The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company

by Constance L. Hays

The Real Thing is a portrait of America’s most famous product and the people who transformed it from mere soft drink to symbol of freedom. With fresh insights and a penetrating eye, New York Times reporter Constance L. Hays examines a century of Coca-Cola history through deft portraits of the charismatic, driven men who used luck, spin, and the open door of enterprise to turn a beverage with no nutritional value into a remedy, a refreshment, and an international object of consumer desire. The rise of Coke is also a catalog of carbonation, soda fountains, dynastic bottling businesses, global expansion, and outsize promotional campaigns, not all of which succeeded. By examining relationships at every level of the company, Hays reveals the psyche of a great American corporation–and also tells a larger story about business and this nation’s culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, History

432 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2004

Reviews

[Krystelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get through this book (interspersed, of course, with many other books to keep the clock going). I very much struggled with engaging with it, and it just felt so lacking in some ways.

The history of Coke is an interesting one, but the early days of the company and the formula are somewhat glossed over in favour of focusing on the intricacies of the CEO role and what is and isn’t a good way of working. There were some interesting facets, like the New Coke debacle and the racial discrimination lawsuit, but none of it was as detailed or as involved as I perhaps thought it would be.

The ending is somewhat abrupt too, and we’re left hanging about the future of the company and where exactly they’re going. Coke is very much still present (and constant!) and I think it just speaks to the legacy of the product rather than that of the people. I was interested by one side of this story, but sadly not by the bulk of it.

[Elizabeth Horton]

If this had actually been about the history of Coke I suspect I would have found it more interesting. But as it was it seemed to be a book focused on the drama of running Coke from about 1960 to 2000 with a few asides about the larger history. And a story of office politics did not really capture my attention.
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[Abhishek Shrivastava · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took the book with an expectation of reading through the underlying principles of Coke and probably how the brand became a legend. This book is written by a Journalist, who presumably have bee following the brand for some time. The book gives you a picture form the eyes of an outsider - with briefly floating over its history since 1880s, managing the bottlers, the friction over coke pricing strategies, aggressive ( fair or nnfair ) marketing strategies to make coke the biggest beverage brand. It also covers the tenure of multiple CEOs over the past 100 years of Coke with a brief of their working styles. a few law suit filed on coke regarding biasness against black community and unlawful capturing of certain other beverage brands : in the race to capture market share.

Over all the book didnt met my expectations however gives you a few insights about the brand to form your own opinion and have a debate on it.

[Nam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a history of the drama behind the tumultuous C-suite drama at Coke in the late 90s. with added flavor from history

Coca Cola Enterprise is hmm. KO financial engineering to meet yearly growth. for all the talk of long term, there is such an emphasis on the present day stock value.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this corporate history (which in my edition is called Pop: Truth and etc...) I was left wondering just how much Coke the author had consumed during the writing of it. It's fizzy and breathless, full of journalistic flair and sometimes truly audacious, and overall there's less historical nutrition than you might imagine from such a long book. Hays is very creative with her metaphors and carbonated-related puns and descriptions, and I can overlook the many repetitions because they felt more like riffs than lazy cut-and-paste and because without them it would have been a lot harder to follow the threads, or should I say streams.

The structure is quite refreshing - circling round the late 1990s and whipping back through time to investigate a theme, a place, a trend, a figure. Hays rarely gets to the end of any particular thought before we are back again with Doug Ivester (short-lived CEO, scapegoat for the woes of Coke around the turn of the millennium) and his contemporaries and the sense that something big or bad is about to happen. In the end the approach is less rewarding that it might have been because there is no earth-shattering climax towards which the company or the brand or the idea of soft drinks was heading. Just some poor decisions in a difficult economic climate possibly influenced by the personalities of the executives. So we ended with a whimper.

I was left largely with a lower regard for Warren Buffet, curiosity about Pepsi (there are many passing mentions, and only on p.129 does anything substantial about the rivalry appear; then on p.131 the importance of "face" in Western cultures is made abundantly clear as minions at a Coke conference are ordered to chuck out all snacks whose brands are owned by the folks at Pepsi!), and a slight desire to drink a Coke myself. But it was a fairly fun read. I confess that it was escapism, too - the news has been very depressing recently, and this was a sparkling world to tour for a few hours.


