Fascism and Consumerism -Interesting Doc/Shocking Pics
Dec 9 2006 04:59
Well I just spent an age on Google Images trying to dig out the aforementioned shocking pics but no joy!! Soz peeps - just could not find any pertinent pics. The interesting doc was on the Biography Channel earlier today. It was pretty lightweight stuff - called "Cola Wars" or summat similar it was about the territorial battle for commercial supremacy and global domination in the soft drinks market that has been raging for a hundred years or so now.. Between Pepsi and Coke..Despite the lightweight nature of the doc and the lame interviewees (mostly ex-execs of Pepsi/Coke who appeared to believe they had achieved something great in their commercial success on a par with the discovery of Penicillin/invention of the wheel etc (Christ talk about self-important!! 
)) there WAS some interesting stuff. For example, during the Depression, Pepsi carved out a niche for itself as the drink of the poor and disaffected by offering twice as much drink for the same price as Coke. Coke looked down on them for that and after the Depression when conditions were not QUITE so grim, peeps would evidently buy Pepsi and tip it into empty Coke bottles in the kitchen and take it through to their guests cos they didn't want to admit they couldn't afford Coke..pretty sad stuff esp. as both drinks are similar and equally nutrionally deficient..ah the power of advertising and spin to make people feel even more impoverished and inadequate.. 
But the REALLY fascinating bit was looking at the wartime behaviour of Coke. Even tho I know this will not surprise ANYONE it was still visually shocking which is why I wanted to google some pics. In the US Coke had a LOT of success by marketing Coke as a patriotic drink - tonic for the troops etc etc. There were lots of mawkish posters and some poignant pics of frontline troops sipping Coke. The head of Coke sneakily offered to make Coke available to any US troops who wanted it anywhere in the world wherever they were stationed. This "generous" act got Coke removed from being a rationed item (it had been rationed cos of the sugar content) and labelled an "essential morale boosting" item. Two birds - one stone - the product could continue to be churned out unabated and Coke garnered a rep. as a patriotic, heroic, generous org, going out of their way to assist the "war effort".
Aha but what they didn't see was that Coke was also being marketed as er.. the drink of National Socialism in Nazi Germany - oh yes!! Some truly shocking and somewhat disingenuous footage showed a Coke Convention/Nazi rally showing all the uniformed Nazi officials and Coke business peeps against a joint backdrop of swastikas and Coke banners...
I mean.. i guess i would know these peeps would have absolutely no ethics but it is still shocking.. i mean fuck it!! There were pics of Coke vans outside Nazi HQ etc etc. I mean I know Coke is global, has been going since the 1880s and has no ethics but these images were still shocking and I still find the combo of a shitty US fizzy drink being promoted as part of the Nazi dream fucking weird..and Cokes behaviour pretty disgusting. I mean had the US troops found all this out it would have been devastating for them - not their fault they were duped. 
Did you know they actually used the slogan "Coke Uber Alles"..
just plain weird. After Pearl Harbour Coke had to change their plans - shame!! they still found a way to flock their wares tho but.. hey.. i have gone on for enough..
Anyone any views on this?? Or see this doc?? Or could find a pic I missed??? And should an admin geek put it in history or summat - I only put it in here cos the doc is quite recent.
Love
LW X
Dec 9 2006 17:33
#2
John
Cheers for the response. The Fanta development bit was what I was referring to when I said "still found a way to flog their wares" but I didnt go on to detail this cos I felt my post was long enough already tbh.. 
(And I accidentally put "flock" as a typo instead of flog and found I couldn't edit my typo after - ah but I expect I might find the answer to that one in "Feedback" so I won't ask it here..)
Mark Thomas? Is he the comedian/investigative reporter combo guy? Exhibition at the Foundry?? I would like to have seen this - how long ago roughly was this if you can remember??
I wouldn't mind putting together something for the library on this John - tho it sounds like you might know more than me..
