Jack Fralin sits atop scaffolding stacked with pint-sized paint cans, his back to downtown Hendersonville, N.C. His canvas is a 25-by-25-ft. brick wall on the south-facing side of a 1920 building, which shields him, mercifully, from the June sun.
“These signs put people at ease,” he says while applying finishing touches to a towering image of silhouetted woman drinking a glass bottle of Coca-Cola. “I think they take people back to a simpler, more innocent time.”
Fralin’s brush strokes – and those of a handful of fellow lettering artists – are breathing new life into faded Coca-Cola murals and the small Southern cities they call home. Charlotte, N.C.-based Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, the nation’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottler, hired the Roanoke, Va.-based Fralin to restore the Hendersonville “ghost sign” to its original 1930s glory. Over the last few years, Consolidated has worked with community officials to give more than two dozen murals across its 15-state territory a second – or, in some cases, third – life.
‘We Tapped Into a Movement’
It all started in 2011, when Concord, N.C. Mayor Scott Padgett approached Lauren Steele, Consolidated’s SVP of corporate affairs, at the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race. He asked for help restoring a recently uncovered Coca-Cola wall sign at the city’s main intersection as part of a broader revitalization effort. Steele agreed, and other towns quickly took notice. In the months that followed, Consolidated helped fund the restoration of vintage murals everywhere from Hinton, W.V., to Johnson City, Tenn. – most of which were identified by the bottler’s sales force.
“We tapped into a movement,” Steele said. “These old wall murals are an important part of our Coca-Cola history. But they’re also an important part of the history of these towns. They’re so much more than painted signs to people. They’re living testaments to the enduring bond between Coca-Cola and the American experience…. and we’re rekindling that emotional connection.”
Continue reading Jay Moye’s in-depth article at www.coca-colacompany.com.
(Written by Jay Moye.)