move by The Coca-Cola Company was a major propellent to an element of corporate social responsibility. FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS LINKEDIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaschallmba TWITTER - https://www.twitter.com/joshua_schall INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/joshua_schall FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/jschallconsulting MEDIUM - https://www.medium.com/@joshuaschall