One of the more interesting parts of my job is doing media interviews celebrating the heritage and influence of Coca-Cola. I participated in a fun opportunity a few months ago for the television program Day Off captured by Noah Abrams. The premise of the PlanesTrains+Automobiles network show is that director Noah Abrams goes on the other side of the camera to find interesting things to do and see in a city if you had a one-day layover and a local celebrity to serve as your tour guide.

For an episode on Atlanta, which you can see here, Noah selected Chef Kevin Gillespie. The pair visited several locations in Kevin's hometown, including the World of Coca-Cola. I was happy to give them a tour of the attraction, where we met the Coca-Cola polar bear and a few of our other icons. While I always wondered how people can appear natural on reality shows when you are being followed around by a camera wearing a microphone, the Day Off crew filming the tour were amazing, and Noah and Kevin were great on camera. The filming process was much easier than I anticipated. 



Ted Ryan

One of the moments that surprised me the most occurred in the Vault of the Secret Formula. While I know that chefs would have a strong sense of smell and taste, Kevin put it on display.  We pipe the Coca-Cola scent into the vault area to enhance the visitor’s experience. It's just a subtle display device and very few visitors realize the scent is even there, but Chef Gillespie walked in the room and immediately asked me if we had worked to make the room smell like Coca-Cola. I was stunned.



Vault of Secret Formula

Kevin and Noah then received a special treat when we allowed them to visit the Coca-Cola Archives for an expanded tour. It was a fun day!


Ted Ryan is director of heritage communications at The Coca-Cola Company.