Working Title: The Illusion of Social Responsibility,
The Production of Coca-Cola’s Corporate Image in Chile
Proposed Table of Contents (need to edit titles)
Acknowledgments
Abstract
Introduction: Theory and Methods for Analyzing Coca-Cola Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Campaigns
Chapter 1: The Coca-Cola System
Chapter 2: Coca-Cola’s Marketing of CSR
Chapter 3: Case Studies: CSR Campaigns in Chile and Colombia
Conclusion: The Production of the Socially Responsible Image as Part of a Global Strategy
Appendices
Bibliography
Introduction
In August of 1990, the Coca-Cola Company opened The World of Coca-Cola, a corporate museum dedicated to displaying a polished version of the Company’s history through a collection of antique bottles, memorabilia, advertisements, and corporate archives (see exhibit 1). One of the first displays to welcome visitors is a “spectacular behemoth carrying overhead apparently endless lines of Coca-Cola bottles… the relentless continuity of this ‘Bottling Fantasy’ by Jan Bochenek is startling and absorbing” (Harris 154). Outside the museum hangs a thirty-foot globe containing a twenty-six foot neon, rotating Coca-Cola sign; a gaudy and overbearing symbol of Coca-Cola’s domination and presence in over 200 countries worldwide (Harris 154). Yet, there is something inherently problematic with Coca-Cola’s historical account. As Neil Harris points out, “the Coke story is told absolutely without tension or conflict… Coca-Cola’s impact on the world is projected as problem-free” (157). It is as if Coca-Cola had placed over 100 years of history into a black box and the end result was a story where Coca-Cola was always the hero, always welcome, always a friend. The museum is more of a fantasyland, a refashioned hip interpretation of corporate history, the way Coca-Cola would like to view itself and be viewed by the world.
Although The World of Coca-Cola is only one site of Coca-Cola advertising, it is emblematic of a larger marketing strategy; one that attempts to process complex cultural, political and economic differences into a unified narrative. When Coca-Cola introduced the “Always Coca-Cola” campaign in 1993 it ran twenty-seven different commercial designs. Even though each design was different, the final message was the same: Always Coca-Cola. As Mark Pendergrast explains, “Coke has created ‘patterned advertising’ which, with little or no modification, can appeal to any culture in the world. The Coke message has universal appeal- by drinking this product, you will be self-assured, happy, popular, sexy, youthful…” (464). Aside from the obvious message of: Buy Coca-Cola!, what other intended or unintended messages come across through the stories told in Coke ads? What cultural values do they enforce or reject?
Antonio Gramsci pointed to the coordination of politics, economics, intellect, and morals in establishing and maintaining hegemony. As Gavin Smith explains, hegemony is used "to refer to the complex way in which power infuses various components of the social world" (216). The relationship between power and hegemony is broadly conceived by social scientists, yet Gramsci names a few institutions which were instrumental in acquiring hegemony in Italy during the early 1900s, including the church and the public schooling system. He also draws attention to the economy as a potential site for the consolidation of power. Smith states,
"Gramsci identified a very particular compact for securing social order between corporations and the state: “an intensification of exploitation achieved through new forms of management and corporatist strategies, and expansion of state intervention in the economy and society” (225).
Tracing the relationship between state institutions and corporations provides an entry point to examine how hegemony is secured through relationships between educational, state, and economic institutions, as well as the media.
In The Political Psyche, Andrew Samuels outlines two basic locations where political and economic power can be secured which he labels the “public and private dimensions” (4). Within the public dimension he defines economic and political power as “[the] control of processes of information and representation to serve the interests of the powerful as well as the use of physical force and possession of vital resources such as land, food, water or oil” (3). Within the private dimension political power is reflected in “struggles over agency, meaning the ability to choose freely whether to act and what action to take in a given situation” (3). Samuels suggests analyzing the interplay between these two dimensions as a way to get an in depth understanding of how power operates within a society. Multinational corporations provide an interesting case study because they are commercial entities operating in the public sphere. Yet, through various forms of advertising they can virtually shake off their corporate bodies and step into the private sphere with a kind of disembodied corporate image. Within the more intimate setting of the private sphere, corporations can operate in a more flexible manner and potentially influence the values and beliefs of individuals.
The Coca-Cola Company and Social Responsibility in Chile
Over the past 50 years Chile has proven to be a very profitable location for the Coca-Cola Company, with 12 established bottling plants throughout the country (see exhibit 2). As of 2001, Chile had one of the highest per capita consumption rates of Coca-Cola products in the world, following closely behind the United States and Mexico. From 2002-2004 a survey conducted by Hill and Knowlton Captiva,, La Tercera newspaper, and Collect Market Investigations ranked Coca-Cola de Chile as having the best overall corporate reputation (see exhibit 3). In March 1992, Coca-Cola de Chile created the Coca-Cola Chile Foundation (CCFCH) as a way to channel corporate donations in education. Coca-Cola enjoys a relatively friendly corporate environment in Chile (Herrera 2-4).
Beginning in the 1980s and 90s multinational corporations (MNC), including Coca-Cola became increasingly concerned with corporate social responsibility (CSR). Corporate scandals, public outcry, and grassroots movements calling for corporate accountability brought negative attention to companies like Coca-Cola. These movements also challenged (and continue to challenge) the image Coca-Cola had been projecting of itself; they pointed out contradictions in the corporate narrative. One response to public pressure has been the incorporation of social responsibility into corporate branding strategies as an attempt to rescue the corporate image.
The corporate branding trend began in the 1980s and advocated the marketing of a corporate image alongside a product. Ideally the image was supposed to represent the abstract essence of a corporation. As Naomi Klein explains, “think of the brand as the core meaning of the modern corporation, and of the advertisement as one vehicle used to convey that meaning to the world” (5). Yet, the purpose of this MA project is not to assess the success or failure of Coca-Cola’s corporate branding strategies or their social responsibility campaigns, but to attempt to understand how Coca-Cola processes regional differences and incorporates them into micro-organizational strategies by focusing on ad campaigns and social responsibility initiatives. One way to understand how Coca-Cola digests messages from international campaigns calling for corporate accountability would be to focus on four sites of Coke public relations campaigns: the local, national, regional, and global. Alongside these four sites I also hope to analyze how Coca-Cola is straddling the public and private spheres.
This MA project will attempt to explore how the Coca-Cola Company processes differences in culture, local and national institutions, foreign policy, and other factors that contribute to a country’s unique social/economic environment and uses that information to create a ‘socially responsible’ corporate image. My main arguments thus far are (which are subject to review and revision following in depth research):
1.) Corporate ‘social responsibility’ campaigns have allowed corporations, like Coca-Cola to create new relationships with powerful NGOs and institutions. These campaigns created new locations for corporate advertising and have increased corporate encroachment into the private sphere. Coca-Cola has used the socially responsible image as a tool to attempt to leverage themselves in the global economy, to enforce/reinforce relationships that secure their hegemony, and to discredit organizations that threaten their status.
2.) The Coca-Cola Company does not have a specific or consistent global vision for social responsibility, but instead creates (or neglects to create) a socially responsible image tailored to the location in which it is operating. There is some synchronization between international, regional and local campaigns, but there are inconsistencies in the overall coordination.
3.) The Coca-Cola Company relies heavily upon corporate sanctioned studies, technology, and institutions to create an image of social responsibility. This ‘top down’ approach serves three main functions: first, to gain specific information about the local environment which is incorporated into a micro-organizational strategy; secondly, it serves as a mechanism to co-opt and control local discourses on social responsibility; and third Coca-Cola is able to position themselves (amongst various institutions) as a moral authority.
4.) The image of a ‘socially responsible’ corporation is used as a tool to distract from unethical international corporate practices, as a way to discredit ‘grassroots’ organizations calling for corporate accountability, as a way to cultivate a set of values that benefit Coca-Cola, and as part of a preemptive plan to counter any accusations of human rights abuses/unethical business practices.
Proposed Methodology
My research will mainly entail analysis of material on the Coca-Cola Company’s website and the Coca-Cola de Chile website including corporate documents describing corporate structure and practices (e.g. ‘The Coca-Cola Management System’) to gain a sense of the Company’s managerial style and to compare social responsibility PR material (e.g. does social responsibility PR appear the same on the Chile site as on the US site?). It will also involve analyzing television advertisements aired in Chile, in Latin America and internationally to understand how Coca-Cola is marketing social responsibility. Finally, I will analyze material put out by organizations part of an international campaign to hold Coca-Cola accountable including SINALTRAINAL, India Resource Center, and Human Rights Watch to understand how the Coca-Cola Company utilizes a socially responsible image to discredit/challenge their campaigns. The analysis of anti-Coke material put out by international campaigns will provide insight into how Coca-Cola’s image is being challenged on the global level and to see how those campaigns are resonating and/or not resonating in Coca-Cola’s social responsibility PR material in Chile and Latin America.
George Gerbner in “Telling Stories, or How Do We Know What We Know?” discusses a ‘three-pronged research approach’ to analyzing media. The first step is “institutional process analysis” which calls for researching the formation of policies surrounding the flow of media messages. The second step entails “message system analysis” or analyzing the content of stories and messages in the media. The third step is “cultivation analysis” which mostly consists of polling light and heavy viewers of television to gauge the cultural effects of media. At the foundation of Gerbner’s approach is ‘cultivation theory’ or the idea that the media shapes a viewer’s conception of social reality and ‘cultivates’ a set of beliefs or values. As Gerbner explains, “the heart of the analogy of television and religion, and the similarity of their social functions, lies in the continual repetition of patterns (myths, ideologies, "facts", relationships, etc.), which serve to define the world and legitimize the social order” (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli, 1986).
Gerbner’s ‘cultivation theory’ will orient my analysis. I will approach advertising as a medium to convey and potentially cultivate a set of values and beliefs about social reality. What beliefs and values are behind the stories told in Coke ads? What do they say about race, class and gender? Although Gerbner called for an empirical analysis of media, including polling TV viewers, I will focus my MA project on analyzing the framework of Coca-Cola’s advertising strategy (e.g. How do they gain access to schools, tv, sports events, etc?) as well as the underlying messages in their advertising strategy (e.g. Who are they targeting? What are their techniques? What do the ads convey about race, class and gender?).
Proposed Questions
1.) How does Coca-Cola manage its image and operations between and within the public and private sphere?
2.) What value systems are enforced/reinforced in Coca-Cola ads aired in Chile and Latin America? What messages do the ads convey about race, gender, and class?
3.) What do the Coca-Cola advertisements in Chile reveal about the company’s understanding (or misunderstanding) of culture, local/national institutions, and foreign policy?
4.) How are they attempting to incorporate an image of social responsibility into their advertisements and branding strategy in Chile? What are the motives? Do US-based and international campaigns against Coca-Cola have any impact on local, national, regional, and international ad campaigns? Why? Why not? What are the differences between how they market themselves in Chile versus marketing geared towards Latin America or the international community?
