Profile: It is the most popular soft drink in the world, but it has recently been accused of everything from selling tap water to allowing the murder of nine trade unionists, writes Shane Hegarty.
Coke, as they keep telling us, is "it". Yet, the exact nature of that "it" depends on who and where you are. Where once it was an all-American symbol embraced by a thirsty world, now it is an all-American symbol to be rejected by many. In the Arab world, it has become a tangible target for anti-American sentiment. To the anti-globalisation movement it has blood on its hands. To the British, the company appeared this week to be little more than a snake-oil merchant.
It was poised to launch its bottled water Dasani onto the UK market, when someone discovered that it was selling filtered tap water. Rather than take several million years to burble through a mountain, this water has come from a tap in Sidcup. The media were quick to jump on the story, with some drawing inevitable comparisons to Del Boy's attempt to do the very same thing in an episode of Only Fools and Horses. The marketing campaign for Dasani was due to cost £7 million (€10 million), but you really couldn't - nor would want to - buy that kind of publicity.
It was a bad news week for Coca-Cola. Investigators in the US are examining claims that during the 1990s the company sent Coke concentrate from its Irish concentrate plants to Japan and then falsely claimed them as sales, in order to boost its quarterly profit figures. The company rejects the claims as being "without merit".
In fact, it has been a bad news year. Last October, Coca-Cola was banned from UCD Students' Union shops after a campus referendum. It bolstered a boycott of Coca-Cola launched by trade unions around the world in July, who accuse the company of allowing its bottling plants in Colombia to wage a sustained murder campaign against trade unionists. A Colombian food and drink union is currently in a Florida court, suing the beverage giant and its local bottling partners, claiming that it is indirectly responsible for nine deaths in 13 years.
It is a long way from the first bottle of Coca-Cola, which was made in 1885 by pharmacist and morphine addict, John Styth Pemberton, in an old iron tub in his backyard, and stirred using the oar from a rowboat. These were the days of medicinal tonics with extravagant claims, and he had previously come up with less-successful products such as Globe of Flower Cough Syrup and French Wine Cola. He and his 15-year-old wife had moved to Atlanta as the city was gripped by a puritanical zeal. Pemberton decided to create a non-alcoholic tonic that would stimulate the body, but taste like soda.
Initially, it was sold as something that eased the ills of the upper body, was pretty good at tackling hangovers and which may even put a bit of pep into the bedroom. The original formula contained cocaine; or at least the tiny amount that came from the natural extract of the coca leaf. There was also cola nuts and vanilla. The cocaine went a few years later, but the rest of the ingredients have hardly changed.
The famous logo was the creation of Pemberton's bookkeeper, who also renamed the drink after the original, Yum Yum, failed to grip the public imagination.
Pemberton sold two-thirds of his share for $283.29 in 1887, when his morphine habit had begun to affect both his health and his wealth. He died in 1888, almost broke and leaving behind a lawsuit over who owned the other third of the patent. A decade later, another Atlanta pharmacist, Asa G. Candler, bought the company for $2,000. By the time he sold it in 1919, it was worth $25 million.
As with so many American products, the second World War proved a boon, with American soldiers bringing the drink across the world with them. The impact was astounding. The term "coca-colonisation" was already in use by 1950, and it is now believed that Coke is the second most widely recognised English-language word after "OK".
It has, though, inspired many imitators. During its early years, there was Koke, Okla-Cola, Co Kola, Coka-Ola and, an eventual survivor, Pepsi-Cola. Coca-Cola aggressively protected its trademark, and within 40 years of the first bottle being poured it had gone to the law on 7,000 occasions to do so. Since it also won the exclusive right to use the term "Coke", it is the world's only successful product with two names.
The formula remained largely unchanged until 1985, when New Coke was put on the shelves as a reaction to the "Pepsi Challenge". The competitors' campaign revealed that consumers preferred the sweeter taste of their biggest rival. Much to Coca-Cola's dismay, its own tests confirmed this and so it altered a recipe that is reputed to have been known by only two officials in the entire company.
However, the company had completely miscalculated this fizzy drink's place in American culture. From the American heartland came a large-scale campaign to bring back the old Coke. There had been previous marketing mistakes (it once launched Coca-Cola flavoured cigars) but this was on an entirely new scale. Coke was, for many, a cornerstone of the nation, as symbolic as apple pie and baseball. One customer wrote: "There are only two things in my life: God and Coca-Cola. Now you have taken one of those things away from me."
Because Coca-Cola is the world's largest customer of natural vanilla extract, as New Coke sales fell, the economy of Madagascar nose-dived. Eventually, the old formula was restored as Classic Coke. When it was suggested that Coca-Cola had deliberately manipulated the consumer in a marketing stunt, the company president remarked: "We are not that stupid, or that smart". The irony is that in blind tests the public had preferred the taste of New Coke to the classic stuff.
However, it is the modern nature of its imitators that confirms its place in global culture. In 2002, a French businessman, Tawfik Mathloufi, launched Mecca-Cola. It is packaged just like Coca-Cola, and tastes a little less sweet, but it is sold in the Arab world as an alternative to the hegemony of western brands and with the message that, in buying a drink that sends 10 per cent of profits to Palestinian charities, you are making an important protest against American imperialism. Its motto is: "No more drinking stupid, drink with commitment!" Mecca-Cola now has 14 bottling plants and is sold in 54 countries and, in keeping with the tradition, the success of Mecca-Cola has itself spawned imitators in the Arab world.
Coca-Cola has become a symbol of the domination of American culture, but it has also become a target of the anti-globalisation and environmental movements. Aside from the Colombian issue, it has been castigated for doing business with the former Nigerian dictatorship. Last year Coke, along with Pepsi, was banned from being served to members of the Indian parliament, after it was claimed that the drinks contained dangerous levels of pesticides. Sales of both have since crashed in India.
Like several other global brands, it has attracted attention for the way in which it has used schoolchildren to formulate marketing campaigns, especially given its modern image as an unhealthy drink. In 1998, when it offered $500 to the US high school that came up with the best promotional strategy, one school had an official Coke in Education Day. Students lined up to spell the word "Coke" and the chemistry class analysed the sugar content of the drink. All the students wore Coke T-shirts; except one, who revealed a Pepsi T-shirt during the group photograph. He was immediately suspended.
And yet, for all the bad publicity, Coca-Cola is still not in crisis. Sales are strong. Unlike McDonalds, it does not feel the need to re-examine its simple brand yet. While there are many who may bristle at its all-American image, there are millions still happy to buy into it.
Its dominance might still be best summed up by the neon sign inNew York's Times Square that greeted the first lunar astronauts. "Welcome Back to Earth," it read. "Home of Coca-Cola."
The Coke File:
What is it?
If you need to ask, welcome to planet Earth.
Why is it in the news?
Coca-Cola was this week discovered to have been selling filtered tap water in its new bottled water brand. Meanwhile, Coke concentrate was allegedly exported from Ireland to Japan to bulk sales figures there in the 1990s.
Most appealing characteristic:
Its taste.
Least appealing characteristic:
All that sugan means that it is good only for dentists.
Most likely to be seen:
Everywhere.Almost 200 million Cokes a day are drunk worldwide.
Least likely to be seen:
As the Arab world turns against it, it's less visible in the local souk.