Dive Brief:

• The Internet is abuzz over a colorless Coca-Cola can created by designer Harc Lee of the Ryan Harc design studio back in 2009. 
• Images of the can circulated on social media this week -- as they do from time to time -- after the can was mentioned in the press.
• The can is stripped of the red and white paint that appears on the typical Coke can, but features convex versions of the logo and branding messages, thus remaining instantly recognizable.
• Lee designed the can on spec as an experiment. The intention is to reduce harm to the environment by eliminating the need for paints on billions of Coke cans produced around the globe. 

Dive Insight:

There's something about Coke containers that speaks to artists and designers. Lee's can joins Warhol's masterpiece, the bottle made of ice, and the bottle designed to help you make friends in the annals of design history.

There's also something about Lee's work that causes it to resurface every once in a while, allowing a new group of people to see it for the first time. The result is always the same -- people really love the can. And it's actually quite surprising that at this point Coke hasn't actually produced any soda using Lee's idea.

But the coolest thing about Lee's vision for Coke, besides that it might actually be good for the planet, is that it reminds us of a particularly cool, but not well-known, story from the company's history: the secret plan to make a clear Coca-Cola for a Soviet military leader.