5.) How do Coca-Cola ad campaigns focused on social responsibility attempt to co-opt and/or reorient international/national/local dialogues on corporate accountability and ethical behavior in general? In Chile, Coca-Cola channels most of their corporate donations into education- how do they benefit from this approach? What are the intended and unintended consequences of the Coca-Cola Chile Foundation?
6.) What are the intended/unintended consequences of how Coke navigates corporate social responsibility in Chile? How does it avoid having to do social responsibility campaigns in Latin America and/or Chile? Why? Why not?
7.) Are there holes in the coordination between local, national, regional and international social responsibility campaigns? What corporate weaknesses do they reveal?
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Annotated Bibliography
Proposed MA Reading List
1. Items related directly to the project;
Allen, Frederick. Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship
Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publisher, 1994. Allen gives a historical overview of Coca-Cola marketing campaigns from their inception in 1886 until the early 1990s. His book includes detailed accounts of Coca-Cola’s political maneuvering within the U.S. and abroad, providing insight into how Coca-Cola has managed potential crises.
Frederick Allen is an author and a journalist. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His books include Secret Formula (1994) and Atlanta Rising: the Invention of an International City, 1946-1996 (1996).
“Cementos Bio-Bio, CTI, Los Productores de Salmon y Coca-Cola Chile Obtuvieron
Premios Sofofa 1999.” Comunicado de Prensa. 11 Noviembre 1999.This press release is from Sofofa, a Chilean Industrial Federation that promotes the interests of Chilean industry and business. The statement includes details on the TAVEC laboratories set up and funded by the Coca-Cola Company via la Fundación Coca-Cola Chile. The TAVEC labs are one component of Coca-Cola’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign in Chile.
The Coca-Cola Company. June 2008.
This is the Coca-Cola Company website intended for a U.S. audience. It contains financial statements, company reports, press releases, advertisements, statements from the CEO, and company descriptions of CSR campaigns. The annual stockholder’s meeting is also available from their website for about a month after the meeting. The material on the U.S. based website will be compared with the websites intended for Chilean and Colombian audiences to analyze differences in material on CSR campaigns.
Coca-Cola de Chile. August 2008.This is the Coca-Cola website intended for a Chilean audience and includes interactive advertising campaigns like the “Movimiento Bienstar” and “El Lado Coca-Cola de la Vida.” As mentioned above, the material contained on this website will be compared with material on the U.S. and Colombian Coca-Cola websites.
The Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Management System. 28 March 2008. This
document outlines Coca-Cola’s management strategy and includes sections on “Incident Management and Crisis Resolution (IMCR)” and “Consumer Response and Customer Satisfaction.” It also describes Coca-Cola as “a responsible citizen of the world.” Herrera, in the article below, describes the Coca-Cola system as “the relationship of the Coca-Cola Company, bottlers, plants and distribution territories” (71). It will be treated as a primary source to gain insight into Coca-Cola’s operational strategy from a corporate perspective.
The Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Quality System. June 2008.
< http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/quality_brochures.html> Another version of the Coca-Cola Management System is available online via the Coca-Cola website. This document will be compared with the above document “The Coca-Cola Management System” to see if there are significant differences. The Coca-Cola website also includes corporate statements on quality, the environment, safety, and supplier expectations. One section entitled “Keeping Our Promise: Environment” outlines how Coca-Cola manages their environmental impact. Further research will need to be done to see how Coca-Cola is implementing their outlined proposal, especially in areas where there are environmental concerns (e.g. El Salvador, India).
The Coca-Cola Company. United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form
10-K. 28 February 2008. < http://ir.thecoca-colacompany.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=94566&p=IROL-sec&control_selectgroup=Annual%20Filings> Coca-Cola’s 10-K form outlines their basic operations within the U.S. and internationally. The statement includes legal descriptions of bottler’s and distribution agreements, ownership interests (e.g. Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and Coca-Cola FEMSA), corporate risk factors, and legal proceedings.
Coca-Cola Embonor S.A. August 2008.
There are three major Coca-Cola bottlers and distributors in Chile; Embotelladora Andina S.A., Coca-Cola Embonor S.A., and Coca-Cola Polar S.A. The Coca-Cola Company, based in the U.S., has ownership interests in all three. This website is for Coca-Cola Embonor S.A. and is specifically targeted to 35% of the Chilean market, as well as parts of Bolivia including Región de Arica-Parinacota, Región de Tarapacá, Región de Valparaíso, Región del Maule, Región del Bío Bío, Región de la Araucanía, Región de los Ríos, Región de los Lagos, Región del Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins. This website includes information about Coca-Cola Embonor S.A. operations, CSR campaigns, and financial statements.
Coca-Cola Television Advertisements. “Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television
Advertisements: Highlights from the Motion Picture Archives at the Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress. 29 November 2000.
The Library of Congress houses about 5 decades worth of Coca-Cola commercials. The commercials aired internationally, within Latin America, Colombia, and Chile will be analyzed to understand how Coke is gearing advertisements to different regions of the international market. Analysis will be focused on themes surrounding race, class, and gender, as well as any references to CSR campaigns.
Foster, Robert. Coca-Globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New
Guinea. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., 2008. Foster explores the social life of Coca-Cola in a number of settings, focusing primarily on Papua New Guinea. Beverages are used as an entry point to discuss the various types of social and cultural exchanges occurring within an increasingly interconnected world. The book is divided into two parts; ‘Soft Drinks and the Economy of Qualities’ and ‘Globalization, Citizenship and the Politics of Consumption.’ Of particular importance is Foster’s attention to how individuals ascribe different social and cultural meanings to commodities like Coca-Cola. Foster is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Rochester.
Gill, Lesley. “Labor and Human Rights: ‘The Real Thing’ in Colombia.” Report to the
Human Rights Committee of the American Anthropological Association, November 2004.Gill prepared this report on Coca-Cola’s operations in Colombia for the Human Rights Committee of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) to encourage the AAA to take a position on the international boycott of Coca-Cola products. The report focuses on the history of anti-union violence in Colombia, including the violence experienced by members of SINALTRAINAL, the union representing Coca-Cola workers in Colombia.
Herrera, Jorge. “Coca-Cola Chile Foundation.” Harvard Business Publishing, Social
Enterprise Knowledge Network (December 2005): 1-18. Herrera gives a historical account of how the Coca-Cola Chile Foundation (CCCF) was established in 1992 and some general background on Coca-Cola’s operation in Chile. He provides a list of CCCF board members, a map of geographical territories, and financial donations. The article gives an overview of the mission and scope of the CCCF, the main example of Coca-Cola’s CSR campaign in Chile. Herrera is a professor at La Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and worked for Coca-Cola as Gerente de Planificación y Desarrollo de Coca-Cola Embonor S.A.(Director of Planning and Development).
Hutt, Peter Barton. “The Image and Politics of Coca-Cola: From Early Years to Present.”
Leda at Harvard Law School.16 April 2001.Professor Peter Barton Hutt oversaw this combined class paper at Harvard Law School available online. The paper gives a historical overview, highlighting how Coca-Cola navigated potential crises in the U.S, Israel, South Africa, Guatemala, France, Germany, Nigeria, and Mexico. Of particular significance is the author’s insight into Coca-Cola’s management of the crisis in Guatemala. He comments on the company’s initial response, where they claimed they had no involvement in or knowledge of the murder of union leaders. The author states, “Their detachment from a bottler’s activities, even if laws of human rights have been violated, is conspicuously inconsistent with the company’s obsession with overseeing local production and promotion.” According to the author’s perspective, employees of the Coca-Cola Corporation are highly involved with marketing on the local level, but remove themselves from situations where they could be held legally liable for serious workers’ rights or human rights’ violations.
Kay, Julie. “11th Circuit Asked to Clarify Corporate Liability.” Daily Business Review.
30 October 2006.
Kay discusses the lawsuit brought by the United Steelworkers Union and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL against the Coca-Cola Company. Kay focuses on the interpretation of the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), the statute allowing foreign claimants to “bring suit in a U.S. court for any violation of ‘the law of nations.’” The ATCA is being used by SINALTRAINAL to attempt to hold Coca-Cola accountable for human rights violations committed in Colombia. Judge Martinez, the judge presiding over the Coca-Cola case, asked for further clarification of the ATCA from a federal appeals court (11th Circuit). The lawsuit is one example of contestations to Coca-Cola’s operations in Colombia.
“Laboratorio Coca-Cola TAVEC Fundación Coca-Cola Chile.” Amcham Chile. 17
Augusto 2008.This news article covers the Coca-Cola Chile Foundation (CCCF), including the TAVEC labs. According to the article, the CCCF has invested more than $7 million in education 3 years. The estimated social impact is outlined and a personal testimony from a student is given at the end of the article. The article will provide background information on the CCCF and will also serve as an example of how Coca-Cola markets their CSR campaigns in Chilean newspapers.
Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes It. New York, NY: Basic
Books, 2000. Pendergrast provides an overview of Coca-Cola’s operations that is more thorough than Allen’s Secret Formula. Pendergrast, primarily an investigative journalist, goes beyond the manifest meaning of the Coca-Cola aesthetic to ask more complex questions about Coke’s business practices from a journalistic and historical perspective. Pendergrast includes accounts of how Coca-Cola has been able to navigate tumultuous political waters and describes some of Coca-Cola’s first markets in Latin America. His book provides a solid and thorough history of the Coca-Cola Company.
Protection and Money: U.S. Companies, Their Employees, and Violence in Colombia.
Hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions and the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, 110th Cong., 1st Sess. (June 28, 2007). The U.S. Congress organized a hearing on the presence of U.S. multinationals in Colombia after Chiquita admitted to paying paramilitaries about $1.7 million over the course of seven years (between 1997-2004). The hearing includes testimony from members of the Colombian military, including Edwin Guzman. Guzman protected Drummond property and testified that “the AUC and the Colombian military shared the opinion that unions in general, and the union at Drummond in particular, represented a subversive organization and consequently a legitimate military target.” The hearing includes first hand accounts of the situation in Colombia, highlighting how U.S. multinationals, the Colombian military and paramilitary forces (AUC) work hand in hand to suppress union power.
Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de Alimentos (SINALTRAINAL).
Agosto 2008.SINALTRAINAL is the Colombian union currently involved in a lawsuit with the Coca-Cola Company. The lawsuit accuses employees of the Coca-Cola Company of colluding with paramilitary forces leading to the torture, murder and intimidation of union members, including the murder of Isidro Segundo Gil. The website has a copy of SINALTRAINAL’s manifesto on the campaign against Coca-Cola, as well as an archive of other documents and press releases put out by SINALTRAINAL. The website provides information about active contestations to Coca-Cola’s practices in Colombia.
United States. House of Representatives. Committee on International Relations. The
Global Water Crisis: Evaluating U.S. Strategies to Enhance Access to Safe Water and Sanitation. 29 June 2005. 109th Cong., 1st sess.In June 2005, the Committee on International Relations organized a hearing on the global water crisis. The Committee received testimonies from members of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Development Program and a number of government and NGO personnel. One program that was highlighted during the hearing was the Community Watershed Partnership, which is a campaign involving USAID, the Coca-Cola Company, and the Global Environmental and Technology Foundation. The campaign is an example of a CSR initiative geared for an international audience and illustrates Coca-Cola’s engagement with governmental and non-governmental agencies.
