Abstract
Blanding’s book, ‘The Coke Machine’, has provided readers with a compelling insight into the inner workings of one of the most popular corporations in the world. While the book does not necessarily delve into the humdrum, everyday workings of the Coca-Cola Company, it does provide a thorough history of this one, specific company, allowing the reader not only to get a glimpse into the advent of capitalism in the USA, but also to see what can happen when a company refuses to slow down. Starting with the not-so-humble roots of Coca-Cola, Blanding earnestly describes what has turned the company into what it is today; a ruthless corporation that has only the bottom line in mind, seemingly exempt from our flippant but extant morality here in the USA.
Blanding, an investigative journalist, has researched his subject quite adequately, getting information from many different sources including interviews he himself conducted. Because of this, the book feels thorough and precise, and it seems to get Blanding’s point across without being too forceful. After a brief introduction in which he describes the murder of a Union worker in modern-day Columbia, Blanding pulls back. Having successfully piqued the interest of the reader, he then moves on to part I of the book, which covers the history of Coca-Cola, as well as the effects it has had on US society. Blanding accurately describes the evolution of Coke’s brand image, from its early, bifurcated days as both a ‘nerve tonic’ and ‘refreshing’ drink, to its association with wealth and leisure in the Victorian era, all the way into what it is today – a seemingly benign, ever-present brand that appears to promote ideas such as world peace, education, and the Green movement.
It is this idea of a brand image that is one of the more important themes of the book. Time and again, Blanding points out that, while making a profit is of course important to a corporation, it is more important that the corporation maintains its favorable image in the core countries of the world (and, to a lesser extent, the semi-peripheral). The corporation strives to create an image that evokes feelings of warmth and familiarity with the general population, providing the company with a ‘protective barrier’ of sorts that makes many unwilling to accuse such a well-loved brand of committing such atrocities. This barrier, combined with our society’s short-term memory for such incidents, allows certain companies to harm us or others over and over again, without seeing even the smallest drop in sales.
Blanding then goes on to describe the rapid rate at which the Coca-Cola Company expanded, fighting laws against taxation and governmental regulations while using the courts to further their own ends and shut out any competition. Even in its earliest days, Coke was accused of wrongful business practices from recipe stealing to lying about the drink’s ingredients. There have also been more recent incidents in which harmful chemicals have been found in bottled beverages, such as Perrier. Schools often get angry over their contracts with Coke and try to sue, with minimal success.
After citing many prominent court cases from Coca-Cola’s history, Blanding then discusses the pervasiveness of vending machines in schools, and how hard it can be for a school to break its contract. This touches on Habermas’s idea of power/money, which sees the two ideas as inseparable. Whoever is in control of the most money is the one with the most power. Therefore Coke, with all its money, has enough power over the schools, allowing them to deliver very specific rules to the schools that house their vending machines. Because so many schools are desperate for funding, it is easy for soda companies and other sponsors to swoop in, providing schools with extra funds, but also limiting them in many other ways, dictating what they can and cannot have, or in what ways they are required to increase drink sales among their students. In some cases, these companies can even have an effect on a school’s curriculum. And, with the money they can put in to a lawsuit, the courts almost always side with Coke, leaving many schools at the mercy of the soft drink company.
Blanding also does a fine job in showing how Coca-Cola has managed to slowly get people to consume more and more soda. Throughout the ‘90s, people were consuming so much it was no longer possible to ignore the fact that soda is, in fact, not healthy. Before things got bad enough for Coke to see any sort of decline in their profits, they began to promote bottled water, convincing millions that it was a healthier and cleaner tasting alternative to tap water. It is here that Blanding taps strongly into Veblen’s idea of conspicuous consumption and the leisure class. Those who purchase bottled water often do so because they enjoy ‘paying top dollar for something others were getting for free’. In other words, it taps into many Americans’ desire to purchase or own certain items simply to prove that they can afford to buy such items.
Part II of the book leaves America entirely, showing the global impact that Coca-Cola has. In this section, Blanding primarily focuses on Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and India – their attempts to unionize or protest against the company are rarely resolved in a fair way. Violence is often threatened against would-be unionizers, and in many cases, it is actually played out. For example, in Guatemala in the spring of 1976, several would-be union members of a union that was struggling to start were fired by Coke’s lawyer, John Trotter. These workers were looking for better working conditions as they spent 12 hours a day working, with a minimum pay of $2 a day. Their attempts to unionize led to their dismissal. When union workers cried foul, they did manage to get their jobs back, but Trotter still aggressively worked toward breaking up the union. When a local Catholic church offered their support to the unionizers, Trotter began to threaten physical violence. It was not long after that many of the union leaders were killed. One was shot four times directly in the face, another had his throat slit. A third leader was hit with machine gun spray but managed to escape with his life. The Coke Machine is full of anecdotes like this, offering disturbing evidence as to just how far some companies are willing to go in order to retain their power.
Whether these activists are successful or not, even the smallest threat of change initiates an immediate response from Coca-Cola. This ties in well with part I, where Blanding discusses court cases filed by and against Coke throughout its history. It clearly illustrates the lengths to which this company is willing to go in order to achieve its own ends, and how much further they will go when dealing with peripheral countries. However, even though these activists must deal with obstacles such as a corrupt government, limited resources, or even violent reactions and death threats, they still often manage to accomplish what they set out to do, attesting to the human spirit.
Overall, the book accomplishes what it sets out to do. It shows that a corporation, like some perpetually winding machine that gains more and more momentum, becomes bigger and more widespread, crushing anything in its path that threatens to slow it down even the tiniest bit. Corporations, by definition, must grow in order to be successful, no matter what that growth might do to other people, businesses, or communities. The Coke Machine challenges the reader to look at what defines a successful corporation, and to then decide where we should draw the line, to hit these companies where it really hurts by refusing to buy their products. Blanding offers two simple yet succinct pieces of advice. In order to start moving things in a better direction, we need ‘binding legal consequences that threaten its bottom line and a sustained public campaign that threatens its brand image’. In other words, we need to be more socially aware and maintain interest for long enough until an actual change is made. To some, this may seem an insufficient solution, but it is the simplicity of the statement that makes it powerful.