
46Be a Pepper
“If you feel up to it, you should introduce yourself to a stranger today” by Mick Burson with Creative Waco’s ARTprenticeship students, 2021–2022 · on the back of the Dr Pepper MuseumMURAL
Waco invented Dr Pepper before Coke existed. This is the museum's back wall doing a victory lap.
First, the flex, because it's earned: Dr Pepper was invented IN WACO in 1885, at a drugstore soda fountain, a full year before Coca-Cola — and locals originally ordered it by asking for “a Waco.” This block-long wrap on the back of the Dr Pepper Museum celebrates all of it in giant vintage advertising: a red-and-white machine the size of a house, floating soda bubbles, and a mid-century starburst clock pointing at 10, 2 and 4 — from the 1926 campaign claiming your energy dips at 10:30, 2:30 and 4:30, so you'd better drink a bite to eat at 10, 2 and 4. The employee who coined that line got a $25 bonus. The clock stayed on bottles into the 1970s.
The wall was designed by artist Mick Burson with Creative Waco's ARTprenticeship students, who gave it a title better than most novels: “If you feel up to it, you should introduce yourself to a stranger today.” That's the friendliest sentence ever painted on a soda factory. Waco in one line.
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