A reckoning with the market power of the USA?
Comment: The provocation works, but Mecca-Cola flops in a blind taste test. That’s not the only reason this anti-brand is likely to be short-lived—it lacks any credibility.
Commentary The provocation works, but Mecca-Cola flops in the blind test. This is not the only reason why the anti-brand is likely to have a short life - it lacks any credibility: "When you no longer see a Coca-Cola sign, you have reached the limits of human civilization," claimed a Coca-Cola poster in the 1960s. American-style individualistic civilization seems to have achieved what no religion has so far. Despite bigoted devotion to itinerant preachers and soul catchers, the secularized society of the USA has successfully exported its liberal-capitalist world view in times of war and peace. Its missionaries carried brand names such as Marlboro, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney and McDonald's out into the world. And what they proclaimed were not pious messages of salvation, but the simple peacemaking effect of consumption. In the meantime, their democratic empire - to use war jargon - has become almost global, and their Western value system has proven its worth.
Only in a few corners of the world do dictators and fundamentalist regimes still oppose the will of their people with inhuman cruelty in the name of their prophets and religious founders.
Their unchallenged position of power is probably mainly explained by the historically shaken self-image of radical fundamentalists, who want to blame the West for their economic inability and the erosion of their cultural identity.
The fact that before the outbreak of another war in Iraq, a businessman of Islamic faith has found a bubbling source of income with his Mecca-Cola, with which he wants to quench the thirst of peace activists and no-globals, is not to be taken lightly. What is questionable about his opportunistic business model is the underlying marketing strategy. According to this, the Mecca, Qibla or Vita-Cola consumer expresses his peaceful, anti-American ideology. It is not without irony that the subversive brand makes use of Western standards and thus fails miserably in its attempt at social criticism and denial.
Nevertheless, the inconsistencies hardly seem to bother the gullible, "enlightened" West. In contrast to Muslim countries, where genuine US brands are still preferred, business with the "ideological" anti-brand is flourishing in the West. Even the support for local and Palestinian aid organizations promised on the bottle, for the time being only a meagre promise by the businessman, is hardly questioned. Perhaps Mecca-Cola is simply proving what many have always been waiting for: Even the most critical consumers can be seduced by contrived marketing promises if they can use them to make a statement. And: drinking Mecca-Cola does not mean being for peace.
> Luca Aloisi Deputy Editor-in-Chief
Only in a few corners of the world do dictators and fundamentalist regimes still oppose the will of their people with inhuman cruelty in the name of their prophets and religious founders.
Their unchallenged position of power is probably mainly explained by the historically shaken self-image of radical fundamentalists, who want to blame the West for their economic inability and the erosion of their cultural identity.
The fact that before the outbreak of another war in Iraq, a businessman of Islamic faith has found a bubbling source of income with his Mecca-Cola, with which he wants to quench the thirst of peace activists and no-globals, is not to be taken lightly. What is questionable about his opportunistic business model is the underlying marketing strategy. According to this, the Mecca, Qibla or Vita-Cola consumer expresses his peaceful, anti-American ideology. It is not without irony that the subversive brand makes use of Western standards and thus fails miserably in its attempt at social criticism and denial.
Nevertheless, the inconsistencies hardly seem to bother the gullible, "enlightened" West. In contrast to Muslim countries, where genuine US brands are still preferred, business with the "ideological" anti-brand is flourishing in the West. Even the support for local and Palestinian aid organizations promised on the bottle, for the time being only a meagre promise by the businessman, is hardly questioned. Perhaps Mecca-Cola is simply proving what many have always been waiting for: Even the most critical consumers can be seduced by contrived marketing promises if they can use them to make a statement. And: drinking Mecca-Cola does not mean being for peace.
> Luca Aloisi Deputy Editor-in-Chief
