In 1940, Victor Fox, publisher of WonderWorld Comics, Mystery Men Comics, Weird Comics, and other titles featuring The Blue Beetle, Samson, and The Flame, among others, conceived an audacious marketing scheme.
Inspired by the success of Pepsi
Cola and Coca-Cola
, he decided to promote Kooba Cola, "The World's Newest and Best-Tasting Soft Drink!" in ads across his entire line of comic books! It was also "Delightfully Refreshing" and "Contained 35 USP units of Vitamin B-1 for the Sake of Health and Nutrition!"
And, when Fox's The Blue Beetle starred in a short-lived radio show
that summer, he was sponsored by Kooba Cola! Wait a second...What's that?You've never even heard of Kooba Cola?That's because it didn't exist, except as a logo, a couple of mocked-up bottles used as props in ads and some art reference for illustrators.
(You'll note they couldn't even figure out what the color scheme for the label was!
It changed from ad to ad!)
Fox thought he could create a demand for Kooba, then license the name to one of the big soft drink companies, let them do the work of actually creating, bottling, and shipping the stuff, then he'd rake in royalties on the name!
It didn't work.
The "buzz" never developed.
The soda pop was never actually produced.
Even Kooba's "sponsorship" of The Blue Beetle radio show
was just part of the show's script, not paid ads! (One of the reasons the show only lasted four months!)
But, such visionary hucksterness should not be forgotten!
(Besides, the ads were rather kool.)
So celebrate what could have been one of the bubbliest success stories of soft drink entrepreneurship, but instead fizzled out and fell flat!
(You just knew we were gonna do a pun like that, didn't you?) ;-)
