Godiva
When in doubt, sex it up. Chocolate in various forms had been a fixture of the European diet since it was first imported by Spain from Mexico in the 16th century. Consumed at first in liquid form, by the late 17th century chocolate was a popular flavoring for cakes and pastry, and soon Switzerland and Belgium had become the world centers of chocolate candy-making.
So when Joseph Draps founded his chocolate company in Brussels in 1926, he was not exactly breaking new ground. True, Draps had perfected a method of making his rich “boutique” chocolates smoother than the competition’s, and he also understood the importance of fancy packaging to a luxury brand’s success. But it fell to Draps’ son, who took over the business a few years later, to come up with the key to building a worldwide chocolate empire, and to do it he drew on one of Europe’s most enduring folk tales.
According to legend, Lord Leofric of Coventry in England in the 11th century was never so happy as when he was levying a new and onerous tax on his subjects. Leofric’s raids on the pocketbooks of the populace drew loud protest, but he remained unmoved. Finally even his wife, Lady Godiva, felt compelled to intercede on the people’s behalf, and to change his mind she offered Leofric an intriguing deal. She would ride naked through the streets of Coventry if Leofric would cut taxes. Convinced she was bluffing, Leofric agreed. But true to her word, Lady Godiva then disrobed, hopped on her horse, and got trotting through town. Leofric, impressed by her chutzpah, then kept his side of the deal and slashed taxes.
What Lord Leofric apparently didn’t know, however, was that Lady Godiva had announced her ride in advance and requested that the villagers stay inside with their shutters closed for the duration of her promenade. Given a choice between seeing the Lord’s wife naked and lower taxes, they naturally chose the tax cut and thus Lady Godiva’s dignity remained unsullied. (According to one version of the legend, the town butcher, a certain Tom, couldn’t resist sneaking a peek, and ever since that day voyeurs have been known as “Peeping Toms.”)
While chocolate is noticeably absent from the story of Lady Godiva’s ride, Draps recognized that the legend was known throughout Europe and North America, and the fact that the name “Godiva” conjured up both wealth and nudity was unlikely to hurt sales, to put it mildly. So Joseph Draps, Jr. launched Godiva Chocolatiers and began marketing luxury handmade chocolates across Europe and, eventually, in the United States. Today the distinctive Godiva gold ballotin, or treasure chest, is among the most widely recognized symbols of luxury in the world.
Coca-Cola
It’s not surprising that Coca-Cola, probably the world’s most recognized product (and certainly its most popular soft drink) has spawned a wide variety of popular stories about its origin, effects and the ingredients used in Coke’s famous “secret formula.” Most of these tales, such as the ones about Coca-Cola dissolving teeth, its supposed contraceptive powers, or the assertion that 1985’s “New Coke” debacle was a Machiavellian gambit to divert attention from a change from the original formula, are baseless. But the most frequently-heard story, that Coca-Cola originally contained cocaine, is, technically speaking, true.
Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by John Pemberton, an Atlanta, GA pharmacist. Pemberton was actually trying to concoct a headache remedy, but once he mixed his syrup with carbonated water and a few customers tasted the result, he realized that he had the makings of a popular soda fountain beverage. The name “Coca-Cola” was coined by Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, who also wrote out the new name in the expressive script that has become Coca-Cola’s signature logo.
Though The Coca-Cola Company apparently would rather not talk about the origin of its name in detail, it’s clear that Robinson derived “Coca-Cola” from two of the drink’s ingredients: cola from the cola nut, and extract of coca leaf, also the source of cocaine.
Cocaine was a common ingredient of 19th century patent medicines, and by the standards of the day Coca-Cola contained a minuscule amount that probably had no effect on its consumers. Still, by the early 1890s there was a rising tide of anti-cocaine sentiment, and Atlanta businessman Asa Candler, who acquired the Coca-Cola Company in 1891, steadily decreased even the tiny amount of the drug in the recipe. There is some evidence that the only reason Candler kept putting even minute amounts of coca extract in the drink was the belief that to omit it entirely might cause Coca-Cola, by then besieged by imitators, to lose its trademark. In any event, Coca-Cola was completely cocaine-free by 1929.
The name “Coke” appeared in popular usage as a short form of “Coca-Cola” just before World War I, but was often applied as a generic term to any cola drink (and used by Coca-Cola’s competitors, including the now long-defunct Koke Company) until 1940, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the name “Coke” rightfully belongs to the Coca-Cola Company.
Budweiser
It’s always Lawyer Time in this little corner of beerland. Budweiser, the flagship beer of Anheuser-Busch and the best-selling brew in America, has been scrapping over the rights to its name for decades, and there’s no sign of a letup anytime soon.
The Budweiser saga began in 1876, when the E. Anheuser Brewing Association. of St. Louis, MO, introduced Budweiser Lager Beer. (Founded in 1860 by Eberhard Anheuser, the company was renamed the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association in 1879, recognizing the contribution and leadership of then-president Aldolphus Busch.)
Bud was a hit. The decades flew by and Americans guzzled Budweiser by the barrelful (three million barrels per year by 1941, in fact). Americans continued to down Bud in mass quantities, and Budweiser became an American icon.
Meanwhile, in Czechoslovakia, trouble was brewing. It seems that when Eberhard Anheuser named his beer “Budweiser,” he was paying homage to the beer makers of a Czech town called Ceske Budejovice, known in Anheuser’s native Germany as “Budweis.” According to the folks in Budweis, their local beer has been known as “Budweiser” for several hundred years.
In 1895 the Czech brewery Budejovicky Pivovar (mercifully known as Budvar) began producing its own brew, marketing it under the name “Budweiser Budvar,” and the legal fireworks soon began.
In 1939, Anheuser-Busch and Budvar supposedly buried the trademark hatchet in the U.S., giving A-B the American rights to the name in exchange for Budvar’s ownership of “Budweiser” in much of Europe. But as Anheuser-Busch expanded into and began to dominate international markets, skirmishing flared again. The Czechs even took offense at Budweiser’s slogan “The King of Beers,” noting that Budweis brewers had called their product “The Beer of Kings” since the 16th century. And Budvar partisans pointed out that A-B’s Budweiser wasn’t even legally considered beer in Germany, where the “Reinheitsgebot” (Beer Purity Regulations) dating back to 1516 strictly forbid the use of rice in brewing beer.
In recent years plucky Budvar has again won the right to use “Budweiser” and “Bud” in the European Union countries, but court cases continue to rage from Sweden to Hong Kong. Budvar’s current tactic is to sell its beer in the U.S. as “Czechvar,” hoping that word of mouth about what they call (in a whisper, of course) “the real Budweiser” will win them the fame in bars that they have lost, at least for the moment, in the U.S. courts.