Cocacola

Coca Cola (Intermediate/Advanced Level)

I.

Pre-reading Do you like Coca Cola or another brand of cola? Does someone in your family like Coca Cola?

II.

Vocabulary intrusion distribution tenacious

III.

apoplectic elixir symbolic

canard staggering pragmatic

Reading

It is not without reason that American intrusion into foreign economies in the 1960s was called “Cocacolonization” or that Pepsi executives grow apoplectic from their inability to portray “Coke” as merely a brand name and not the generic term for cola. Coke, which celebrated its hundredth birthday in 1986, is in every sense of the word a national institution. That institution was created in 1886 by an Atlanta druggist named John S. Pemberton, who stirred up a syrup of coca leaves and cola nuts in his backyard and sold it in his own drugstore as a medicine. He experimented by adding soda water to the syrup, and expanded his distribution. In 1891 another pharmacist, Asa B. Candler, who had taken the elixir for headaches, acquired the rights to Pemberton’s formula for the staggering sum of $2,000. Eight years later he set up the franchising system that is the basis of the company’s success even today, and put the stuff into bottles. Ready to drink, its availability spreading coast to coast, Coke was on its way to becoming a multibillion dollar concern. Various theories were advanced to account for the success of the product, including the tenacious old canard that the “cocaine” in it was addictive. But, as advertisers tell us, Coke’s success has had much more to do with its skillful advertising, to which, like all effective advertising, pushes the symbolic rather than the pragmatic value of the product. Anthropologist Sidney Mints suggests that the appeal of the homey, good old-fashioned Coke is related to the “sociability of ingestion.” The ads show happy peer groups repeatedly consuming Coke, and so

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“an illusory good fellowship is endlessly reimagined and reenacted.” So Coke sells because, thanks to the ad department, consuming it makes us feel loved. (Adapted from: Curious Customs by Tad Teuleja)

IV. Post-reading True or False 1. T F Coke was created in 1986. 2. T F Coke was originally a medicine. 3. T F John Pemberton was a Chicago doctor. 4. T F Coke is a multibillion dollar business. 5. T F Coke is made from coca leaves and cola nuts. 6. T F Coke was successful because of skillful advertising. 7. T F Coke sells because it is addictive. 8. T F The original formula was sold to Asa Candler for $5,000. V.

Activities 1. “Coke” was merely a brand name, and yet it was (and still is) used as a generic term for cola. What are some other brand names that have been used generically. 2. At the bottom of the second paragraph the word “stuff” is used. It is very convenient word used very frequently. Discuss how this word might be used? 3. “Skillful advertising” started many years ago. What are some of the more successful advertising that you see today? Some advertising tries to attract customers using emotions. What are some ads that you see today like that? 4. Write a short paragraph or two about the most interesting advertising that you have seen recently.

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