2. Items related to the background areas around the project
Bauer, Carl J. Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile.
Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998. Bauer focuses his study on how radical free-market economics and privatization has impacted water management. His analytical framework incorporates political, economic, legal, and environmental perspectives which he argues, “come together in property rights” (7). Bauer’s findings are centered around extensive interviews conducted over the course of two and a half years. Coca-Cola relies heavily on water for the production of its beverages. Building off of Bauer’s study, I would like to explore how water privatization has helped create a corporate friendly environment for the Coca-Cola Company.
Chomsky, Aviva. Linked Labor Histories: New England, Colombia, and the Makings of a
Global Working Class. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008. Chomsky provides an alternative interpretation of the current political and economic trends under globalization. By examining the connections between labor histories in New England and Colombia she argues that the power of the nation-state is not diminishing in the new era of globalization, but instead nations are being pulled between two forces; the demands of capital and pressure from popular movements. The book is divided into two sections on New England and Colombia. Connections between the two locations are drawn around themes of migration, labor-management collaboration, and the flexibility of capital. Chomsky highlights the role of U.S. multinational corporations in shaping Colombia’s labor history. She also briefly discusses the Stop Killer Coke campaign, as one example of contentious labor movements against U.S. corporations.
Gwynne, Robert N. and Cristóbal Kay, ed. Latin America Transformed: Globalization
and Modernity. New York; Oxford University Press, 2001. Gwynne and Kay present the current theoretical debates surrounding globalization from a political economy perspective. Theories on globalization are elaborated throughout the book by various authors. Divided into seven parts, each essay discusses a different aspect of the transformations occurring within Latin American society including changes in resource management, migration patterns, labor, and gender relations. Each author traces the trajectory of significant shifts in political, economic and social relations in Latin America.
May, Christopher. Global Corporate Power. Boulder, CO: Lynne Riener Publishers,
2006. This book is a collection of essays on multinational corporations within the contemporary context, where MNCs wield increasing economic, political and social might. The third section of the book is focused on the theme of corporate social responsibility and addresses the evolution of corporate citizenship, as well as the growth and significance of corporate social responsibility campaigns. Pegg challenges the effectiveness of CSR campaigns stating, “As long as the overall ordering principle remains self-interested profit maximization within a capitalist economic system, we should not expect firm-level variations in CSR strategies to produce significant overall differences in outcomes” (268). Pegg succinctly argues that the nature of capitalism places limitations on the scope of CSR campaigns.
Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “How Politics Trumped Truth in the Neo-Liberal
Revision of Chile’s Development.” Discussion paper, September 2006.In response to dominant discourses about Chile as a shining model of neoliberal economic reform, Public Citizen’s Trade Watch published this discussion paper to outline the contradictions in the neoliberal rhetoric. The paper highlights three main problems with the current model including economic disparities in wealth, the reliance on the export of limited resources, and cuts to social services like education and health care. They suggest that countries implement non-neoliberal policies instead of the neoliberal policies prescribed by the WTO, IMF and FTA. This paper gives an economic snapshot of Chile and a brief overview of the impacts of neoliberal economic policies.
Roberts, John. “Corporate Governance and the Ethics of Narcissus.” Business Ethics
Quarterly. 11.1 (January 2001): 109-127. Roberts deconstructs current notions of business ethics drawing the distinction between being ‘seen to be ethical’ and ‘being responsible for.’ He argues that the act of being seen as ethical and the obsession with projecting an ethical self image is markedly different than the sense of responsibility that comes with the recognition of others. Self-obsessed and narcissistic behavior is encouraged within typical business environments, including the “progressive instrumentalization of relationships” where others are viewed as vehicles to either leverage or limit the ultimate realization of the self. His insights into the nature of ethical trends within business circles will be incorporated into discussions of the limitations of CSR campaigns and the nature of corporate culture.
Silva, Eduardo. The State and Capital in Chile: Business Elites, Technocrats, and Market
Economics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Silva argues that economic elites in Chile played a larger role in constructing Chile’s economic policies and influencing the shift from import substitution industrialization to free market economics than previously thought. He states, “this study shows how state structure and international factors influenced intracapitalist and landowner conflict and, hence, coalition formation over different policy periods” (3). An overview of what historical forces and class alliances have laid the economic groundwork for the contemporary moment will aid understanding of Coca-Cola’s current success in Chile. I also anticipate that similar class alliances have catapulted the Coca-Cola Company into a highly respected position amongst Chilean consumers.
Winn, Peter, ed. Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the
Pinochet Era, 1973-2002. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. In this edited collection of essays, the authors trace the impacts of the dictatorship and neoliberal economic policies on women, labor, and the environment from 1973-2002. Stillerman examines the plight of organized labor by focusing on the workers at Madeco, a copper manufacturer. Under Pinochet, the owners and managers attempted to dismantle the union through harsh repression, various management schemes, and more subtle disciplinary tactics. Although unionism was shaken during those years, the neoliberal reforms gave way to new forms of class conscious identity focused partially on anti-consumerism. Stillerman explains, “union members have developed a complicated set of ideas and behaviors in response to work intensification and new forms of debt-financed consumption” (181). Stillerman explains how unions are reacting to the increase presence of international consumer goods (primarily from the U.S.), debt financing, and ‘cultural imperialism.’
3. Items about theory and method necessary for research on the project
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso, 1991. Anderson counters claims that the nation state is dead by arguing that “nation-ness is the most universally legitimate value in the political life of our time” (3). He also offers a complex conceptualization of the nation as an imagined community and asserts that “communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (6). Appadurai (1996) relates the definition of imagined communities to the power of consumer culture and discussions of consumption. He states “thus in creating experiences of losses that never took place, these advertisements create what might be called ‘imagined nostalgia,’ nostalgia for things that never were” (77). Advertising campaigns have tapped into the powerful instruments of nationalism and consumer imagination, as a way to cultivate product loyalty.
Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization.
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Appadurai dives into modernization as a cultural experience, starting with the wholly personal aspects of modernization and then progressing towards the theoretical, tying the intimate and the abstract eloquently together throughout the book. He uses the themes of media and migration to explore their “joint effect on the work of the imagination as a constitutive feature of modern subjectivity” (3). His discussion of consumption in Chapter 4 is particularly relevant for a discussion on Coca-Cola’s social and cultural impact. He argues that “the aesthetic of ephemerality becomes the civilizing counterpart to flexible accumulation” expanding previous interpretations by Weber and Campbell of pleasure and satisfaction as the “organizing principle of modern consumption” (85). Appardurai explains how ephemerality is able to capture the imagination of consumers.
Crehan, Kate. Gramsci, Culture and Anthropology. Berkley, CA: University of California
Press, 2002. Crehan walks the reader through Gramsci’s work, grounding it in an anthropological perspective and clarifying some of the more complex Gramscian concepts. In Chapter 6 Crehan focuses on the production of culture, she states “the production and reproduction of culture is at the heart of what intellectuals do… it is they who produce the broad cultural conceptions of the world that underpin particular power regimes” (156). I hope to explore the role of the multinational corporation in the creation of culture. Gramscian theory provides an ample foundation from which to approach the increasingly complex dialectical relationship between civil society and corporate marketing campaigns.
Cultural Anthropology. “The Coke Complex.” Journal of the Society for Cultural
Anthropology, 22.4 (November 2007). In response to Leslie Gill’s report on human rights violations in Colombia and the AAA’s call for the boycott of Coca-Cola products, the editors of Cultural Anthropology decided to issue a call for papers on the “Coke Complex.” They describe the “Coke Complex” as “the multiplicity of beliefs, practices, organizational forms, and politicoeconomic dynamics that enable and index The Coca-Cola Company” (616). One article of particular interest is entitled “The Work of the New Economy: Consumers, Brands, and Value Creation” in which Foster focuses on the "merger between science studies and economic sociology" to understand the process of brand creation. He argues that corporate externalities include the emergence of 'publics' that have expanded in spatial scale and include a growing diversity of economic actors. He hones in on the sites of current and potential contestation which, in the current economic moment, include social relations built around commodities. Since the very nature of brands places a lot of potential value in public space there is a high potential for effective and powerful contestation.
Ehrenberg, John. Civil Society: The Critical History of an Idea. New York, NY: New
York University Press, 1999. Ehrenberg traces the theoretical history of civil society through three main traditions. He describes the first tradition as the conceptualization of civil society as “a politically organized commonwealth” (xi). The concept shifts to encompass “private property, individual interest, political democracy, the rule of law, and an economic order devoted to prosperity” (xiii). The third shift envisioned civil society as a regulatory force or as “a community whose solidarity reconciled the subjectivity of individual interests with the objectivity of the common good” (xiv). By outlining the evolution of theories on civil society, Ehrenberg is able to articulate their limitations and ultimately call for a reconceptualization of the term in light of current social realities. He emphasizes the need to consider micro and macro forces in any discussion of civil society stating “powerful states and invasive markets constitute and penetrate a civil society whose ability to mediate depends as much on the environment in which it sits as on its own intrinsic strength” (232).
Evans, Jessica and Stuart Hall. Visual Culture: The Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications Inc., 2005. Visual Culture is a collection of essays on culture and visuality divided into three parts. Evans and Hall turn the reader’s attention to five components of the image; “visuality, apparatus, institutions, bodies and figurality” (4). By understanding the complex relationship between these components, one can begin to understand the impact of an image. Parts I and III are particularly relevant for this MA project because they focus on ‘cultures of the visual’ and ‘looking and subjectivity.’ These essays provide a basis from which to engage the latent content in advertisements.
Gereffi, Gary and Miguel Korzeniewicz. Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Gereffi and Korzeniewicz discuss the concept of global commodity chains (GCC) which they define as “sets of interorganizational networks clustered around one commodity or product, linking households, enterprises, and states to one another within the world economy” (2). They suggest that the concept of GCC will help to theoretically connect ‘macro-historical concerns’ with ‘micro-organizational and state-centered’ issues. The GCC model makes it easier to visualize the various components of a multinational corporate structure dispersed around the world. Gereffi and Korzeniewicz also explicate some of the forces driving corporate structuring and restructuring.
Hale, Charles R. Más Que Un Indio: Racial Ambivalence and Neoliberal
Multiculturalism in Guatemala. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research Press, 2006. Hale argues that multiculturalism is not antithetical to the development or growth of neoliberal ideals. His study focuses on communities in Chimaltenango, Guatemala and more specifically, the Maya rights movement. According to Hale, “proponents of neoliberal governance reshape the terrain of political struggle to their advantage, not by denying indigenous rights, but by the selective recognition of them” (35). Hale’s notion of ‘neoliberal multiculturalism’ is useful for understanding the cultural transformations taking place under neoliberalism.
