One look at TaB’s iconic 12-oz bottle tells you much of what you need to know about the early 60’s. The fashonable pebbled exterior, the space-age white star design embellishments and the mid-century modern white on eye-popping pink logo all speak to the youth and optimism of the post-Sputnik, pre-Kennedy assassination time period when the brand was rolled out by The Coca-Cola Company.

Hitting store shelves in early 1963, Tab helped launch and define the diet soda industry. Throughout the 1960s and 70s it ruled in college dorms, sorority houses, and the kitchens of young married women throughout America until it was superceded in 1982 by the introduction of the mega-brand dietCoke.

With its "TaB, For Beautiful People" tagline, TaB was a fashion accessory to the sexual revolution. Television ads from the period show a pre-Women’s Lib sensibility that positioned TaB as a smart gal’s secret weapon to both catching and keeping a man.

TaB’s famous "Mind-sticker" ad creative is true piece of pre-Ms. Magazine cultural history. Was this presented in the tongue in cheek, ironic way that it suggests today? More likely, this ad accurately presents the social and sexual sensibility of the pre gender-war times.

For more TaB-centric images and commentary, visit the I Love Tab website.