imsopopfly:

bogleech:

It’s so alarming to look at the history of soft drinks and see how they went from literally something people categorized as a “candy” to something we were pushed to chug down with every meal.

There was a time people “went out for a soda” like it was a special occasion or gave a few sodas as holiday or birthday gifts. Drinking a coke occupied the same sort of cultural place as eating an ice cream cone or having some chocolate cake.

Then Coca Cola and its competitors got to thinking “what if we just advertised it like it’s normal to have our luxurious dessert for every single meal of the day??? Holy cow $$$$$$$$$$$$$” and they successfully normalized that idea to where a huge portion of the ENTIRE WORLD thinks nothing of it.

And it’s just super weird when you realize that before they were a candy a lot of them were marketed as patent medicines.

So it went from something people took only when they were sick because they thought it would make them better, to a sweet treat you have on special occasions once the medicinal value was disproven, to something you just pick up from the gas station and chug on the way home

Like could you imagine going a hundred years into the future and just seeing all the future people drinking cough syrup with their meals like it’s freakin water? That would be so wild.