Jhally, Sut. The Spectacle of Accumulation: Essays in Media, Culture & Politics. New
York, NY: Peter Lang Publishers, 2006. This book contains a collection of essays and interviews on the general themes of media, culture, and advertising. Jhally’s main argument is that current forms of media, which are mostly owned and operated by private interests, promote a culture that is antithetical to democracy. Jhally approaches image analysis from a critical perspective uncovering themes that reflect the interest of a wealthy minority, instead of reflecting the sentiments of a broader majority. His insights on advertising and image of analysis will inform my examination of Coca-Cola ads.
Klein, Naomi. No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. New York: Picador, 2000.
Klein outlines a major shift in contemporary marketing from a product focused approach to an image focused appraoch (branding). In this context, the brand is the main symbol of capitalism in the global era. Klein also details the brand’s encroachment into public and private spaces, exploring the social and cultural affects, as well as reactions to increased corporate presense in daily life. By exploring the specific techniques of certain brands (e.g. Nike, Pepsi, Disney), Klein draws attention to the co-optation of various cultural niches as a way to expand markets. She discusses the incorporation of feminist, punk, alternative and multicultural aesthetics as a way to appeal to a wider audience. Chapter 4 focuses on the branding of education and uses Coca-Cola as one of the case studies. This book provides a comprehensive history of branding and brings to light some of the social and cultural impacts of branding campaigns.
Paley, Julia. Marketing Democracy: Power and Social Movements in Post-Dictatorship Chile. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Paley explores notions of democracy by focusing on the health group Llareta within the context of post-dictatorship Chile. Paley examines “how power is exercised in political democracy, particularly through the use of public opinion polls, pressure for grassroots organizations to “participate” by providing social services, and technocratic decision making that excludes the poor” (3). These more subtle forms of state power work to control and contain dissent through processes of coercion and co-optation. Paley likens these methods to a “kind of governmentality” (3). The Coca-Cola Chile Foundation was established to award scholarships and grants to students and high schools within Chile. Yet, Paley’s book raises questions about how state (or non-state) institutions set up with the intention of addressing social problems can become instruments of social discipline.
Smith, Gavin. “Hegemony.” in A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics ed. by David Nugent and Joan Vincent. Blackwell Publishing, 2006: pp216-230. Smith situates the term hegemony within the context of a neoliberal world. Building off Gramsci, Smith calls for the study of how the state, civil society, and the economy constitute fields of power. He states, “a more fruitful exercise would be to try to understand how market discourses, various expressions of the “culture of capitalism”…and the structural features of contemporary capitalism are all interwoven within and between particular sites temporally understood in terms of historical conjectures” (225). With Smith’s suggestions in mind, this MA project aims to incorporate how the circulation and consumption of Coca-Cola relates to culture and cultural processes within the structural framework of the neoliberal economic moment.
1. Items related directly to the project;
Allen, Frederick. Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship
Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publisher, 1994. Allen gives a historical overview of Coca-Cola marketing campaigns from their inception in 1886 until the early 1990s. His book includes detailed accounts of Coca-Cola’s political maneuvering within the U.S. and abroad, providing insight into how Coca-Cola has managed potential crises.
Frederick Allen is an author and a journalist. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His books include Secret Formula (1994) and Atlanta Rising: the Invention of an International City, 1946-1996 (1996).
“Cementos Bio-Bio, CTI, Los Productores de Salmon y Coca-Cola Chile Obtuvieron
Premios Sofofa 1999.” Comunicado de Prensa. 11 Noviembre 1999.
The Coca-Cola Company. June 2008.
This is the Coca-Cola Company website intended for a U.S. audience. It contains financial statements, company reports, press releases, advertisements, statements from the CEO, and company descriptions of CSR campaigns. The annual stockholder’s meeting is also available from their website for about a month after the meeting. The material on the U.S. based website will be compared with the websites intended for Chilean and Colombian audiences to analyze differences in material on CSR campaigns.
Coca-Cola de Chile. August 2008.
The Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Management System. 28 March 2008. This
document outlines Coca-Cola’s management strategy and includes sections on “Incident Management and Crisis Resolution (IMCR)” and “Consumer Response and Customer Satisfaction.” It also describes Coca-Cola as “a responsible citizen of the world.” Herrera, in the article below, describes the Coca-Cola system as “the relationship of the Coca-Cola Company, bottlers, plants and distribution territories” (71). It will be treated as a primary source to gain insight into Coca-Cola’s operational strategy from a corporate perspective.
The Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Quality System. June 2008.
< http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/quality_brochures.html> Another version of the Coca-Cola Management System is available online via the Coca-Cola website. This document will be compared with the above document “The Coca-Cola Management System” to see if there are significant differences. The Coca-Cola website also includes corporate statements on quality, the environment, safety, and supplier expectations. One section entitled “Keeping Our Promise: Environment” outlines how Coca-Cola manages their environmental impact. Further research will need to be done to see how Coca-Cola is implementing their outlined proposal, especially in areas where there are environmental concerns (e.g. El Salvador, India).
The Coca-Cola Company. United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form
10-K. 28 February 2008. < http://ir.thecoca-colacompany.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=94566&p=IROL-sec&control_selectgroup=Annual%20Filings> Coca-Cola’s 10-K form outlines their basic operations within the U.S. and internationally. The statement includes legal descriptions of bottler’s and distribution agreements, ownership interests (e.g. Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. and Coca-Cola FEMSA), corporate risk factors, and legal proceedings.
Coca-Cola Embonor S.A. August 2008.
Coca-Cola Television Advertisements. “Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television
Advertisements: Highlights from the Motion Picture Archives at the Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress. 29 November 2000.
Foster, Robert. Coca-Globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New
Guinea. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., 2008. Foster explores the social life of Coca-Cola in a number of settings, focusing primarily on Papua New Guinea. Beverages are used as an entry point to discuss the various types of social and cultural exchanges occurring within an increasingly interconnected world. The book is divided into two parts; ‘Soft Drinks and the Economy of Qualities’ and ‘Globalization, Citizenship and the Politics of Consumption.’ Of particular importance is Foster’s attention to how individuals ascribe different social and cultural meanings to commodities like Coca-Cola. Foster is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Rochester.
Gill, Lesley. “Labor and Human Rights: ‘The Real Thing’ in Colombia.” Report to the
Human Rights Committee of the American Anthropological Association, November 2004.
Herrera, Jorge. “Coca-Cola Chile Foundation.” Harvard Business Publishing, Social
Enterprise Knowledge Network (December 2005): 1-18. Herrera gives a historical account of how the Coca-Cola Chile Foundation (CCCF) was established in 1992 and some general background on Coca-Cola’s operation in Chile. He provides a list of CCCF board members, a map of geographical territories, and financial donations. The article gives an overview of the mission and scope of the CCCF, the main example of Coca-Cola’s CSR campaign in Chile. Herrera is a professor at La Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and worked for Coca-Cola as Gerente de Planificación y Desarrollo de Coca-Cola Embonor S.A.(Director of Planning and Development).
Hutt, Peter Barton. “The Image and Politics of Coca-Cola: From Early Years to Present.”
Leda at Harvard Law School.16 April 2001.
Kay, Julie. “11th Circuit Asked to Clarify Corporate Liability.” Daily Business Review.
30 October 2006.
“Laboratorio Coca-Cola TAVEC Fundación Coca-Cola Chile.” Amcham Chile. 17
Augusto 2008.
Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes It. New York, NY: Basic
Books, 2000. Pendergrast provides an overview of Coca-Cola’s operations that is more thorough than Allen’s Secret Formula. Pendergrast, primarily an investigative journalist, goes beyond the manifest meaning of the Coca-Cola aesthetic to ask more complex questions about Coke’s business practices from a journalistic and historical perspective. Pendergrast includes accounts of how Coca-Cola has been able to navigate tumultuous political waters and describes some of Coca-Cola’s first markets in Latin America. His book provides a solid and thorough history of the Coca-Cola Company.
Protection and Money: U.S. Companies, Their Employees, and Violence in Colombia.
Hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions and the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, 110th Cong., 1st Sess. (June 28, 2007). The U.S. Congress organized a hearing on the presence of U.S. multinationals in Colombia after Chiquita admitted to paying paramilitaries about $1.7 million over the course of seven years (between 1997-2004). The hearing includes testimony from members of the Colombian military, including Edwin Guzman. Guzman protected Drummond property and testified that “the AUC and the Colombian military shared the opinion that unions in general, and the union at Drummond in particular, represented a subversive organization and consequently a legitimate military target.” The hearing includes first hand accounts of the situation in Colombia, highlighting how U.S. multinationals, the Colombian military and paramilitary forces (AUC) work hand in hand to suppress union power.
Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de Alimentos (SINALTRAINAL).
Agosto 2008.
United States. House of Representatives. Committee on International Relations. The
Global Water Crisis: Evaluating U.S. Strategies to Enhance Access to Safe Water and Sanitation. 29 June 2005. 109th Cong., 1st sess.
2. Items related to the background areas around the project
Bauer, Carl J. Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile.
Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998. Bauer focuses his study on how radical free-market economics and privatization has impacted water management. His analytical framework incorporates political, economic, legal, and environmental perspectives which he argues, “come together in property rights” (7). Bauer’s findings are centered around extensive interviews conducted over the course of two and a half years. Coca-Cola relies heavily on water for the production of its beverages. Building off of Bauer’s study, I would like to explore how water privatization has helped create a corporate friendly environment for the Coca-Cola Company.
Chomsky, Aviva. Linked Labor Histories: New England, Colombia, and the Makings of a
Global Working Class. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008. Chomsky provides an alternative interpretation of the current political and economic trends under globalization. By examining the connections between labor histories in New England and Colombia she argues that the power of the nation-state is not diminishing in the new era of globalization, but instead nations are being pulled between two forces; the demands of capital and pressure from popular movements. The book is divided into two sections on New England and Colombia. Connections between the two locations are drawn around themes of migration, labor-management collaboration, and the flexibility of capital. Chomsky highlights the role of U.S. multinational corporations in shaping Colombia’s labor history. She also briefly discusses the Stop Killer Coke campaign, as one example of contentious labor movements against U.S. corporations.
Gwynne, Robert N. and Cristóbal Kay, ed. Latin America Transformed: Globalization
and Modernity. New York; Oxford University Press, 2001. Gwynne and Kay present the current theoretical debates surrounding globalization from a political economy perspective. Theories on globalization are elaborated throughout the book by various authors. Divided into seven parts, each essay discusses a different aspect of the transformations occurring within Latin American society including changes in resource management, migration patterns, labor, and gender relations. Each author traces the trajectory of significant shifts in political, economic and social relations in Latin America.
May, Christopher. Global Corporate Power. Boulder, CO: Lynne Riener Publishers,
2006. This book is a collection of essays on multinational corporations within the contemporary context, where MNCs wield increasing economic, political and social might. The third section of the book is focused on the theme of corporate social responsibility and addresses the evolution of corporate citizenship, as well as the growth and significance of corporate social responsibility campaigns. Pegg challenges the effectiveness of CSR campaigns stating, “As long as the overall ordering principle remains self-interested profit maximization within a capitalist economic system, we should not expect firm-level variations in CSR strategies to produce significant overall differences in outcomes” (268). Pegg succinctly argues that the nature of capitalism places limitations on the scope of CSR campaigns.
Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “How Politics Trumped Truth in the Neo-Liberal
Revision of Chile’s Development.” Discussion paper, September 2006.
Roberts, John. “Corporate Governance and the Ethics of Narcissus.” Business Ethics
Quarterly. 11.1 (January 2001): 109-127. Roberts deconstructs current notions of business ethics drawing the distinction between being ‘seen to be ethical’ and ‘being responsible for.’ He argues that the act of being seen as ethical and the obsession with projecting an ethical self image is markedly different than the sense of responsibility that comes with the recognition of others. Self-obsessed and narcissistic behavior is encouraged within typical business environments, including the “progressive instrumentalization of relationships” where others are viewed as vehicles to either leverage or limit the ultimate realization of the self. His insights into the nature of ethical trends within business circles will be incorporated into discussions of the limitations of CSR campaigns and the nature of corporate culture.
Silva, Eduardo. The State and Capital in Chile: Business Elites, Technocrats, and Market
Economics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Silva argues that economic elites in Chile played a larger role in constructing Chile’s economic policies and influencing the shift from import substitution industrialization to free market economics than previously thought. He states, “this study shows how state structure and international factors influenced intracapitalist and landowner conflict and, hence, coalition formation over different policy periods” (3). An overview of what historical forces and class alliances have laid the economic groundwork for the contemporary moment will aid understanding of Coca-Cola’s current success in Chile. I also anticipate that similar class alliances have catapulted the Coca-Cola Company into a highly respected position amongst Chilean consumers.
Winn, Peter, ed. Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the
Pinochet Era, 1973-2002. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. In this edited collection of essays, the authors trace the impacts of the dictatorship and neoliberal economic policies on women, labor, and the environment from 1973-2002. Stillerman examines the plight of organized labor by focusing on the workers at Madeco, a copper manufacturer. Under Pinochet, the owners and managers attempted to dismantle the union through harsh repression, various management schemes, and more subtle disciplinary tactics. Although unionism was shaken during those years, the neoliberal reforms gave way to new forms of class conscious identity focused partially on anti-consumerism. Stillerman explains, “union members have developed a complicated set of ideas and behaviors in response to work intensification and new forms of debt-financed consumption” (181). Stillerman explains how unions are reacting to the increase presence of international consumer goods (primarily from the U.S.), debt financing, and ‘cultural imperialism.’
3. Items about theory and method necessary for research on the project
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso, 1991. Anderson counters claims that the nation state is dead by arguing that “nation-ness is the most universally legitimate value in the political life of our time” (3). He also offers a complex conceptualization of the nation as an imagined community and asserts that “communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (6). Appadurai (1996) relates the definition of imagined communities to the power of consumer culture and discussions of consumption. He states “thus in creating experiences of losses that never took place, these advertisements create what might be called ‘imagined nostalgia,’ nostalgia for things that never were” (77). Advertising campaigns have tapped into the powerful instruments of nationalism and consumer imagination, as a way to cultivate product loyalty.
Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization.
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Appadurai dives into modernization as a cultural experience, starting with the wholly personal aspects of modernization and then progressing towards the theoretical, tying the intimate and the abstract eloquently together throughout the book. He uses the themes of media and migration to explore their “joint effect on the work of the imagination as a constitutive feature of modern subjectivity” (3). His discussion of consumption in Chapter 4 is particularly relevant for a discussion on Coca-Cola’s social and cultural impact. He argues that “the aesthetic of ephemerality becomes the civilizing counterpart to flexible accumulation” expanding previous interpretations by Weber and Campbell of pleasure and satisfaction as the “organizing principle of modern consumption” (85). Appardurai explains how ephemerality is able to capture the imagination of consumers.
Crehan, Kate. Gramsci, Culture and Anthropology. Berkley, CA: University of California
Press, 2002. Crehan walks the reader through Gramsci’s work, grounding it in an anthropological perspective and clarifying some of the more complex Gramscian concepts. In Chapter 6 Crehan focuses on the production of culture, she states “the production and reproduction of culture is at the heart of what intellectuals do… it is they who produce the broad cultural conceptions of the world that underpin particular power regimes” (156). I hope to explore the role of the multinational corporation in the creation of culture. Gramscian theory provides an ample foundation from which to approach the increasingly complex dialectical relationship between civil society and corporate marketing campaigns.
Cultural Anthropology. “The Coke Complex.” Journal of the Society for Cultural
Anthropology, 22.4 (November 2007). In response to Leslie Gill’s report on human rights violations in Colombia and the AAA’s call for the boycott of Coca-Cola products, the editors of Cultural Anthropology decided to issue a call for papers on the “Coke Complex.” They describe the “Coke Complex” as “the multiplicity of beliefs, practices, organizational forms, and politicoeconomic dynamics that enable and index The Coca-Cola Company” (616). One article of particular interest is entitled “The Work of the New Economy: Consumers, Brands, and Value Creation” in which Foster focuses on the "merger between science studies and economic sociology" to understand the process of brand creation. He argues that corporate externalities include the emergence of 'publics' that have expanded in spatial scale and include a growing diversity of economic actors. He hones in on the sites of current and potential contestation which, in the current economic moment, include social relations built around commodities. Since the very nature of brands places a lot of potential value in public space there is a high potential for effective and powerful contestation.
Ehrenberg, John. Civil Society: The Critical History of an Idea. New York, NY: New
York University Press, 1999. Ehrenberg traces the theoretical history of civil society through three main traditions. He describes the first tradition as the conceptualization of civil society as “a politically organized commonwealth” (xi). The concept shifts to encompass “private property, individual interest, political democracy, the rule of law, and an economic order devoted to prosperity” (xiii). The third shift envisioned civil society as a regulatory force or as “a community whose solidarity reconciled the subjectivity of individual interests with the objectivity of the common good” (xiv). By outlining the evolution of theories on civil society, Ehrenberg is able to articulate their limitations and ultimately call for a reconceptualization of the term in light of current social realities. He emphasizes the need to consider micro and macro forces in any discussion of civil society stating “powerful states and invasive markets constitute and penetrate a civil society whose ability to mediate depends as much on the environment in which it sits as on its own intrinsic strength” (232).
Evans, Jessica and Stuart Hall. Visual Culture: The Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications Inc., 2005. Visual Culture is a collection of essays on culture and visuality divided into three parts. Evans and Hall turn the reader’s attention to five components of the image; “visuality, apparatus, institutions, bodies and figurality” (4). By understanding the complex relationship between these components, one can begin to understand the impact of an image. Parts I and III are particularly relevant for this MA project because they focus on ‘cultures of the visual’ and ‘looking and subjectivity.’ These essays provide a basis from which to engage the latent content in advertisements.
Gereffi, Gary and Miguel Korzeniewicz. Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Gereffi and Korzeniewicz discuss the concept of global commodity chains (GCC) which they define as “sets of interorganizational networks clustered around one commodity or product, linking households, enterprises, and states to one another within the world economy” (2). They suggest that the concept of GCC will help to theoretically connect ‘macro-historical concerns’ with ‘micro-organizational and state-centered’ issues. The GCC model makes it easier to visualize the various components of a multinational corporate structure dispersed around the world. Gereffi and Korzeniewicz also explicate some of the forces driving corporate structuring and restructuring.
Hale, Charles R. Más Que Un Indio: Racial Ambivalence and Neoliberal
Multiculturalism in Guatemala. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research Press, 2006. Hale argues that multiculturalism is not antithetical to the development or growth of neoliberal ideals. His study focuses on communities in Chimaltenango, Guatemala and more specifically, the Maya rights movement. According to Hale, “proponents of neoliberal governance reshape the terrain of political struggle to their advantage, not by denying indigenous rights, but by the selective recognition of them” (35). Hale’s notion of ‘neoliberal multiculturalism’ is useful for understanding the cultural transformations taking place under neoliberalism.
Jhally, Sut. The Spectacle of Accumulation: Essays in Media, Culture & Politics. New
York, NY: Peter Lang Publishers, 2006. This book contains a collection of essays and interviews on the general themes of media, culture, and advertising. Jhally’s main argument is that current forms of media, which are mostly owned and operated by private interests, promote a culture that is antithetical to democracy. Jhally approaches image analysis from a critical perspective uncovering themes that reflect the interest of a wealthy minority, instead of reflecting the sentiments of a broader majority. His insights on advertising and image of analysis will inform my examination of Coca-Cola ads.
Klein, Naomi. No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. New York: Picador, 2000.
Klein outlines a major shift in contemporary marketing from a product focused approach to an image focused appraoch (branding). In this context, the brand is the main symbol of capitalism in the global era. Klein also details the brand’s encroachment into public and private spaces, exploring the social and cultural affects, as well as reactions to increased corporate presense in daily life. By exploring the specific techniques of certain brands (e.g. Nike, Pepsi, Disney), Klein draws attention to the co-optation of various cultural niches as a way to expand markets. She discusses the incorporation of feminist, punk, alternative and multicultural aesthetics as a way to appeal to a wider audience. Chapter 4 focuses on the branding of education and uses Coca-Cola as one of the case studies. This book provides a comprehensive history of branding and brings to light some of the social and cultural impacts of branding campaigns.
Paley, Julia. Marketing Democracy: Power and Social Movements in Post-Dictatorship Chile. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Paley explores notions of democracy by focusing on the health group Llareta within the context of post-dictatorship Chile. Paley examines “how power is exercised in political democracy, particularly through the use of public opinion polls, pressure for grassroots organizations to “participate” by providing social services, and technocratic decision making that excludes the poor” (3). These more subtle forms of state power work to control and contain dissent through processes of coercion and co-optation. Paley likens these methods to a “kind of governmentality” (3). The Coca-Cola Chile Foundation was established to award scholarships and grants to students and high schools within Chile. Yet, Paley’s book raises questions about how state (or non-state) institutions set up with the intention of addressing social problems can become instruments of social discipline.
Smith, Gavin. “Hegemony.” in A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics ed. by David Nugent and Joan Vincent. Blackwell Publishing, 2006: pp216-230. Smith situates the term hegemony within the context of a neoliberal world. Building off Gramsci, Smith calls for the study of how the state, civil society, and the economy constitute fields of power. He states, “a more fruitful exercise would be to try to understand how market discourses, various expressions of the “culture of capitalism”…and the structural features of contemporary capitalism are all interwoven within and between particular sites temporally understood in terms of historical conjectures” (225). With Smith’s suggestions in mind, this MA project aims to incorporate how the circulation and consumption of Coca-Cola relates to culture and cultural processes within the structural framework of the neoliberal economic moment.
Notes On Coca-Globalization, by Robert Foster
Foster, Robert. Coca-Globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New Guinea. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., 2008.
Annotation:
Foster explores the social life of Coca-Cola in a number of settings, focusing primarily onPapua New Guinea University of Rochester
Introduction:
Quotes & Reflections
"Objectively, complex connectivity refers to the empirical linkages being established among diverse and physically separated people through movements of capital, media, and, of course, people themselves... Subjectively, complex connectivity refers to the ways in which these linkages are imagined by the people involved, the way in which an individual person's phenomenal world is extended - or foreshortened" (xiii).
