Many of you have been collecting the Coke WE8 aluminum bottles created for the Beijing Games, and in the U.S. the series of five collectible cans featuring international Coca-Cola logos is all the rage.

Coke_olympic_bottles_lake_placidThe idea of commemorative Coke bottles for the Games is nothing new. At the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games, the idea of collectibles was starting to take off, and more promotional goods than ever were available to the public.

Among the most popular items was a special set of eight 10-ounce commemorative bottles featuring Olympic events. You can see from this poster that the bottles were relatively simple compared to today’s collectible bottles. Recently I saw a set of these bottles for sale for $86.

Also popular in Lake Placid: apparel with the joint Lake Placid/Coca-Cola logo, Frisbees and the first lapel pin targeted at spectators. (I’ll talk about pin trading in a later post!)

So if you’re caught up in the passion of the Games – and the passion of collecting those Coke cans – you can look back 28 years and see where the trend started!