The Coke cans article

Words and photos by Harry Gay

It’s a sweltering summer day, the sun beats its harsh rays on the back of your neck. A trail of sweat slowly creeps down your forehead. The coins your mum gave you heat up in the palm of your hand. The hot concrete burns the bottoms of your feet and you prance about, trying not to stand in one spot for too long.

Finally, far ahead in the distance, you see it. The sun’s refracted beams casting a large object into shadow. A can of Coke, erected via a spike.

A shop awning extends over the length of the footpath to the edges of the street. Coca-Cola and Streets ice cream branding adorn the peripheries of the outpost. Inside, you’re hit with a cool breeze as you make your way through the white tiled aisles of snacks and lollies, lit up by the the knee-height fridges, your eyes scan the assortment of goodies: Maxibons, Cornettos, Cyclones, Paddle Pops, and Bubble O’ Bills. In the end, you settle for the classic Icy Pole.

Outside, the ice block stripped bare quenches your thirst and relieves you of the throbbing pain caused by the heat. These were how my days in adolescence were readily spent. Trips to the local mixed business or corner store, spending my chore money on miscellaneous sweets and goodies. One such store was the Fisher Road Store, a mixed business located in Dee Why on the Northern Beaches. Whether it be some respite from the rising temperatures brought about by climate change or a last minute box of Ferrero Rocher for Mother’s Day, this mixed business store sold it.

An illusory aspect of the Fisher Road Store, and mixed business stores in general, had always been its decoration. Faded stickers from the 2000s advertising Streets ice cream plastered on the window, cracked and rusted Coca-Cola logos brandished above — these are the common sights of the average mixed business. What was uncommon, however, was the large Coca-Cola can that stood above the awning of this shop. Illuminated at night, this can serves as a beacon of hope for weary night-time travellers looking for a quick bite, last minute ingredients for a late dinner, or a nostalgic reminder of simpler times.

For years, I had never known if there were any more like this in Sydney. My neck became strained after years of looking up at passing shop awnings, hoping to be met with the sight of that glorious Coke can peering back down at me. Instead, I was to taste the bitterness of the worst kind of soft drink: disappointment.

That is, until I was roaming the streets of Lakemba, where I passed by a grocery store on Yangoora Road. Here, I saw the skeletal remains of a Coke sign, exposed without its plastic covering. All that was displayed was the top and bottom outer rings, with faded tan lines of the words “MIXED BUSINESS”. They were tethered together by thin metal beams and attached to the concrete wall of the grey building. My heart was racing, elated at having found yet another store wielding this can.

Looking at Google Street View, intact can used to be above the store, but sometime between July 2013 and June 2016 the sign was stripped naked of its Coke labelling, merely becoming a shell of its once former glory.

Speaking to Lakemba resident, Iqra Saeed, she recalled her younger years frequenting the shop. “We and pyjamas,” she regaled. “They had these bags of loose candy that reminded me of Roald Dahl’s Boy, where they visited the candy shops.” cans, I ran into many close calls. For years, Lifeline in Dee Why along Pittwater Road used to feature a large white cylindrical tube hanging above its entrance, although it ended up being made of fabric, and was installed to advertise its previous owner’s business. Images from 2008 illustrate that the location used to advertising “treadmills”, “exercise bikes”, and more. The tube was painted purple and gold, and had the words “BOXING GEAR” lining it.

When showing her photos of the old Google street view, she found them nostalgic and brought back a swathe of memories.

In Croydon, an aged mixed business and delicatessen on Coronation Parade caught my eye. The shop front displays a fancifully written “MIXED BUSINESS”, bookmarked by Coca-Cola logos. It’s been inactive since 2008, the rusted metal and chipped paint peeling with each passing year. No evidence exists to suggest a Coke can was here, besides two metal clamps right hand side. Perhaps a plastic tube housing wires was attached to the wall via these clamps, and this is where our beverage had been housed.

The closest I got was Booth Street in Annandale, where a chicken shop has a can shaped sign displayed proudly above its awning. The words Lilydale adorn its circumferences. Travelling back to 2008, we can see the words Pizza used to cover its cylindrical surface, with an Italian restaurant nestled below. The words ‘MIXED BUSINESS’ can be made out on the top and bottom of the can, albeit faded over the years. Unable to go further back on Google Street View than 2008, I can only sit and speculate what once might have been, but I know in my heart that this too was once a Coke can.

Reaching out to others, I was faced with many false leads, dead ends sprouting from every corner (store). That was until a second active Coke can was spotted above a supplements store along Old Canterbury Road bordering Summer Hill and Dulwich Hill. Originally a mixed business in 2007, it was bought out by Supplement Empire in 2013, but the Coke can has remained, a relic of its more humble past.

After this, another can was spotted along Georges River Road in Croydon Park. A take away BBQ joint serving up pide, pizza, kebabs, burgers, and pasta over the years has housed the cylindrical monolith above its doors for more than a decade. While the business has clearly gone through innumerable makeovers and owners – it has remained loyal to the Coca-Cola branding.

The cans that remain hold little insights into their backgrounds. The Fisher Road store has the words “KIMS 5-9” plastered on the top and bottom of the can, while the Lakemba and Dulwich Hill shops feature “MIXED BUSINESS”, and the Croydon Park shop says “TAKE AWAY”.

