Coca-Cola has long been one of the most popular and produced soft drinks in the world. They have been awarded because of their trademark, which is a big symbol for the strong globalization, and the Coca-Cola Company has become a role model for other multinational companies. But Coca-Cola also has a dark side. They have been sued, criticised and boycotted around the world. Discussions of their involvement in the devastation of the rain forests, in the firing and murdering of trade union members in the company’s factories in Latin America and their advertising campaign in the third world, have created a strong opinion against the company many times. Different sources have given me knowledge about how complicated the question of Coca-Cola is.

Everyday the Coca-Cola Company sells over 800 million of it’s products, in countries all over the world. It’s what we call a multinational company. There have been many discussions about multinational companies over the years. Companies like McDonalds, Nike and Coca-Cola are often accused of sucking the last penny and resources of people and countries; that they are not paying any regards of nature or people. Everything is about economic growth. But despite all the "scandals", the Coca Cola Company is considered one of the most successful companies in the world, and is here to stay for a long time ahead.


Coca-Cola developed as a medicine

In 1886, a pharmacist named John Styth Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia USA, developed a new bracing medicine which was soon to be known as Coca-Cola. One reason why it became so popular was because of it’s non-alcoholic substance. An alcohol-free drink which had a very good taste, was very popular at the time. In 1895 you could buy Coca-Cola all over the USA.
It did not come to Sweden before 1953. The national food administration didn’t allow it to be sold because of some of the substances, caffeine and phosphor acid. Today, the biggest competitors to Coca-Cola are Pepsi and Jot, especially Pepsi. Of course the Coca-Cola Company has many other products besides Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Light, Fanta, Sprite, Tab x-tra, MER and BonAqua are all members in the Coca-Cola family. There have been many Coca-Cola slogans over the years. "Delicious and refreshing" is one of the first ones from 1904. Others like: "Where the coke is, there’s hospitality" (1948), "Coke is it" (1981), "Always Coca-Cola" (1993) and "Enjoy" (2000) also have had their era.


Problems with the Coca-Cola substance

There have been problems with the contents of the famous soft drink. In Mexico it has been a big discussion about the phosphor acid in it. Mexican researchers claim that the phosphor acid can cause a brittle-bone disease. But you have to drink a lot of Coca-Cola regularly before you get this disease. It’s hard to say HOW much, so maybe it’s for the best to be cautioned. Another thing which has been discussed, is that until 1904 the Coca-Cola contained cocaine. Big protests were made by the people, so they removed it in 1904. Still there are sources who claim that there are still cocaine in the drink, but they mean it’s so little, it can be said that Coca-Cola is cocaine-free.
In the declaration of contents, it’s said that it’s sugar in the soft drink. But it doesn’t says how much sugar it is in it. It has been figured out that in one Coca-Cola tin, it’s about 10% sugar. That’s almost thirteen lumps of sugar! In the Light product there’s no sugar, but saccharine. Unfortunately too much saccharine can cause cancer in the urinary bladder.


Scandals, problems and suspicion

In 1999 the EU-commission decided to investigate the Coca-Cola Company, since some Belgian school children got sick after drinking Coca-Cola. The whole thing ended with Coca-Cola withdrawing some of it’s selling in the country. The Coca-Cola Company has also been under investigation about illegally encouraging it’s customers to buy less of the company’s competitor products.
Some suspicions often just stay as suspicions, since the company often deny the accusations. Many political lefts accuse the Coca-Cola Company (or any other multinational company) for many different things. Of course there’s not only political lefts who impeaches the Company. In Colombia company was sued because of the murders and harassments in the company’s factories in the country, and after the murder of two trade union members in a Coca-Cola factory in Guatemala in 1980, a big boycott of Coca-Cola was started.
The company has also been sued for racial discrimination, and has been criticised for possible involvement in the devastation of the rain forests.


Marketing: important for the company, devastating for the poor people

The Coca-Cola Company is strongly criticised for it’s campaigns in the third world. According to many left political persons on the net, an economist in the UN-commission says that the Coca-Cola commercial has a problematic effect on the poor people there. According to him they see the happy, well off (often white) family drinking Coca-Cola in their advertising, and think that drinking Coca-Cola should make them closer to be those perfect people. The mothers even give their babies Fanta or Coca-Cola. According to some unofficial websites, in Zambia it has gone so far that the hospitals have the diagnose "Fanta-baby" in their forms. One of the reasons that Coca-Cola is so popular is because of their marketing. In Sweden the MD of Coca-Cola Drinks Sweden Co, has said that they don’t do marketing for children under twelve years, they don’t advertise in magazines for kids. But even if they don’t advertise in children magazines, the kids today see a lot of television. Therefor the commercials of the company, still reach children. But that’s something the company sure is not complaining about. Besides, the youth is one of the main target groups in most of the companies today. In Sweden we drink 238 million litre a year, but in one season of the year, something happens, which creates problems with the selling of Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola products. At Christmas time we drink another soft drink as a tradition, which is only produced in big scales around the holidays. It’s called "Julmust" ("Christmas soft drink"). When almost every Swede go out and buy "Julmust", the selling of Coca-Cola halves, and the company double it’s capital investments of advertising.

Coca-Cola is a good soft drink, but maybe it’s worth thinking twice before you buy any of it’s products.

What do you think of Coca-Cola and other multinational companies?

Sources:
Magazines:
"Vi" Nr 23/24 8 juni 2000- Stockholm
"Röd Press" nr 5/02- Ung vänster
"Tempus" nr 30 årggn 20 (29 juli- 4 augusti 1999)
"Affärsvärlden" Mars 2000 nr 9

Internet sites:
www.coca-cola.se
http:/kund.jobline.se/cocacola1sw/
http://susning.nu/Coca-Cola
http://hem.passagen.se/cokeisit/swedish/index.html
www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/9912/20/colamust.html
www.yelah.net/articles/svin
http://members.tripod.com/~MIS_JH/coca.html
http://sv.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-cola
www.aspera.nu/tidning/aspera15/COCA/Dryck.htm
http://sverige.primavi.com/nyheter/showNyhet1.cfm?nyhetsID=435
www.globalrespekt.nu/Article.asp?Article_id=1439&Category_Id=Artiklar


© 2003 Freeway
Writers: Angelica Edin(sp04-05@park.se).
HTML by: Erik Östman(te04-78@park.se).