"On the other hand, consumers use the commercial value of their brand loyalty to lobby corporations for a variety of goods and services, the delivery of which was once presumed to be the obligation and function of elected governments in promoting social welfare. The result is a distinctively non-democratic though not always negative form of contested governance in which consumers use their market role to act as citizens while corporations use their resources to act like states." (xix)
"I propose to use Coca-Cola soft drinks as symbols of an uncertain process of global connection in which people everywhere, including Papua New Guinea, give meaning to ordinary consumer commodities - though rarely under circumstances of their own devising" (xix).
"Commodities are thus mutable, and this mutability has been most clearly recognized by anthropologists who regard consumers as agents capable of appropriating commodities for ends not imagined by producers. But this mutability is not infinite, a limitation on consumption most clearly recognized by political economists who highlight the structural inequalities of complex connectivity, including basic inequality of access to consumer commodities" (xix).
"For instance, it is by aligning the perspectives of consumers with those of their own that agents on the supply side of worldly things capture the value of consumers' appropriation and use of a product - a complicated way, perhaps, to unpack the notion of "brand loyalty" (xx).
"After the war [WWII], the company explicitly attempted to fashion itself as a local business wherever it operated, such that all consumers everywhere would recognize Coca-Cola as an artifact of their home, however worldly a thing it might be. This attempt involved not only adjusting advertisements to various local sensibilities, but also using the franchaise system of independent bottlers to reembed the product in local social relations (as well as local supply chains). But the attempt gave way in the 1980s to a new globalizing impulse, one that involved the consolidation of bottlers and the emergence of global advertising" (xx).
Personal Reflections
2.) Important to make the distinction between corporate governance and democratic governance. Public relations and consumer driven campaigns might give the illusion of a democratic structure or that corporations are set up to allow feedback and dialogue, but they are ultimately beholden to their shareholders. This distinction becomes particularly important when corporations start taking on responsibilities that were traditionally carried out by governments. For instance, if a corporation is responsible for a shore cleanup project, there could potentially be less avenues for public input and oversight in the project since the work is not being implemented by public officials (who might be required by law to make the details of the project accessible and transparent).
"The concept... shows that it consists of a sequence of actions, a series of operations that transform it, move it and cause it to change hands, to cross a series of metamorphoses that end up putting it into a form judged useful by an economic agent who pays for it" (7).
** Daniel Miller "key innovation has been to regard consumption as a form of labor or work: practical activity in which people meet an object world that confronts them as external and foreign and through which they fashion objectifications of themselves as social beings recognizable to themselves and to others. Miller thus resolves the existential dilemma of Marx's alienated worker, but in the realm of consumption rather than production" (11).
"It is through consumption work that people - often denied the opportunity to do so in their employment - project and contemplate themselves in an object world of , at least in part, their own making" (11).
"[Coca-Cola is] a master symbol of the consumerist ethic, a pause for self-indulgence" (14).
"Thomas's strategy reminds us that cross-cultural consumption is a multi-directional process or, to anticipate, that meanings and qualifications are being generated by all the agents assembled in a network of production, distribution, and exchange, a commodity or product network" (17).
"there is no guarantee that the intention of the producer will be recognized, much less respected, by the consumer from another culture" (17, quoting David Howes).
"The more completely commodities of exogenous origin are assimilated to a new social setting - perhaps they do not even strike anyone as foreign or out-of-place - the more such settings conceal social relations acting at a distance, much as Marx argued that all commodities conceal the social relations of their production" (18).
"these creative acts of reembedding unfold within a definite set of power relations that link local cola consumption to diverse national and transnational networks" (20, referencing Moffett).
"Consumption is under these circumstances a potential site of conflict since consumers must work with or against the localization or domestication strategies of corporations and their advertising agents" (24).
"Market research, including commercial ethnography, now plays a significant role in this process of capture or reappropriation - a process which can be seen as an organized attempt to short circuit the possibility of using commodities in ways for which they were neither designed nor advertised, to regulate the possibilities of qualification. Consumption work, the realization of specific use values in specific contexts, thereby becomes a potential source of value for brand owners" (29).
Personal Reflections:
1.) The world of objects obscures the processes of internalization, in which outside, external objects are immediately digested by individuals, between individuals and through fluid dialectical relationships between people and objects.
Chapter 2: Globalization, Citizenship, and the Politics of Consumption
"With the appointment of Douglas Daft as CEO in 2000, the company announced a renewed concern with the local, a withdrawal from an aggressively singular global strategy of marketing and a heightened sensitivity to multiple local differences in taste and preferences. This new or revived concern for the local also implied a significant reorganization of corporate structure, a decentralization of decision-making intended to make operations more responsive to fast changing local situations" (35).
"This joint venture between state and market actors reproduced an alliance that helped to expand consumption and to subsidize production of sugar in the eighteenth century" (38).
2.) Alliances with the state have proved profitable for Coca-Cola in the past. Foster mentions how Coca-Cola was able to arrange a contract with the U.S. government to supply Coke products to U.S. soldiers abroad, which increased production and consumption significantly (and was how Coca-Cola was initially introduced to New Guinea).
3.) Although Coca-Cola attempts to be viewed as a part of local culture, and not as an imperial force, some of Coke's initial bottling plants in Latin and South America were established in concert with other U.S. multinationals (eg United Fruit Company in Guatemala) or as a result of U.S. military operations (eg New Guinea).
Annotation:
Foster explores the social life of Coca-Cola in a number of settings, focusing primarily on
Introduction:
Quotes & Reflections
"This second wave [of globalization] formed in the mid-1990s; it followed a wave of consolidation, centralization, and standardization in which The Coca-Cola Company, under the leadership of Roberto Goizueta from 1981-1997, aggressively promoted its flagship product as a universal beverage" (ix).
"According to Daft, 'The very forces making the world more connected and more homogenous are simultaneously triggering a desire to withdraw, pull the shades and safeguard whatever is uniquely local.' The necessary response to this backlash, Daft pronounced, is to think locally and to act locally - to develop new regional brands customized to local tastes and to push marketing decisions and managerial accountability down to the local level" (ix).
"According to Daft, 'The very forces making the world more connected and more homogenous are simultaneously triggering a desire to withdraw, pull the shades and safeguard whatever is uniquely local.' The necessary response to this backlash, Daft pronounced, is to think locally and to act locally - to develop new regional brands customized to local tastes and to push marketing decisions and managerial accountability down to the local level" (ix).
"Objectively, complex connectivity refers to the empirical linkages being established among diverse and physically separated people through movements of capital, media, and, of course, people themselves... Subjectively, complex connectivity refers to the ways in which these linkages are imagined by the people involved, the way in which an individual person's phenomenal world is extended - or foreshortened" (xiii).
"On the other hand, consumers use the commercial value of their brand loyalty to lobby corporations for a variety of goods and services, the delivery of which was once presumed to be the obligation and function of elected governments in promoting social welfare. The result is a distinctively non-democratic though not always negative form of contested governance in which consumers use their market role to act as citizens while corporations use their resources to act like states." (xix)
"I propose to use Coca-Cola soft drinks as symbols of an uncertain process of global connection in which people everywhere, including Papua New Guinea, give meaning to ordinary consumer commodities - though rarely under circumstances of their own devising" (xix).
"Commodities are thus mutable, and this mutability has been most clearly recognized by anthropologists who regard consumers as agents capable of appropriating commodities for ends not imagined by producers. But this mutability is not infinite, a limitation on consumption most clearly recognized by political economists who highlight the structural inequalities of complex connectivity, including basic inequality of access to consumer commodities" (xix).
"For instance, it is by aligning the perspectives of consumers with those of their own that agents on the supply side of worldly things capture the value of consumers' appropriation and use of a product - a complicated way, perhaps, to unpack the notion of "brand loyalty" (xx).
"After the war [WWII], the company explicitly attempted to fashion itself as a local business wherever it operated, such that all consumers everywhere would recognize Coca-Cola as an artifact of their home, however worldly a thing it might be. This attempt involved not only adjusting advertisements to various local sensibilities, but also using the franchaise system of independent bottlers to reembed the product in local social relations (as well as local supply chains). But the attempt gave way in the 1980s to a new globalizing impulse, one that involved the consolidation of bottlers and the emergence of global advertising" (xx).
Personal Reflections
1.) CSR campaigns are situated within the context of the second wave of globalization; the trend is to incorporate and internalize diversity in order to universalize a particular product. The Coca-Cola Company has attempted to digest some external criticisms, the byproducts are highly corporatized social responsibility campaigns.
2.) Important to make the distinction between corporate governance and democratic governance. Public relations and consumer driven campaigns might give the illusion of a democratic structure or that corporations are set up to allow feedback and dialogue, but they are ultimately beholden to their shareholders. This distinction becomes particularly important when corporations start taking on responsibilities that were traditionally carried out by governments. For instance, if a corporation is responsible for a shore cleanup project, there could potentially be less avenues for public input and oversight in the project since the work is not being implemented by public officials (who might be required by law to make the details of the project accessible and transparent).
3.) The rise of corporate power has signaled a shift in global governance, one that has transferred a lot of power and legitimacy into the private market. Yet, democracy cannot be translated into market terms. Characteristics of corporate governance include a kind of corporate citizenship and brand loyalty that is part of an interconnected imagined community of consumers. CSR campaigns attempt to embody the public service aspect of corporate governance- so that corporations can be viewed as state-like, but the big difference is that they do not have the democratic framework or channels that constitute a real democracy.
Chapter 1: The Social Life of Worldly Things
Quotes & Reflections
Chapter 1: The Social Life of Worldly Things
Quotes & Reflections
"The concept... shows that it consists of a sequence of actions, a series of operations that transform it, move it and cause it to change hands, to cross a series of metamorphoses that end up putting it into a form judged useful by an economic agent who pays for it" (7).
** Daniel Miller "key innovation has been to regard consumption as a form of labor or work: practical activity in which people meet an object world that confronts them as external and foreign and through which they fashion objectifications of themselves as social beings recognizable to themselves and to others. Miller thus resolves the existential dilemma of Marx's alienated worker, but in the realm of consumption rather than production" (11).
"It is through consumption work that people - often denied the opportunity to do so in their employment - project and contemplate themselves in an object world of , at least in part, their own making" (11).
"[Coca-Cola is] a master symbol of the consumerist ethic, a pause for self-indulgence" (14).
"Thomas's strategy reminds us that cross-cultural consumption is a multi-directional process or, to anticipate, that meanings and qualifications are being generated by all the agents assembled in a network of production, distribution, and exchange, a commodity or product network" (17).
"there is no guarantee that the intention of the producer will be recognized, much less respected, by the consumer from another culture" (17, quoting David Howes).
"The more completely commodities of exogenous origin are assimilated to a new social setting - perhaps they do not even strike anyone as foreign or out-of-place - the more such settings conceal social relations acting at a distance, much as Marx argued that all commodities conceal the social relations of their production" (18).