What I found sooo surreal was the image of Coke being conflated with the principles of National Socialism - I mean Coke Uber Alles?? Like I said just bizarre..i mean you just don't associate that kinda product with that kinda society..
Love
LW X
Dec 9 2006 17:59
#3
I think that the documentary your are talking about is this one:
http://karagarga.net/details.php?id=17133
John Pilger - Burp! Pepsi V Coke in the Ice Cold War (1984)
Dec 9 2006 18:00
#4
I've suddenly got more invites to karagarga is anybody wants one!
Dec 9 2006 18:03
#5
Divisive Cottonwood wrote:
I think that the documentary your are talking about is this one:http://karagarga.net/details.php?id=17133
John Pilger - Burp! Pepsi V Coke in the Ice Cold War (1984)
Actually, reading your post properly it's not. Although this does cover that rather strange and shameful period.
Dec 9 2006 18:03
#6
Hey, that's the least of it. There's a book called 'Trading with the Enemy - How the Allied multinationals supplied Nazi Germany throughout World War Two'. Written by C. Higham, the son of a US General. Fascinating book, it details the full extent of the collaboration, inc. how the capitalists on both sides would have monthly meetings throughout the war to plan ongoing trade. There was a 'Trading with Enemy' Act in the US whereby companies could apply for a licence from the state to conduct such trade. Sometimes resources such as ball bearings, essential for the working of planes, tanks etc, were in short supply for the US Army as American businesses had sold their stock to the Nazis.
From the book's cover blurb;
"TRADING WITH THE ENEMY:
AN EXPOSE OF THE NAZIAMERICAN MONEY PLOT 1933-1949
CHARLES HIGHAM
Here is the extraordinary true story of the American businessmen and government officials who dealt with the Nazis for profit or through conviction throughout the Second World War: Ford. Standard Oil, Chase Bank and members of the State Department were among those who shared in the spoils.
Meticulously documented and dispassionately told, this is an alarming story. At its centre is 'The Fraternity', an influential international group associated with the Rockefeller or Morgan banks and linked by the ideology of Business as Usual.
Higham starts with an account of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland - a Nazi-controlled bank presided over by an American, Thomas H. McKittrick, even in 1944. While Americans were dying in the war, McKittrick sat down with his German, Japanese, Italian, British and American executive staff to discuss the gold bars that had been sent to the Bank earlier that year by the Nazi government for use by its leaders after the war. This was gold that had been looted from the banks of Austria, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia or melted down from teeth Illllnlls, eyeglass frames, and wedding Inl/lr; o) millions of murdered Jews.
But that is only one of the cases detailed in this book. We have Standard Oil shipping enemy fuel through Switzerland for the Nazi occupation forces in France; Ford trucks transporting German troops; I.T.T. helping supply the rocket bombs that marauded much of London ; and I.T.T. building the Focke-Wulfs that dropped those bombs. Long and shocking is the list of diplomats and businessmen alike who had their own ways of profiting from the war."
It's a 250+ page book, but I'll prob. scan some of it into the library at some point.
Or we could lift these excerpts here;
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Trading_Enemy_excerpts.html
http://www.maebrussell.com/Articles%20and%20Notes/Trading%20With%20The%20Enemy.html
A bit pricy on Amazon;
http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Enemy-Expose-Nazi-American-1933-1949/dp/0385290802
Dec 9 2006 19:11
#7
Divisive Cottonwood wrote:
I've suddenly got more invites to karagarga is anybody wants one!
Yes please - pm me - tho I don't really know how to load this or whatever - is it quite straightforward?
And yeah - this would be a different doc - it was still on Coke and Pepsi but was, as I said, a lightweight affair - noone of the calibre of John Pilger and it wasn't critical of these companies - just looking at their diff. marketing strategies - which made some of the stuff in the doc so shocking cos you didn't expect anything heavy in such a lightweight prog..
Helpful post Ret - it seems between us all we can probably provide quite a lot of material for the LC library..and this sort of material is quite good at getting a reaction from non-politicos..it can stir them out of any complacent thinking..
