Coca-Cola Comes To France, 1950. Made in 1950, it is the kind of image that turns a date in a history book into something you can actually see.
Coca-Cola's postwar arrival in France was genuinely controversial. Communist politicians and some wine growers campaigned against what critics called "Coca-Colonization," warning that American soft drinks would undermine French culture. The French parliament even debated a bill in 1950 that could have banned the drink. Coca-Cola stayed, and the episode became a famous chapter in the story of American brands abroad.
Pictures of ordinary life are some of the most valuable historical documents we have. Grand events were always going to be recorded, but a normal day — how people worked, dressed, shopped, and passed the time — survives only when someone happened to point a camera at it.
