From Abraham Lincoln to Coca-Cola,the Folger Shakespeare Library shows how the Bard and his plays became embedded in American history and advertisingA handsomely bound total works of William Shakespeare stands upright beside opera glasses, a blue lace handkerchief and a single rose. On the wall is a picture of President Thomas Jefferson’s house Monticello and an article torn from a newspaper about an “All-American football team”. And also visible is a red badge that says “Coca-Cola 5c”, or an open bottle of Coke and a great silhouette of a girl drinking the same. The caption says: “Thirst,too, seeks quality.”Shakespeare meets Mad Men in this display of how the American advertising industry deployed the Bard of Avon to add a touch of lesson to the postwar consumer boom. The 1949 Coke ad is among an array of beguiling cultural artefacts now on show in America’s Shakespeare at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, and coinciding with the imminent 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death.
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Source: theguardian.com