Pepsi Generation’ into Taiwan which to
the Taiwanese meant that Pepsi would
bring their ancestors back from the dead.
Regardless of Coca-Cola’s somewhat
playful beginnings in China, according to
a Bloomberg News article in November
last year, the company is set to invest
more than 4 billion US dollars in
developing their brand in China between
2015-17.
performing a sexual act in the reflection
of one of the ice cubes.
As risqué as the image may have been,
it wasn’t the first time Coca-Cola was
raked over the coals for promoting
indecency. In 1911 Coca-Cola were
taken to court under accusations that the
products high caffeine content induced
‘sexual transgressions’. In an effort to
support their claim, the prosecution
submitted into evidence the results of an
experiment which fed Coke to rabbits
and frogs (two of the most sexually
charged creatures in the animal kingdom)
with clear levels of increased sexual
activity. Despite a clear lack of a proper
scientific process in the production of
this ‘evidence’, the trial lasted a whole
month amid a pantomime of claims of
hearsay and jury rigging before CocaCola finally won.
With Coke already sold in every country
in the world but two, the economic
giant that is China holds the largest
potential area of growth for the brand.
Unfortunately, according to a recent
company presentation, the average
Chinese person only consumes 38
Coca-Cola branded beverages a year
compared to the global average of
92 (the US average sits at 403). One
potential explanation may lie in the age
old problem of ‘lost in translation’. When
first rendered phonetically into Chinese
the pronunciation K’e K’ou K’e La
translates closely to either “bite the wax
tadpole” or “female horse fastened with
wax” [Coca-Cola Conversations article,
March 06, 2008]. Quickly realising their
oversight, Coca-Cola invested in the
research of more than 40,000 Chinese
characters to find a subtle alteration
which would better suits their brand.
New phonetic Mandarin characters K’o
K’ou K’o Lê were quickly re applied
translating closer to ‘permit mouth to
be able to rejoice’ rather than anything
associated with horses, frogs or wax.
While the company may have lost
millions on their mistake at least they
weren’t alone in this. Their arch-nemesis
Pepsi also fell afoul of poor research after
selling the slogan ‘Come Alive with the
46
Santa:
[Depiction of
Santa Claus by
Thomas Nast.
First published
in Harper’s
Weekly, 1863]
Up until
the 1930’s,
winter sales
of CocaCola were
always
down when
compared to the warmer months
of the year. As such the company
attempted to find a link between their
brand and Christmas using a number of
different images of jolly Santa as their
muse but with little success. In 1931,
Coca-Cola employed portrait artist
Haddon Sundblom whose work for
the next 33 years would revolutionise
the modern image of Santa Claus. But
Sundblom was not the first to cast
Santa in this modern-day impression.
The American depiction of an old, fat,
bearded, red and white Santa with furlined hat, black belt and black boots was
originally depicted by political cartoonist
Thomas Nast as early as 1892. While
Nast sometimes depicted Santa in green,
the traditional red of a Bishops robe was
usually preferred due to its association
with Santa’s real life namesake, Saint
Nicholas of Myra (4th century AD).
Today, more traditional European nations
such as The Netherlands and Austria
still represent Saint Nic at Christmas
complete with his red robe and
bishop’s mitre.
[Playboy Christmas edition, drawn by
Haddon Sundblom, 1972]
As for Sundblom, his iconic depictions
of Santa were inspired by both a
combination of Nast’s drawings and the
popular 1823 Christmas poem A Visit
From St. Nicholas which describes him
‘dressed all in fur, from his head to his
foot, And his clothes were all tarnished
with ashes and soot…His droll little
mouth was drawn up like a bow, And
the beard of his chin was as white as
the snow…He had a broad face and a
little round belly, That shook, when he
laughed like a bowlful of jelly’.
While Sundblom will always be
remembered for his role in defining the
modern interpretation of Santa, he also
made a handsome career out of painting
adverts for most of the Fortune 500
brands of the time as well as a respected
reputation in drawing pinup models.
His final freelance project in 1972 saw
him draw his last Santa, only this time it
was a front cover exclusive for Playboy
Magazine.
Nazis:
[Coca-Cola
brass watch
fob, 1925]
In 1925, the
Coca-Cola
Company
commissioned
a brass
watch fob in the shape of a Swastika
emblazoned with the company logo
and the message to drink Coca-Cola in
bottles for five cents. This may sound
shocking today but at the time the
Swastika was still a symbol of good
luck derived from Buddhist origins and
would not become a symbol of evil until
the Nazi Party rose to power with Hitler’s
ascension to Chancellor of Germany
in 1933.
By the time the Second World War
broke out in 1939, Coca-Cola had been
operating a production plant inside
Germany for a decade. When America
entered the arena in 1941, Company
Director Robert Woodruff offered all
servicemen a subsidy of paying only
5 cents for a bottle of coke. While
attempting to drive patriotism behind
the brand, the tactic also ensured the
company was exempt from wartime
sugar rationing and could therefore
continue production as normal. The
Coca-Cola employees who were
conscripted into the army became