Coca-Cola has remarkable powers for making people happy. If any proof were needed, consider a story from the Netherlands about a young couple, their new baby and a bottle of Coca-Cola light.



Tess Bottle

Photo via Paulus Jacobus


Last summer, expectant parents Paul Boogaard and Arlette de Bruin made a big decision. Still a few months from their baby’s birth, they decided "Tess" would be a perfect name. Around the same time, they noticed the "Share a Coke" campaign and became determined to find a bottle featuring their chosen name.

Paul and Arlette turned over every stone in their search and, after nearly two months, luck finally struck as they found a Coca-Cola light bottle with the name that would soon be the most important in their lives.

To keep the secret safe from curious friends and family, Paul and Arlette safely stored the bottle in the back of a cupboard. But the young couple, from the city of Zoetermeer, hid the bottle so well that they totally forgot about it. That was until a few weeks ago, five months after the birth of Tess, when they found it again. Checking the bottle over, they could not believe their eyes.

Their Coca-Cola light bottle’s expiration date, printed on the packaging, was the exact date of birth of baby Tess – January 31, 2015.

Magic Moment 

 Paul turned to Facebook to announce this extraordinary turn of events. “Something truly unique has come out of the Coca-Cola factory,” the proud father wrote in a Facebook message to Coca-Cola. “While we were waiting anxiously for the day  when ‘it’ would happen, Coca-Cola already knew when Tess would be born. All this time, the birth date was in our cupboard!”

When the young father thanked Coca-Cola for the ‘miracle’ in a Facebook post, his message quickly received more than 60,000 likes.

In a reaction, Coca-Cola congratulated the couple, saying: “Wow, wow, wow. What an amazing story and how wonderful to see that Tess is already making so many people smile, without her knowing.”



Tess and Parents

Photo via Paulus Jacobus


The inspiring story also spread to mainstream media, with an article appearing in the national daily Algemeen Dagblad. Coca-Cola Netherlands is helping the new family celebrate by sending them a Coca-Cola gift pack with a few goodies, including, of course, a teddy bear for Tess.

Love Letters

Paul and Arlette are not the only couple to celebrate a huge life event by sharing a Coke and a smile. In Great Britain, Donnie McGilvray found a creative way to propose to his girlfriend Eloise, arranging six Share a Coke cans in the fridge to read:  ‘Beautiful Eloise Will You Marry Me’.

And in the U.S., the McGillicuddy couple used the "Mom" and "Dad" Share a Coke cans to reveal on YouTube that they were expecting a child.

The news about Tess has sparked more people in the Netherlands to come forward with their stories about "happiness in a bottle." In a new article in the daily paper Metro, the parents of baby Boyd claim a Coca-Cola bottle also predicted the birth of their son. And the parents of Minke discovered the date on their bottle matched the first birthday of their little girl.