The Cola Wars 2.0

The Cola Wars have been raging since the 1980s, with Coca-Cola and Pepsi targeting each other in advertisement after advertisement. Given that there were billions of dollars on the line it wasn’t too surprising how vicious the Cola War became for a while. Even so, some of us were surprised and a little concerned about the war over cold drinks “going hot” when, in 1989, PepsiCo purchased: 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer from the Soviets.

NOTE: The fleet’s purchase, along with PepsiCo being the US distributor for Stolichnaya was part of a countertrade arrangement that allowed Pepsi to be sold in the Soviet Union.

The fleet was nearly immediately sold for scrap. Interestingly, however, for a short period of time PepsiCo had the 7th largest submarine fleet in the world. 😯

Shortly after that the Cola Wars calmed down a bit. Now, however, Coca-Cola has changed the war by politicizing it and bringing America as whole into the conflict. They did this with their 2014 Super Bowl commercial, “It’s Beautiful.”

Coca-Cola’s “America” The Beautiful

Some love it, others loath it. Few have no opinion about it. Coca-Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” almost seems more battle anthem than marketing. Perhaps never before has a simple television commercial so divided a population.

Americans v. Liberals

Whether they intended to do or not, Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl commercial directly pit Americans and Liberals against each other. Americans have, at least, some discomfort with- and qualms about the message “It’s Beautiful” promulgates and/or reinforces and normalizes, while Liberals absolute love that message.

It boils down to whether the viewer loves America and her culture or loathes it in favor of foreign cultures. If the viewer believes that immigrants should strive to become Americans, bringing with them those parts of their birth culture that will add to America, they will likely find fault with the commercial’s underlying message. If, however, the viewer desires for immigrants to keep all or most of their birth culture after relocating to America. they will likely love it.

This is simply because Americans love their country, their culture and language, and convergence. Liberals, contrariwise, loath American culture but love diversity and plurality.

Godless Passive-Aggression

Naturally, the Atheists had to chime in because the song, “America The Beautiful” contains the refrain, “America! America! | God shed His grace on thee,” and any mention of the God(s) anywhere outside of the home or a church that isn’t a denial of the Divinity’s existence sets their teeth on edge. What was interesting about their interjections into the conversations were their acrobatic apologetics.

Reading the various displays of the Godless’ passive-aggression was actually amusing since they had to contort their comments to show support for the various oikophobes that fetishize diversity while still maintaining their Atheist “cred” by bemoaning the Godly reference.

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My Thoughts and Opinions

For what little it’s worth I don’t hate the commercial, though I don’t like it either. It does seem to be promulgating and normalizing the Left’s agenda to divide America by striving to keep immigrants from assimilating and becoming Americans in favor of them staying foreigners who just happen to live within our borders. I’m a big fan of the Melting Pot and a staunch foe of the Liberals’ Salad Bar.

And I’ve got to admit that “It’s Beautiful” feels like a betrayal of sorts because Coca-Cola’s ads historically focused on wholesomeness and nostalgia for childhood; they’re part and parcel of Americana. Gods! Santa Clause, as he is pictured in America, was invented in 1931 by Coca-Cola! To have that same technique applied to an agenda that is woefully destructive to America just sits poorly with me.

All of the above being said, I’m very impressed with Coca-Cola’s cynical manipulation of the consumer public, even those who don’t normally purchase their products or their competitors’ products. They have made the marketing coup of the age with “It’s Beautiful.” They made and aired a commercial that was designed to drive people to comment and make it go viral, thereby expanding its reach and impact far beyond its original scope.

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3 Responses to “The Cola Wars 2.0”

  1. titfortat Says:

    I have a similar refrain when it comes to our “MultiCulturalism” here in Canada. Im of the mind its either one culture or its insanity. Time will tell which way were headed, though Im starting to think its not going to end up very well.

  2. jonolan Says:

    T4T,

    Actually, it’s the issues between Canadians and Québécois and the fact that Canada always seems on the verge of a schism are one of the examples that my negative opinion of “MultiCulturalism.” Others would be Czechoslovakia and Belgium, both of which did split apart along ethnic and linguistic lines.

  3. titfortat Says:

    Multiculturalism is a Misnomer. There is either a dominant culture that everyone agrees upon or you slowly start to have chaos. I personally think the godfull need to sit quietly in the corner when it comes to their religions and the atheists also need to sit quietly in the corner when it comes to their religion, lol. They can all get noisy when the secular state/country that they all agree up comes under attack from some whack job group. 🙂

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