Today, 105 years ago, Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time and an icon of globalisation was born.
When archaeologists pick over the remains of our global civilisation they will puzzle over the ubiquity of Coke artifacts and perhaps conclude they were objects of religious devotion.
Throughout the history of humanity, eating and drinking has been made a spiritual experience. Different cultures in every time-zone have performed sacrifices and celebrated ceremonial meals.
The Hebrew exodus from Egypt is commemorated in the annual Passover, and for the last 2,000 years thousands of Christian groups have celebrated an adaptation of this ritual in the form of communion.
Religions which emphasise moments of feasting can jump into new cultures because membership of a community is not only defined by cerebral ascent to a doctrinal code but participation in a meal. The actual act of gathering together allows the individual to transcend whatever doubts he or she may have and connects a spiritual idea with the utterly physical and quantifiably real experience of eating and drinking.
What is fascinating about the spread of Coca-Cola is that its marketing so closely mirrors the message of a religion. It promises not just a refreshing taste but a moment of euphoria which is at once transcendent and authentic.
The 1969 slogan “It’s the real thing” and 1982’s “Coke is it!” linked the carbonated pleasure drink to some profound reality.
The company continues to promote its key product as a springboard to harmony and fulfilment without any irony. This year it has launched a campaign in which it invites “billions of people around the world who love to pause and refresh themselves with a Coke to ‘Open Happiness’ and continue to enjoy one of life’s simple pleasures”.
In Catholic cultures for centuries people have been encouraged to pause at specific times of the day to meditate on the miracle of the incarnation. Muslims worldwide are united through daily prayers.
The “happiness” promised by Coca-Cola is a fusion of personal peace and international friendship, as articulated in the 1971 advertising song “I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)”.
As the success of Coke’s marketing among its 1.5 billion daily customers demonstrates, there is an international thirst for shared community at a time when traditions which once united people can become tools for division.
Theologians led by Hans Küng at the Global Ethic Foundation are on a mission to find a more rigorous code which can achieve such an aim.
The ephemeral utopianism of Coca-Cola is unlikely to replace any major religion unless it can address questions such as life after death and the problem of evil. But the quest for a global ethic which can unite people of radically different backgrounds in some form of non-fluffy “open happiness” is worth pursuing.
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1 comments:
is it bad that suddenly I want a glass of coke after reading that?
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