Coca Cola Sign of Good Taste trading cards

First off, these are very unusual trading cards. they are four and three/fourths inches wide, rather than the usual trading card size. They are taken from artwork of various years.

The top card is from 1920. You can see how old-fashioned the women are dressed. The second card shows a much more fancily dressed woman, and glamored up. That card is from artwork of 1947. The third card is from 1946. It'd be hard to tell the age of the artwork since no fashion is showing. The fourth card is from 1924 and shows a couple, other people in a car, and a couple of people on a horse.

The back of each card notes the date and two pieces of historical information from that date, along with a Coca-Cola advertising slogan. The top card, for example, notes that women have won the right to vote. The 1947 card talks about Truman being the first President to address the nation via television. The third card notes an action related to the second world war, when Truman gave the Philippines their independence. The 1924 card talks about Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue.'

One of the fun things to do with these cards is to try to guess the decade of the artwork. It's not as easy as it seems. I'll guess the top card is from 1910 to 1920; the second is from the 1930's; the third from the 1940's, and the bottom card from around 1900 to 1910.

Let's see the results. The top card is from 1921, and notes Albert Einstein first unveiled his theory of relativity. The second card is from 1947. The third card is from 1945, and the bottom card is from 1907 (so I was right half the time, anyhow.)

Here's something I don't understand on a very few of the cards. I know that the 'blushing cheeks' idea is considered attractive, but on a couple of the cards the women's cheeks are so red that it looks like they have some kind of disease or something, and this is one of those cards. It's from 1945. The second card is from 1922, the third from 1982, and the bottom one is from 1942.

The top card is artwork from 1949.The second card is from 1915. The slogan is very interesting: 'The Great National Temperance Beverage.' The third card is from 1907. In my opinion the guy looks kind of creepy. The bottom card is from 1943.

The top card is from 1928 and must be from England since it shows a kid with a cricket ball next to him. The second card is from 1944. The third card is from 1943 and is obviously tied in the World War II with the two guys being serviceman and the woman being a 'Rosie the Riveter' type of person. The bottom card is from 1944 and is also tied in to the war effort.

The top card is from 1947 and the second card is from 1930. The third card is from 1941. Note the wooden box that Coca-Cola bottles were put into. The bottom card is from 1949. Some people today would probably claim the card is sexist since it's a woman offering hospitality and there's not a similar card showing a male offering hospitality.

The first card is from 1954. Note that the two on the right already have bottles in their hand; the woman on the left is handing a bottle to the guy, and then would need to take one for herself, which would still leave three bottles still standing there, not in ice or anything to keep them cold. The second card is another war-related one, this one from 1944. The next card is from 1924, and the bottom one is from 1948, the year of birth of the 33 1/3 rpm record.

The card is from 1912.

The top card is from 1945. The second card is from 1914. I don't really care for the hair styles. The third card, with its somewhat suggestive message, is from 1948. The bottom card is from 1910 and shows 'The Coca Cola Girl'.

The top card, another related to the war effort, is from 1943. The second card is from 1942, and the third is from 1946. The bottom, somewhat strange card, is from 1932.

The top card is from 1948 and notes the creation of the state of Israel. The second card is from 1944. To me, Coca-Cola from fountains is almost never as good as the actual product from the bottle. The third card is from 1946, when World War II 'officially' ended. Note that this is one of the cards showing a woman with bright red cheeks. The bottom card is from 1941.

The top card is from 1913. The second card is from 1942. The third one is from 1949 and the bottom card is from 1945.

The top card is from 1941. The second card is from 1942. The third card is from 1952 and shows the creepy-looking kid and what almost looks like a tongue coming out of a door. The bottom card is from 1961.

The top card is from 1913. The second card is from 1949, while the third card goes back to 1922. The last card is from 1945.

The top card is from 1949, and notes the minimum wage at the time was seventy-five cents an hour. The second card is from 1956 and the third is from 1949. The bottom card, with the guy looking at the girl and the girl looking anywhere else but at him, is from 1945.

The top card is from 1948 and is another on which the word 'hospitality' appears. The second card is from 1947. The third card, from 1954, has me rather confused. Note that the attractive woman is basically horizontal position. She has one hand holding a rope, and the other hand reaches for the bottle of Coca-Cola. She does not appear to be sitting on anything, so is she some kind of ultra-strong woman who can hold herself horizontal on a rope with just one hand? The bottom card is from 1942.

The top card is from 1946. The second one is from 1949. The third card is from 1912 and appears to show a teacher and a blackboard (which are often green, but never called greenboards as far as I know), on which the Coka-Cola ad is written. The bottom card is from 1949. It seems to me that the woman's eyes are not looking at the bottle, but at something else below the level of the bottle.

The top card is from 1946. Shouldn't the woman's left leg show at least somewhat? The second card is another one related to World War II, and is from 1943. The third card is from 1941 and shows yet another woman with the too-red cheeks. The bottom card is from 1943.

The top card is from 1932. The middle card is from 1945, and the bottom one is a check list of the cards in the set.



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