Coca Cola Canoe

[Fitz]

I spotted this canoe at the grocery store the other day. It is an Old Town - I think Royalex, but now I am not sure (looks like it has a keel). Definitely not W&C. The decals looked factory applied. I tracked down the owner and he indicated his family won the canoe some years earlier in a grocery store raffle. Was it produced by the factory and if so, is it rare?

 

[pklonowski]

Don't think I've seen a Coca-Cola canoe, but several other beverage logos displayed on canoes. Usually they're the roto-molded polyethylene tubs, that make an 18foot W/C canoe look like a lightweight model. Roto-molded canoes often have keels -- it's the only thing that keeps them from folding in half. Some models (Coleman, Rogue River, Pelican) even have tubular aluminum supports for the keel... They're cheep, and not pleasant to paddle.

 

[Fitz]

More Coca Cola and canoe advertising. I like the paint job on this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-psychedelic-canoe-photo-Coca-Cola-Coke-print-ad-/310398124995

 

[Dan Miller]

I've had an eye out for this one...

 

[Fitz]

Here's an ad for a grocery store contest at Shaw's in 1983 - "one winner in each store". I suspect that is about the timeframe when the canoe was given away.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...HogAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o2cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5528,1276292

 

[Rob Stevens]

Benson Gray will be presenting a session at Assembly;

Canoes in Advertising
Advertising is known for generating some iconic images like the Marlboro man cowboys, the Uncle Sam recruiting posters, and many others. Canoe advertising has some similar if less well known icons like graphic demonstrations of a canoe’s durability, stability, and other features. This presentation was created with some of the best images out of a collection of over fifteen thousand canoe catalog pages. It shows how much has changed over the past hundred years and how some things are still the same. (Sat. 6:45-7:45PM) [Freer Auditorium]

 

[Andre Cloutier]

I've had an eye out for this one...

Makes me want to gouge my eyes out...

In the spirit of thread drift, i remember this Levi's denim edition Jeep from my youth, thinking it was the koolest thing ever.

 

[Benson Gray]

Was it produced by the factory and if so, is it rare?

I traded messages about this canoe with last night with my brother Seth who was working at the Old Town Canoe Company during the early 1980s. He confirmed that the Coca Cola labels were applied at the factory so it may be somewhat rare. However, there were many examples of large beverage advertising decals on various canoes so the market for them may be limited. There are two currently listed at http://boats.smartcarguide.com/listing/20092408/ and http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4400713-FS-Coke-Canoe-w-paddles-4-person if you want one. It is also interesting to see that the canoe with the fancy paint design in the 1968 Coke advertisement at http://www.flickr.com/photos/roitberg/4596831190/in/set-72157630053183226 was used with both black and white models. There are other examples of beverage advertising on canoes shown at http://www.ebay.com/itm/130806877492 and http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/real-70s-coca-cola-promotional-canoe-fiberglass as well.

Rob mentioned my presentation at the Assembly and let me point out that it will be focused on the images used to advertise canoes as opposed to examples like this where a canoe is used to advertise other products. James Raffan from the Canadian Canoe Museum has already assembled a very good collection of the latter and presented it at a previous Assembly. See http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2009/10/29/national-tour-for-museum-director for more details.

Let me know if this doesn't answer your question. Thanks,

Benson

 

[Benjivt]

I grew up in Attleboro, Mass. My parents won that exact Coca Cola canoe you posted in Oct 2004. It was won in a raffle through Stop and Shop. We did lots of camping in northern Vt. where the canoe was enjoyed for years. We finally left Mass and moved to Vt. Dad like to hang the canoe on back of the shed between the house and road....unlocked. When you live on a dead end road in the back hills of northeast Vt., you don't expect theft. So, sure enough, one day we came home and the canoe had been stolen! My folks were heart broken. Never saw it again. I hope the thieves sunk in that canoe. So many good memories...

 

[Fitz]

BenjiVT:

Small world. I was born in Attleboro. There is a special place in hell for canoe thieves.