Love
LW X
Dec 9 2006 19:21
#8
Ret
Just looked at yer links - fuck yeah that book is pricey!!
Just thought some of the books they sneakily recommend
"if you like this one" sounded quite good - like the one on "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution" and the one on the "Praetorian Guard" and the "US Axis"..The reviews of the Higham book were quite useful too...
Love
LW X
Dec 10 2006 19:11
#9
Yeah ret nicking those other bits for the library seems like a good way of doing this. Tagging with the main relevant company names, fascism and WW2. But no mention of coke or ibm there...
Dec 10 2006 19:25
#10
OK, I'll lift that stuff and put it in the library this week, and it can be added to as we find more info, yeh?
Dec 10 2006 19:57
#11
Divisive Cottonwood wrote:
I've suddenly got more invites to karagarga is anybody wants one!
Yes plz!
Dec 10 2006 21:28
#12
From a now inaccessible page on the Mark Thomas website [http://www.mtcp.co.uk/coca-cola/]:
Quote:
Mark Prendergrast "In March of 1938, as Hitler's troops stormed across the Austrian border in the Anschluss, Max Keith convened the ninth annual concessionaire convention, with 1,500 people in attendance. Behind the main table, a huge banner proclaimed in German,"Coca -Cola is the world-famous trademark for the unique product of Coca-Cola GmbH" Directly below, three gigantic swastikas stood out, black on red. At the main table, Max Keith sat surrounded by his deputies, another swastika draped in front of him...The meeting closed with a "ceremonial pledge to Coca-Cola and a ringing three-fold "Seig-Heil" to Hitler."
About the Coca Cola Nazi Advert Challenge, see http://www.sanderswood.com/exhibitions/nazi_coke/pr.html
More about Coke's advertizing and their nazi connections:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7ECLASS/coke/coke2.html
Dec 11 2006 00:25
#13
Felix
Thanks for that!! Some useful links - that convention described IS the one shown on the doc - I am sure of it.
I would still like to know if the Mark Thomas being mentioned here is the reporter/comedian guy or someone different?? If this is someone different and way cooler and more significant politically, then forgive my ignorance..
Love
LW X
Dec 13 2006 17:23
#15
guydebordisdead wrote:
Divisive Cottonwood wrote:
I've suddenly got more invites to karagarga is anybody wants one!Yes plz!
I still have karagarga invites but it's proving a nightmare to get people registered nonetheless. One of the reasons being that the site is overloaded and so the process of sending emails out doesn't happen. If you pm me me an email address I'll try to get you registered.
Feb 18 2007 23:17
#17
Interesting stuff.
Feb 19 2007 00:10
#18
crasus wrote:
Interesting stuff.
Cool. And welcome to the boards. 
Feb 19 2007 08:52
#19
LW Yes that is the comedian Mark Thomas that did the coca-cola exhibition.
Feb 19 2007 13:34
#20
Thnx Lone Wolf 
Nice to be here 
Feb 20 2007 19:46
#21
welshboy wrote:
LW Yes that is the comedian Mark Thomas that did the coca-cola exhibition.
Thanks welshboy i had to wait a long time for that bit of info... glad you are here.. (did look at the links but couldn't see anywhere identified if it WAS he.. I like Mark T. 
)
Feb 20 2007 19:48
#22
crasus wrote:
Thnx Lone Wolf
Yeah it IS kinda nice isn't it? Stick with us, kid.
Yeah Mark Thomas did an exhibition at the Foundry about it - and Fanta of course which was the drink developed for the Nazi market when the blockade meant they ran out of coke syrup.
Loads of big US corporations were well in with the Nazis. IBM made the systems used to administrate the holocause, Henry Ford won the Nazi Iron Cross for services to anti-Semitism. The fictitious Protocols of the Elders of Zion was first published widely in the US in one of Ford's "news"papers.
Would be good to have an article detailing western companies' complicity in Nazism yeah. Or a bullet-pointed list for library maybe...