"these creative acts of reembedding unfold within a definite set of power relations that link local cola consumption to diverse national and transnational networks" (20, referencing Moffett).
"Consumption is under these circumstances a potential site of conflict since consumers must work with or against the localization or domestication strategies of corporations and their advertising agents" (24).
"Market research, including commercial ethnography, now plays a significant role in this process of capture or reappropriation - a process which can be seen as an organized attempt to short circuit the possibility of using commodities in ways for which they were neither designed nor advertised, to regulate the possibilities of qualification. Consumption work, the realization of specific use values in specific contexts, thereby becomes a potential source of value for brand owners" (29).
Personal Reflections:
1.) The world of objects obscures the processes of internalization, in which outside, external objects are immediately digested by individuals, between individuals and through fluid dialectical relationships between people and objects.
Chapter 2: Globalization, Citizenship, and the Politics of Consumption
Quotes & Reflections
"With the appointment of Douglas Daft as CEO in 2000, the company announced a renewed concern with the local, a withdrawal from an aggressively singular global strategy of marketing and a heightened sensitivity to multiple local differences in taste and preferences. This new or revived concern for the local also implied a significant reorganization of corporate structure, a decentralization of decision-making intended to make operations more responsive to fast changing local situations" (35).
"This joint venture between state and market actors reproduced an alliance that helped to expand consumption and to subsidize production of sugar in the eighteenth century" (38).
"The global high-sign campaign campaign thus signaled a transitional moment in the history of The Coca-Cola Company, a transition from being a national company to a multinational or global company - a transition not only in business operations, but also in self-perseption. It also signaled how globality was to be conceived, namely, as multilocality: a diversity of local places and customs organized within a common framework of agreed upon values" (43).
"The encounter with global modernity is here envisaged in elite cultural nationalist terms, even if articulated by a transnational corporation; the result is not Western monoculture but a distinctive national culture made out of the best features of diverse local traditions and global commodities" (46). (What does Foster mean by "best features"?)
Personal Reflections:
1.) Resistance to Coca-Cola, as a product and as a brand, has taken on a variety of forms, occurring primarily on the local level (although some local struggles have been internationalized). As Foster mentions, the Coca-Cola Company, under Daft's leadership, re-oriented their marketing strategy towards a more local approach. Part of this marketing project has included attempts to contain localized interpretations and reimaginations of the product and the brand. A localized marketing strategy helps the company to anticipate consumer demands and to control the dialogue and social organizations around the product. One way to address and process localizations is through Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns.
Personal Reflections:
1.) Resistance to Coca-Cola, as a product and as a brand, has taken on a variety of forms, occurring primarily on the local level (although some local struggles have been internationalized). As Foster mentions, the Coca-Cola Company, under Daft's leadership, re-oriented their marketing strategy towards a more local approach. Part of this marketing project has included attempts to contain localized interpretations and reimaginations of the product and the brand. A localized marketing strategy helps the company to anticipate consumer demands and to control the dialogue and social organizations around the product. One way to address and process localizations is through Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns.
2.) Alliances with the state have proved profitable for Coca-Cola in the past. Foster mentions how Coca-Cola was able to arrange a contract with the U.S. government to supply Coke products to U.S. soldiers abroad, which increased production and consumption significantly (and was how Coca-Cola was initially introduced to New Guinea).
3.) Although Coca-Cola attempts to be viewed as a part of local culture, and not as an imperial force, some of Coke's initial bottling plants in Latin and South America were established in concert with other U.S. multinationals (eg United Fruit Company in Guatemala) or as a result of U.S. military operations (eg New Guinea).
Press Release: CCC Joins Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights, 2007
Media Relations
Department
P.O. Drawer 1734,
Atlanta, GA 30301
Telephone (404) 676-2121
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Coca-Cola Company Joins Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights
ATLANTA, (August 23, 2007) -- The Coca-Cola Company announced today that it has joined the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), a group of companies examining how best to apply human rights principles in the business context.
The Company's support for BLIHR was expressed in a letter sent by E. Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company, to Mary Robinson, Honorary Chair of BLIHR.
"At The Coca-Cola Company, we believe that an unwavering commitment to human rights is fundamental to the way we conduct our business. In our Company's Human Rights Statement and Workplace Rights Policy we pledge to manage our business around the world in accordance with the highest standards of integrity with a specific emphasis on the rights of individuals in the workplace," said Neville Isdell, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. "We look forward to building our own understanding of how best to uphold human rights within our workplaces and to actively participating in and contributing to BLIHR's important work."
The Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR) was founded in 2003 by seven companies and is chaired by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Coca-Cola Company's announcement today brings the total number of members to 14. For more information on BLIHR, visit the organization's website at http://www.blihr.org/.
"The Coca-Cola Company joining BLIHR represents a real opportunity to demonstrate the universality of human rights across all nations," said Mary Robinson, Honorary Chair of BLIHR. "We are excited by this and look forward to the serious work ahead, in particular exploring the business and human rights context of emerging economies."
BLIHR is an international business-led initiative designed to help lead and develop the corporate response to human rights. Its primary aim is to find "practical ways of applying the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within a business context and to inspire other businesses to do likewise". The Initiative has reported annually on its progress towards its publicly stated mission and works closely with many other businesses, governments and civil society organizations.
***The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company. Along with Coca-Cola, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five soft drink brands, including Diet Coke®, Fanta® and Sprite®, and a wide range of other beverages, including diet and light soft drinks, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees and sports drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1.3 billion servings each day. For more information about The Coca-Cola Company, please visit our corporate website at http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/. The Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR) is a business-led program to help lead and develop the corporate response to human rights. For more information about BLIHR, visit the organization's website at http://www.blihr.org/.
Contacts: The Coca-Cola CompanyKerry Kerr, 1-404-676-3676 kekerr@na.ko.comBusiness Leaders Initiative on Human RightsOn This Release: John T. Morrison, +33 7889 684 948, john.morrison@blihr.orgGeneral BLIHR Inquiries: Sam Hoskins, +44 1621 859 086, sam.hoskins@blihr.org
# # #
Department
P.O. Drawer 1734,
Atlanta, GA 30301
Telephone (404) 676-2121
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Coca-Cola Company Joins Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights
ATLANTA, (August 23, 2007) -- The Coca-Cola Company announced today that it has joined the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), a group of companies examining how best to apply human rights principles in the business context.
The Company's support for BLIHR was expressed in a letter sent by E. Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company, to Mary Robinson, Honorary Chair of BLIHR.
"At The Coca-Cola Company, we believe that an unwavering commitment to human rights is fundamental to the way we conduct our business. In our Company's Human Rights Statement and Workplace Rights Policy we pledge to manage our business around the world in accordance with the highest standards of integrity with a specific emphasis on the rights of individuals in the workplace," said Neville Isdell, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. "We look forward to building our own understanding of how best to uphold human rights within our workplaces and to actively participating in and contributing to BLIHR's important work."
The Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR) was founded in 2003 by seven companies and is chaired by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Coca-Cola Company's announcement today brings the total number of members to 14. For more information on BLIHR, visit the organization's website at http://www.blihr.org/.
"The Coca-Cola Company joining BLIHR represents a real opportunity to demonstrate the universality of human rights across all nations," said Mary Robinson, Honorary Chair of BLIHR. "We are excited by this and look forward to the serious work ahead, in particular exploring the business and human rights context of emerging economies."
BLIHR is an international business-led initiative designed to help lead and develop the corporate response to human rights. Its primary aim is to find "practical ways of applying the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within a business context and to inspire other businesses to do likewise". The Initiative has reported annually on its progress towards its publicly stated mission and works closely with many other businesses, governments and civil society organizations.
***The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company. Along with Coca-Cola, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five soft drink brands, including Diet Coke®, Fanta® and Sprite®, and a wide range of other beverages, including diet and light soft drinks, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees and sports drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1.3 billion servings each day. For more information about The Coca-Cola Company, please visit our corporate website at http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/. The Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR) is a business-led program to help lead and develop the corporate response to human rights. For more information about BLIHR, visit the organization's website at http://www.blihr.org/.
Contacts: The Coca-Cola CompanyKerry Kerr, 1-404-676-3676 kekerr@na.ko.comBusiness Leaders Initiative on Human RightsOn This Release: John T. Morrison, +33 7889 684 948, john.morrison@blihr.orgGeneral BLIHR Inquiries: Sam Hoskins, +44 1621 859 086, sam.hoskins@blihr.org
# # #
Press Release: CCC Releases Annual Corporate Responsibility Review, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lisa Manley (404) 676-4571
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY RELEASES ANNUAL CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REVIEW
ATLANTA, Sep. 4, 2007 – The Coca-Cola Company announced the
release of the online version of its 2006 Corporate Responsibility Review. The report is available at www.crreview.coca-cola.com.
The report explores the relationship between sustainable business and sustainable communities, with detailed information about the Company's performance in the areas of workplace and human rights, product quality, wellbeing, water stewardship, energy and climate protection and sustainable packaging around the world.
"At The Coca-Cola Company, we are committed to making a positive mark on communities and minimizing our impact on the planet," said E. Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive officer, The Coca-Cola Company. "Together with our bottling partners, suppliers and others, we are working to improve lives, fuel local economies and protect the environment. That is the mark we want to make."
Guided by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators, the report contains the Company's first GRI index, cross-referenced with United Nations Global Compact principles. The report covers the Company's corporate responsibility performance from January 2006 to July 2007, taking an issues-based approach. Recognizing that reporting needs to include more-quantifiable metrics and targets, especially as they relate to social and economic performance; the Company has provided a detailed summary of performance metrics in the report. The Company continues
to work toward mapping and prioritizing material issues and implementing necessary systems and targets to gauge performance and gather data globally.
Stakeholder concerns and feedback influenced the development of the report.
Highlights from the 2006 report include:
• Summary of performance and progress on workplace, marketplace,
environment and community initiatives and commitments
• Review of challenges and opportunities for the Company's corporate
reporting
• Overview of the Company's Workplace Rights Policy, Human Rights
Statement and Supplier Guiding Principles, which reflect the Company's
values and commitment to international human and labor rights principles
• Overview of global quality management system
• Overview of environmental performance in the areas of water stewardship,
energy and climate protection and sustainable packaging
• Examples of sustainability initiatives and programs in six of the Company's
operating groups
The Coca-Cola Company welcomes feedback on the report, which may be sent to crreview@na.ko.com.
The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest non-alcoholic beverage company. Along with the Coca-Cola® trademark, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five nonalcoholic
sparkling beverage brands, including Coca-Cola®, Diet Coke®, Fanta® and Sprite® beverages, and a wide range of other non-alcoholic beverages, including diet and light beverages, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees, energy and sports drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1.4 billion servings each day. For more information about The Coca-Cola Company, please visit our website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com.
###
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY RELEASES ANNUAL CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REVIEW
ATLANTA, Sep. 4, 2007 – The Coca-Cola Company announced the
release of the online version of its 2006 Corporate Responsibility Review. The report is available at www.crreview.coca-cola.com.
