The various international manifestations of the global “cola wars” sees mega-corporations PepsiCo and the Coca-Cola Company engaging in bitter fights over market access, branding rights, natural resources, etc. in every nation on the planet.A quick, media-saturated tour of a few of these manifestations provides some insight into the socio-economic, politico-libidinal manipulation characteristic of modern globalized capital… -------
Most soda is branded under the parent company of either PepsiCo or Coca-Cola Company and typically each company offers a competing brand in the same “flavor market”.In the case of lemon-lime flavored soft drinks, however, there are three popular brands available to American consumers—Sprite, 7-Up, and Sierra Mist.This begs the following question:How can there be a lemon-lime soft drink option outside the PepsiCo/Coca-Cola dichotomy?
Of course, there cannot be.Coca-Cola Company owns Sprite and the lesser, third-party Dr. Pepper-Snapple Group owns the 7-Up brand in America—PepsiCo, however, owns the 7-Up brand in every other country in the world.PepsiCo, lacking an alternative to pit against cola-war arch-enemy Coke, introduced the Sierra Mist lemon-lime brand exclusively in US markets to go head to head with 7-Up and Sprite.Thus the transnational corporate battle for lemon-lime supremacy unfolds like this: PepsiCo, owner and distributor of 7-Up across the globe, created the Sierra Mist brand specifically to compete against 7-Up—one of its own products—in the domestic American market alone.The incestuous, homogenized lemon-lime soft-drink options articulates a particularly bleak, if not comic picture of the state of consumer society where quality and any actual difference between products is subordinated to a business model which manipulates consumer desire and has no inherent logic or goal other than turning pure profit. ------
A quick detour—a recent 2006 marketing campaign for Coca-Cola brand lemon-lime soft drink Sprite shows a level of straightforward honesty in their intentions that is rare even in the realm of brutally manipulative corporate ad campaigns.The traditional “Obey Your Thirst” motto of Sprite was foregone for the more succinct “OBEY”, which began to appear on all Sprite cans and bottles, as well as a series of billboard and magazine ads in which an all too appropriate theme of subliminal messaging was used.The ads were shockingly similar to those that appeared in John Carpenter’s 1988 film “They Live”—a movie where “the ruling class within the monied elite are in fact aliens managing human social affairs through the use of subliminal media advertising and the control of economic opportunity”[1], which of course was a biting commentary on the deep culture of conspicious consumption in 1980s America. ------
Another striking example of the conflation of political, economic, social and libidinal spheres in the globalized cola-economy is the manner in which the two major soft-drink corporations also find themselves wrapped up in the politics of the Middle East and their relationship to the state of Israel.Historically, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have refused to set up bottling plants and sell their products in Israel out of fear that a boycott by the Arab world would result in a crushing loss of market dominance that could tip the scales in one direction or the other in the global “cola-wars”.However, under pressure from American pro-Israeli lobbying groups who threatened boycott in the even more invaluable American market in the mid-1960s, Coca-Cola began producing and selling soft drinks in Israel. Pepsi, on the other hand remained firm in their refusal to set up bottling plants or sell their products in Israel, resulting in a carving up of the Middle East along cola-company lines—Arab nations boycotted Coca-Cola and almost exclusively drank Pepsi products, and Israel and its American lobbying allies put intense pressure on Pepsi to introduce its products to their country, which eventually happened in the early 1990s.[2]
As the cola-war raged on in the Middle East, alternative cola companies began to emerge in the region with specific political agendas set against the corporate policy of the big two.Mecca-Cola, for example, reappropriates the iconic logo of Coca-Cola in a project that the BBC describes as “designed to cash in on anti-American sentiment around the world” with the goal of becoming the “drink of choice for Muslims everywhere” in order to “push out the icon of American capitalism.”[3]Tawfik Mathlouthi, CEO of Mecca Cola, explains their mission statement as combating “America's imperialism and Zionism by providing a substitute for American goods and increasing the blockade of countries boycotting American goods.”[4]10% of Mecca Cola profits go to charities in the Palestinian territories, specifically “associations who work towards peace in the world and especially for peace in the conflict between Palestinians and fascist Zionist apartheid.”[5]Similar products have emerged in the Arab world that are worth checking out:Zam Zam Cola, named after the Well of Zamzam in Mecca, an important stop on the Hajj, whose director Ahmad-Haddad Moghaddam hopes “the faithful will refresh themselves” with Zam Zam during the annual pilgrimage.[6]Quibla Cola, who donate 10% of their profits to humanitarian causes in the Muslim world, also reappropriate the iconic Coca-Cola imagery, and encourage drinkers to “liberate your taste.”All of this resistance, of course, is inscribed within an established international capitalist business culture and economic discourse, even with the appeals to political and ethical ideals.
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In concluding, check out these classic cola commercials--
Right now change is loose on the planet. This one speaks for itself.
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