John Pemberton the alliterative sound, which was popular among other wine medicines of the time. Although the name refers to the two main ingredients, because of controversy over its cocaine content, The Coca-Cola Company later said that the name was "meaningless but fanciful". Robinson hand wrote the Spencerian script on the bottles and ads. Pemberton made many health claims for his product, touting it as a "valuable brain tonic" that would cure headaches, relieve exhaustion, and calm nerves, and marketed it as "delicious, refreshing, pure joy, exhilarating", and "invigorating". Soon after Coca-Cola hit the market, Dr. Pemberton fell ill and nearly bankrupt.
John Pemberton (physician) John Pemberton (physician) Professor John Pemberton FRCP (1912-2010) was a British epidemiologist. Pemberton was born on 18 November 1912, in Romford, Essex, to Marie Lottie (née Talbot) and Augustus Charles Pemberton, the latter being a steward at Christ's Hospital, Horsham. He studied at Christ's Hospital and then at University College London, where he qualified in medicine in 1936, subsequently working at University College Hospital and then Miller General Hospital. He was excused military service during World War II, as he had tuberculosis. In 1958 he became Professor of Social and Preventive Medicine at Queen's University Belfast, retiring in 1976 and