Summary of Significant Accounting Policies |
9 Months Ended |
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Sep. 30, 2011 | |
| Summary of significant accounting policies | |
| Summary of Significant Accounting Policies |
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. They do not include all information and notes required by generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. However, except as disclosed herein, there has been no material change in the information disclosed in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of The Coca-Cola Company for the year ended December 31, 2010.
When used in these notes, the terms "The Coca-Cola Company," "Company," "we," "us" or "our" mean The Coca-Cola Company and all entities included in our condensed consolidated financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (including normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2011. Sales of our ready-to-drink nonalcoholic beverages are somewhat seasonal, with the second and third calendar quarters accounting for the highest sales volumes. The volume of sales in the beverage business may be affected by weather conditions.
Each of our interim reporting periods, other than the fourth interim reporting period, ends on the Friday closest to the last day of the corresponding quarterly calendar period. The third quarter of 2011 and 2010 ended on September 30, 2011, and October 1, 2010, respectively. Our fourth interim reporting period and our fiscal year end on December 31 regardless of the day of the week on which December 31 falls.
Advertising Costs
The Company's accounting policy related to advertising costs for annual reporting purposes, as disclosed in Note 1 of our 2010 Annual Report on Form 10-K, is to expense production costs of print, radio, television and other advertisements as of the first date the advertisements take place. All other marketing expenditures are expensed in the annual period in which the expenditure is incurred.
For interim reporting purposes, we allocate our estimated full year marketing expenditures that benefit multiple interim periods to each of our interim reporting periods. We use the proportion of each interim period's actual unit case volume to the estimated full year unit case volume as the basis for the allocation. This methodology results in our marketing expenditures being recognized at a standard rate per unit case. At the end of each interim reporting period, we review our estimated full year unit case volume and our estimated full year marketing expenditures in order to evaluate if a change in estimate is necessary. The impact of any changes in these full-year estimates is recognized in the interim period in which the change in estimate occurs. Our full year marketing expenditures are not impacted by this interim accounting policy.
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