| Researcher: | Alex Perry; email: jwayfarer3@aol.com | ||||
| Topic Description: | Coca-Cola is everywhere. Perhaps more than any other product, Coca-Cola has been one of the most successful in the transition from a local, national product, to a globalized, international product. This is intriguing in a number of ways. One of the most intriguing is that Coca-Cola is a non-essential product- it is a beverage that is not a part of the basic foundations for sustenance. It is entertainment and is essentially recreation. Hand in hand with this is the fact that Coca-Cola has created for itself both the image and the reality of not being recreation. That is, Coca-Cola has been so pervasive in our culture that it no longer is perceived as a "want" and is regarded as a "need." These two conflicting ideas- Coca-Cola as entertainment, Coca-Cola as sustenance- are perhaps part of the reason for its dramatic globalization, or at least an interesting way to view its spread across the world. | ||||
| Discussion of Topic: | With the creation of the middle
class after the Industrial Revolution, and the opening of leisure
opportunities for a wider populace, the nation changed its course from
production to consumption. The Consumer Revolution occurred mainly
because the companies who were producing products needed to sell them to
someone- otherwise, production would overbalance consumption and the whole
machine would get messed up. Therefore, workers were sold back what they
were producing, and the machine could run smoothly again. As Dreyman
said, there was an "equalization of enjoyments without an equalization of
income." The disparity between the rich and the lower classes was
gilded over with the illusion of democratization of product- that is, the
effort to allow everyone to buy everything had sought to equalize the
opportunity for the purchase of common products. In effect, this
meant that the lower classes could participate in similar product buying as
the rich. The illusion of the blending of the classes took
hold.
Why Coca-Cola is so attractive can be interpreted in a number of ways. First, it is the prime example of the democratization of enjoyment. From poor to rich alike, all can drink Coca-Cola can enjoy the refreshing taste- for the time it takes a person to drink Coca-Cola, a sort of equalization occurs. Everyone drinks Coca-Cola and therefore participates in the same activity- no matter what your income is or your station in the societal hierarchy, everyone is welcome to drink together. Coca-Cola is everywhere from the lowliest fast food place to the most elite restaurant or cafe- it is the basic drink that people can purchase. This ubiquity coupled with its low cost and elevated esteem as a quality drink causes Coca-Cola's popularity and subsequent integration into the global culture to steam-roll and build its own momentum- creating a market for itself that is independent of other things. Coke has become its own entity and has become something sacred, part of our unconscious lives- no longer an enjoyment, but a necessity. The consequences of this integration and dependency are rather surprising. With the birth of television and the modern era, the slow death of the imagination, the spiritual castration through disciplinization and mechanization, and the creation of a more secular world without easy access to a virtual world in which practical answers may be found, the modern spirit yearns for something simply that: spiritual. Our virtual worlds have become subservient to the gaudy, gilded, paper thin illusions that our consumer-selves have willfully pulled over our eyes. Fantasy has become reality and nothing is sacred. In response, we have deified and turn sacred the products with which we use to get through our lives. Coca-Cola, in effect, has become our communion- the sacred drink by which we gain life, vitality, and the strength to get through the day. The newest slogan, Coca-Cola: Life tastes good is perhaps the most honest way of putting it, for Coca-Cola has become life, and therefore, life tastes good. |
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| Method(s): | By researching the history of the company in the U.S. and in other countries, as well as the nature of the advertising in those countries, a picture of why Coca-Cola has become so successful in globalization and what Coca-Cola is interpreted to mean in these different cultures can be created.
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| Findings and Data: | Coca-Cola was founded in
1886. Coincidentally, at the same time, the Statue of Liberty was being
worked on at the same time. Quite fortuitously, as well, Coca-Cola was
founded in the midst of the rise of the Consumer Revolution. It couldn't
have come at a better time. Created by a man in an Atlanta pharmacy,
Coca-Cola quickly spread across the nation as it was bought by
investors. It wasted no time going overseas- the company had bottling
plants in Europe by the early twentieth century (1918), where the first World
War had just been waged and people were in desperate need for an escape from
the turmoil that had just passed as well as jobs that could fund families in
the otherwise looming depression.
Historically, it is very interesting that every time Coca-Cola has branched out to a new international market, it has been just after a great war. This occurred in Europe after World War One as well as in Asia, after World War Two, when the Coca-Cola company opened its first Asian bottling plant in 1947. It seems that with both the influx of new workers, the creation of a stronger Western presence, and the dissolution of old cultural boundaries as well as various post-war economic strifes, Coca-Cola was able to find opportunity. In this sense, Coca-Cola could easily be considered a nice microsm of Western expansion- wherever it seems to go, the West seems to follow, or vice-versa. Coca-Cola was born with the new, modern world, and has integrated itself so completely, that it has become the new world. The new Western Culture and the Coca-Cola company have been inextricably intertwined, in such a way that when purchasing Coca-Cola products in other countries, you are not purchasing the drink itself, but the new global culture. Coca-Cola is very aware of this, and recognizes itself as a global corporation: "We 'think local and act local,' because we need to listen to all the voices around the world asking for beverages that span the entire spectrum of tastes and occasions. What a person wants in a beverage is a reflection of who they are, where they live, how they work and play, and how they relax and recharge. Whether you're a student in the United States enjoying a refreshing Coca-ColaŽ, a woman in Italy taking a tea break, a child in Peru asking for a juice drink, or a couple in Korea buying bottled water after a run together, we're there for you. We are determined not only to make great drinks, but also to contribute to communities around the world through our commitments to education, health, wellness, and diversity." By integrating itself within the culture, it becomes nigh near impossible to extract the Coca-Cola company, its actual product, and the daily life of a culture from each other. Coca-Cola, truly, has become the taste of life.
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| Conclusions: |
Historically, Coca-Cola couldn't have come at a better time. It sprang into being at the birth of the modern era, grew with the rest of the West, and is thriving to this day. Its opportunistic development after such fortuitous events as wars, economic depressions, and the like, have made Coca-Cola not only a global company, but a global culture as well. Putting aside all national and ethnical barriers, the world can all drink together in the global culture of Coke. |
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