I took a trip down Fisher Road to ask a few questions. Walking over the store’s threshold, I was hit with the familiar sights, sounds and smells of my childhood. Purchasing an Icy Pole, I interrogated the attendee behind the counter.

“It was made for us by the CocaCola company,” Kate* said. “It’s been with us for nearly 20 years.”

The store was initially named Kim’s, after the owner. Once it was handed down to their younger brother, they renamed the shop to Fisher Road Store, but still kept the original Coke sign.

“It’s too iconic, we can’t get rid of it. It’ll be with us forever.” As I left suckling on my frozen treat, I mulled over the new information I had been given.

If this sign has been around for nearly 20 years, this would suggest a possibility of the Coke cans existing at some point in a few of the locations that I suspect might have housed them, predating Google street view. At the same time, it reveals that these are not merely any old signage that they could have purchased, but something made heat, and long stretches of idyllic and picturesque beaches, making outdoor advertising perfect for Coca-Cola’s branding. The height of these cans makes them visible from a distance, their size promising a hearty amount of thirst-quenching goodness on scorching Summer days.

Coca-Cola and shop awnings have a long and tailored history, with outdoor advertising becoming synonymous with the brand. Coke’s done with painted oilcloth signs placed on pharmacy awnings. In an article from Sign Industry, the author describes the link between the outdoors and Coke.

Naturally a lot of outdoor sign acreage over the years has ballied these themes to a thirsty public. This outdoor advertising has become a signature for the company…in all kinds of shapes and sizes and neon world.

The article asserts that “CocaCola wall signs have come and gone in America ...many becoming “Ghost Signs” by having the signs hidden by new building construction. Many of these signs have inherited a second lease on life as they have been rediscovered.”

Phil Mooney, Coca-Cola archivist, says that:

Nearly a month doesn’t go by where the company hasn’t been contacted by some American community who is tearing down an old painted Coca-Cola wall signs. In almost all cases, the town’s people see this as a part of civic pride to have a Coke sign and want to restore them.

These “ghost signs” can help us understand the state of these Coke signs, as lost remnants of the past. At the same time, they exist as pillars of the community. Much like how the corner store, milk bar and delicatessen have existed as spots for locals to gather, the Coke sign in spots like Fisher Road have become iconic amongst the residents who frequent its aisles.

The skeletal Coke sign that hangs above the Lakemba grocery store becomes a literal undead entity, a ghost — signifying a past that is no longer present. Similarly, the Dulwich Hill Can remains intact, but the mixed business it used to advertise is no longer alive.

Theories abound as to how and why the Coke cans are gone. For instance, there is the overall decline of the corner store as a lucrative business and community hub. During my exhaustive search for Coke cans, I scoured many mixed business stores and milk bars, many of which have been bought out by their new owners, with any evidence of Coke branding stripped from existence. Such is the case with the Booth Street chicken shop, it’s Coke can painted over once to advertise it’s new allegiance to pizza, before then honouring its new god, Lilydale. Some choose to honour their past, however, with Dulwich Hill’s Supplement Empire respecting their roots.

There is also the overall shift from maximalist, overly loud, colourful designs and shopfronts, in favour of a more stripped back and minimalist feel. At Lakemba, the colourful awning displaying Coke branding and cursive lettering, coupled with the iconic Coca-Cola can, has been stripped bare in favour of the minimalist, grey grocery store sign. The muted colours emphasising its supposed modernity, and the over-the-top display Coke can has no place in a world that takes itself far too seriously.

But the correct answer is usually the simplest, and it’s most likely that these signs are incredibly hard to maintain. Out of reach and inaccessible without ladders, when working in the incredibly time sensitive business of food, these owners don’t have ample opportunities to make sure they are preserved well. I know that during my time at Pizza Hut, our lit up sign that jutted out over the sidewalk was often neglected. Very rarely did we have the time or energy to go clean it and the same is probably true of these Coke cans. Perhaps it was easier to either let it decay over time like the Lakemba store’s or remove it entirely.

In the years to come, much like the wall adverts described by Phil Mooney, we may uncover many more Coke cans removed from their pedestals. Who knows where they may crop up, or where they’re hiding. Collecting dust in the backrooms of a nearby grocery store or beneath a pile of detritus in an antique store or collector’s warehouse. I just hope when they do crop up somewhere, they are held up as the pillars of the community they so rightly deserve to be crowned.

*Names have been changed

MARTIN GREGORY and ANTHROPOID Zak Kalivas

As an artist, where I source my inspiration from is always changing. However, I constantly go back to they’ve done and how they did itfollowed by the creatives who came after them and the ongoing “timeline picking’ at elements from the past and producing works that hopefully make a mark in the timeline of ideas while speaking in conversation to its predecessors.

I am obsessed with the extremes: the extreme of glamour, erotica, and of inspiration from the greats of photography like Steven Klein and Nick Knight, and artists of the past like Peter Sato and Pierre Molinier.

I always assumed that my artistic practice would surround itself around conceptual photography. During the pandemic, I was forced to explore ‘human body’ and its relationship with fashion - teaching myself how to use CGI programs like Blender allowed me to really work with the ‘body’ in a way that felt closer to a mason chiselling at stone and altering it in ways without any physical limit. That ideology really often described as a fusion between the erotic and tasteful, fashionable and conceptual. Since then, I have been blending CGI and photo media, as well as working with video art in order to produce my works.