Oddly, Dava Sobel's Longitude, which I was reading concurrently, pops up in the bibliography. Though I can't say I know why.

[Matthew Quest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Constance L Hays's The Real Thing is a critical corporate history of Coca Cola which among other things subtly shows how Coca Cola has subverted Black Power, civil rights, and working class empowerment in Atlanta. They do this by using corporate diversity to suppress people of color workers who try to rise up against discrimination in their company. They collaborate with Civil Rights leaders (and invent their own) by passing informally cash on to all the major community groups to silence them into complicity. Their links to the City Council, Urban Renewal programs, foreign policy institutions, and Historically Black Colleges, insures there are many "honorable" Black people to betray the empowerment of the masses of people. During the Occupy Atlanta movement none of the major activist leaders said anything about Coca Cola while taking photo ops with Jesse Jackson and SCLC's Joseph Lowery, and never making demands on Mayor Reid... this development is forty years old. Understanding the basic corporate history of Coca Cola is indispensable to understanding Atlanta politics and Hays book makes important contributions to grasping the issues.

[Daimon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book somehow managed to keep me enthralled despite being on a subject I would have said I had little interest.

The story - partially a history of the Coca-Cola company but mostly a tale of the past 10 years, when new business practices sent the stock soaring to around $80 and then quickly dropping to around $60. It has plenty of detail and even what could be dry analysis of business practices is presented in an interesting manner.

However, I felt like the author was so worried about livening up what in the end is a business story she overcompensated in places: there is often a feeling of foreshadowed disaster, and when put up against Enron or Tyco, Coke's problems were hardly earth-shattering.

If you're interested in reading a well-written analysis of how personalities in a company lead to business practices, pick this up. If the last sentence left you with no desire to go further, leave it alone.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A revealing tale of a true giant of American business. This book details the rise and fall of a true star of American style capitalism all along the way detailing the different styles and theories of those in charge of the venerable Coca-Cola company.

The author describes the start of this great company and is seemingly humble upbringing, from there she takes you on a journey through all things Coke, from media styles, to business practices to how they treat their employees, to the lifestyles of their top execs.

This book was an enlightening, and well written account of American business, coke in particular but large business in general. It details the fundamental flaws with the theory of constant growth and market dominance so coveted by Wall Street, while at the same time extolling the virtues of brand loyalty and well thought of ad campaigns.

Definitely a good read in my opinion, for anyone in interested in capitalism, greed or big business.

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in this book. I usually like books that promise to be about setting a company in a historical moment but this book was really very clearly about the internal drama of the coca-cola company and not even in a really interesting way, more in the way of when someone tells you a really, really long story with too many details and too little of a punch line. There are some interesting moments and I got all the way through it but overall I would not recommend.

[Katya Epstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

This might be an interesting story, but I couldn't tell because the narrative jumped around so much. When she stuck to the same storyline for more than a page it was captivating enough, but otherwise it read like it was written by a high school student or as some sort of stream of consciousness exercise. The book is repetitive and full of buildups that are not paid off. Frustrating. Michael Lewis she ain't!

[Thomas Wee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very insightful read into Coke as a corporation. I like the manner it was written; rather a straight narrative history, Hays lead the reader through a somewhat meandering paths through the lives there were involved in the Coke story. As this is writing a living history, the book ended with 2004 and a new CEO after Doug Draft left. Think it would great to have an updated version.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good corporate history, but I found this one difficult to read. Instead of working in a linear fashion, Hayes is all over the map. She tries to make this book about the personalities behind Coca-Cola. The great men who dynamism and energy transformed the beverage from drug store treat to everyday addiction. Alas, her efforts fall flat; as do her 6,025 soda metaphors.

[Mew · Rating 2 out of 5]

too much info...quite interesting...made me thirsty

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

A fairly bland account of the various personalities that have run the Cocoa-Cola company over its lifetime. No great insights.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to read about the history of such an iconic brand. The book was difficult to follow at times as it tried to both cover topics as well as being chronological so sometimes had overlaps.

[Hina Tabassum Khatri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very informative book. I liked it. I may have liked it because I am a loyal Coca Cola consumer. Nonetheless, it is a good read!