Coke in the Jumbo Size, Sir?

The John W. Hartman Center recently acquired the papers of Adrienne Cohen, an advertising copy writer and creative director who worked for several agencies from the 1960s to the 1990s, including Young & Rubicam, McCann-Erickson and a number of agencies in the Atlanta, Ga. area. Ms. Cohen was the recipient of numerous advertising industry awards and was highly regarded in her field.

Adrienne Cohen in 1974.

She worked on the Coca-Cola account during the early 1960s, and her papers include several pamphlets produced for the food and beverage industry intended to provide sales and comportment training to waitresses. The pamphlets sought to show restaurant and café managers how the wait staff could boost sales through a program called “Plusmanship” that emphasized the waitress’s power of suggestion to guide diners’ menu item selection.  The title quote and image below come from two of the pamphlets.

These materials add to the Hartman Center’s growing collection of sales and sales training literature, and especially materials pertaining to Coca-Cola retailing.

Post contributed by Rick Collier, Technical Services Archivist for the Hartman Center.