Cola Crusades

Some of us will be reminded that Mecca Cola is a cola manufactured in to support the Palestinian cause during the intifada in 2001 and has since gained a reputable foothold in the gloabl cola community.

As a part of international expansion strategy, Mecca cola will set up eight bottling plants in Indonesia by 2008.

The drink has made inroads in 64 countries. It produced more than 1 billion litres and has moved its headquarters from France to Dubai in 2004.

In an interview with the Bernama news agency, the company was quoted as saying that the biggest markets are in Mexico and Brazil, where consumers concerns are about “US colonialism”.

Dead on marketing, that Mecca Cola, although it is not dissimilar to Kale Lassn's Blackspot shoes taking on Nike. The problem with inverting a symbol such as cola to against the culture that produced it and used it as an imperial item [very few US logos and products are as globally iconic and ingrained as Coca-Cola], is that you're still using that item for the statement. The fact of the usage of cola will be tied to Coke, and the imperial tendencies will remain intact. The only thing that changes is the brand name. In other words, taking ownership of the brand item does not defeat the brand. And therefore, does not defeat the imperialistic sensibilities that created the brand.

In fact, all they've really done here is re-marketed the product as something against American interests. So they've built a cola enterprise to rival American, but they're waxing-poetic by using American sloganism to sell it.

Pretty soon we'll be facing Islamist "democracy" with a severe religious tilt that desires to undertake such actions as preemptive strikes. All of which America packaged and sold to world.