The report explores the relationship between sustainable business and sustainable communities, with detailed information about the Company's performance in the areas of workplace and human rights, product quality, wellbeing, water stewardship, energy and climate protection and sustainable packaging around the world.
"At The Coca-Cola Company, we are committed to making a positive mark on communities and minimizing our impact on the planet," said E. Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive officer, The Coca-Cola Company. "Together with our bottling partners, suppliers and others, we are working to improve lives, fuel local economies and protect the environment. That is the mark we want to make."
Guided by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators, the report contains the Company's first GRI index, cross-referenced with United Nations Global Compact principles. The report covers the Company's corporate responsibility performance from January 2006 to July 2007, taking an issues-based approach. Recognizing that reporting needs to include more-quantifiable metrics and targets, especially as they relate to social and economic performance; the Company has provided a detailed summary of performance metrics in the report. The Company continues
to work toward mapping and prioritizing material issues and implementing necessary systems and targets to gauge performance and gather data globally.
Stakeholder concerns and feedback influenced the development of the report.
Highlights from the 2006 report include:
• Summary of performance and progress on workplace, marketplace,
environment and community initiatives and commitments
• Review of challenges and opportunities for the Company's corporate
reporting
• Overview of the Company's Workplace Rights Policy, Human Rights
Statement and Supplier Guiding Principles, which reflect the Company's
values and commitment to international human and labor rights principles
• Overview of global quality management system
• Overview of environmental performance in the areas of water stewardship,
energy and climate protection and sustainable packaging
• Examples of sustainability initiatives and programs in six of the Company's
operating groups
The Coca-Cola Company welcomes feedback on the report, which may be sent to crreview@na.ko.com.
The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest non-alcoholic beverage company. Along with the Coca-Cola® trademark, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five nonalcoholic
sparkling beverage brands, including Coca-Cola®, Diet Coke®, Fanta® and Sprite® beverages, and a wide range of other non-alcoholic beverages, including diet and light beverages, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees, energy and sports drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1.4 billion servings each day. For more information about The Coca-Cola Company, please visit our website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com.
###
Press Release: Coca-Cola Annual Environmental Report 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lisa Manley,(404) 676-4571
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY RELEASES ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
Reductions in Water Use Ratio, Investments in Closed Loop Recycling Plants,and Continued Progress on Sustainable Refrigeration Demonstrate Commitment to Environmental Performance
ATLANTA, July 26, 2007 --
The Coca-Cola Company today announced the release of its 2006 Environmental Performance report, documenting the Company's ongoing commitment to sustainability. Results were reported in three principal areas of environmental responsibility: water stewardship, sustainable packaging and energy and climate protection.
The report includes data gathered from 775 facilities around the world, representing 94 percent of the Coca-Cola system's sales volume in 2006. "We are pleased to show progress in our efforts to continuously improve our environmental performance," said Jeff Seabright, vice president, Environment and Water Resources, The Coca-Cola Company. "We know what has sustained our Company for our first 12 decades will not be sufficient for the future, and we recognize our success, and the future of the communities where we operate, are impacted by the actions we take today."
Highlights of the Company's environmental performance during 2006 as outlined
in the report include:
Global Water Stewardship
As sales volume increased 4 percent, the system achieved a 3 percent improvement in water use efficiency. Coca-Cola plants used an average of 2.52 liters of water to make one liter of beverage, as compared to 2.59 liters in 2005 and 2.72 in 2004. Since 2002, the Coca-Cola system has improved water use efficiency by more than 19 percent.
In 2006, 83 percent of Coca-Cola facilities met the Company's wastewater standard. While water is treated currently to comply with local regulations and standards, the Company has wastewater treatment standards that are more stringent than applicable laws in many parts of the world. The Company has committed to achieve 100 percent compliance by the end of 2010.
Working in partnership with a host of non-governmental organizations and government agencies, Coca-Cola has established nearly 70 community-based water initiatives in 40 countries, such as rainwater harvesting projects in India. The Company also continues to support the Global Water Challenge, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation which supports projects that provide safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education in the developing world.
Additionally, the Company co-developed a comprehensive water efficiency tool box with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2006 which will be used throughout its global system to benchmark data to set specific water-efficiency goals.
Sustainable Packaging
The Company's efforts in the area of sustainable packaging focus on using less and re-using more. At present, the majority of the Company's primary packaging is returnable, bulk or made from commonly recycled materials like aluminum, PET, and glass. In 2006, the Coca-Cola system advanced its sustainable design efforts (known as e3) which focus on improving efficiency, lifecycle effectiveness and eco-innovation of the Company's packaging. These efforts led to a reduction in weight and improvement of the impact resistance of the Company's most recognizable package – the glass contour bottle. This initiative saved 89,000 metric tons of glass last year alone, the carbon dioxide equivalent of planting more than 13,000 acres of trees.
In late 2006, The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. established Coca-Cola Recycling LLC to address the growing opportunities related to recycling in the United States. The Coca-Cola system also recently began building a global online inventory of primary, secondary and transport package systems by sales and weight. This database will allow the Company to measure performance more effectively and assess progress toward longer term goals.
The Coca-Cola system also continued to invest in closed loop recycling plants. In 2006, Coca-Cola Beverages Austria finalized a €15 million investment partnership to build the country's first bottle-to-bottle recycling plant. The plant, which will begin operations in 2007, will have capacity to provide 6,000 tons of recycled PET plastic material for use in new bottles.
Energy and Climate Protection
The Coca-Cola system's primary energy and climate impact is due to vending machines and coolers, manufacturing and fleet/transport. In 2006, the Coca-Cola system experienced a 10 percent increase in total energy use, due in part to its expanding global operations in less developed nations and the types of beverages produced. Despite this increase and the fact that year-to-year improvements have leveled off, the Company's energy and climate protection performance overall has improved significantly, with a 16 percent improvement in the system's energy use efficiency since 2002.
The Coca-Cola system has made continual progress in efforts to employ commercially viable HFC-free refrigeration technologies. In 2006, the Company announced it had achieved the conversion to HFC-free insulation for more than 1,300 models of refrigeration equipment, representing over 98 percent of the new equipment the system purchases. The Company also continued to invest in carbon dioxide refrigeration. By the end of 2006, 6,000 units with carbon dioxide refrigeration had been placed in markets throughout the world.
The Company also continued to address energy consumption of refrigeration equipment. By the end of 2006, approximately 200,000 units of a proprietary Energy Management System had been placed in the system. The combined annual energy reduction associated with this technology is estimated to be more than 250 million kilowatt-hours, with a corresponding greenhouse gas reduction of more than 100,000 metric tons.
About the Annual Environmental Report
The report was independently reviewed and verified by environmental auditors BECO Group, following the ISO 19011 general principles of environmental auditing and audit procedures for international standards. The company also applied principles of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the AA1000 assurance framework.
The report, as well as more information and case studies on Coca-Cola's environmental efforts, are available at www.environment.coca-cola.com.
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest non-alcoholic beverage company. Along with the Coca-Cola® trademark, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands, including Coca-Cola®, Diet Coke®, Fanta® and Sprite® beverages, and a wide range of other non-alcoholic beverages, including diet and light beverages, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees, energy and sports drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1.4 billion servings each day.
For more information about he Coca-Cola Company, please visit our website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com
###
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY RELEASES ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
Reductions in Water Use Ratio, Investments in Closed Loop Recycling Plants,and Continued Progress on Sustainable Refrigeration Demonstrate Commitment to Environmental Performance
ATLANTA, July 26, 2007 --
The Coca-Cola Company today announced the release of its 2006 Environmental Performance report, documenting the Company's ongoing commitment to sustainability. Results were reported in three principal areas of environmental responsibility: water stewardship, sustainable packaging and energy and climate protection.
The report includes data gathered from 775 facilities around the world, representing 94 percent of the Coca-Cola system's sales volume in 2006. "We are pleased to show progress in our efforts to continuously improve our environmental performance," said Jeff Seabright, vice president, Environment and Water Resources, The Coca-Cola Company. "We know what has sustained our Company for our first 12 decades will not be sufficient for the future, and we recognize our success, and the future of the communities where we operate, are impacted by the actions we take today."
Highlights of the Company's environmental performance during 2006 as outlined
in the report include:
Global Water Stewardship
As sales volume increased 4 percent, the system achieved a 3 percent improvement in water use efficiency. Coca-Cola plants used an average of 2.52 liters of water to make one liter of beverage, as compared to 2.59 liters in 2005 and 2.72 in 2004. Since 2002, the Coca-Cola system has improved water use efficiency by more than 19 percent.
In 2006, 83 percent of Coca-Cola facilities met the Company's wastewater standard. While water is treated currently to comply with local regulations and standards, the Company has wastewater treatment standards that are more stringent than applicable laws in many parts of the world. The Company has committed to achieve 100 percent compliance by the end of 2010.
Working in partnership with a host of non-governmental organizations and government agencies, Coca-Cola has established nearly 70 community-based water initiatives in 40 countries, such as rainwater harvesting projects in India. The Company also continues to support the Global Water Challenge, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation which supports projects that provide safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education in the developing world.
Additionally, the Company co-developed a comprehensive water efficiency tool box with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2006 which will be used throughout its global system to benchmark data to set specific water-efficiency goals.
Sustainable Packaging
The Company's efforts in the area of sustainable packaging focus on using less and re-using more. At present, the majority of the Company's primary packaging is returnable, bulk or made from commonly recycled materials like aluminum, PET, and glass. In 2006, the Coca-Cola system advanced its sustainable design efforts (known as e3) which focus on improving efficiency, lifecycle effectiveness and eco-innovation of the Company's packaging. These efforts led to a reduction in weight and improvement of the impact resistance of the Company's most recognizable package – the glass contour bottle. This initiative saved 89,000 metric tons of glass last year alone, the carbon dioxide equivalent of planting more than 13,000 acres of trees.
In late 2006, The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. established Coca-Cola Recycling LLC to address the growing opportunities related to recycling in the United States. The Coca-Cola system also recently began building a global online inventory of primary, secondary and transport package systems by sales and weight. This database will allow the Company to measure performance more effectively and assess progress toward longer term goals.
The Coca-Cola system also continued to invest in closed loop recycling plants. In 2006, Coca-Cola Beverages Austria finalized a €15 million investment partnership to build the country's first bottle-to-bottle recycling plant. The plant, which will begin operations in 2007, will have capacity to provide 6,000 tons of recycled PET plastic material for use in new bottles.
Energy and Climate Protection
The Coca-Cola system's primary energy and climate impact is due to vending machines and coolers, manufacturing and fleet/transport. In 2006, the Coca-Cola system experienced a 10 percent increase in total energy use, due in part to its expanding global operations in less developed nations and the types of beverages produced. Despite this increase and the fact that year-to-year improvements have leveled off, the Company's energy and climate protection performance overall has improved significantly, with a 16 percent improvement in the system's energy use efficiency since 2002.
The Coca-Cola system has made continual progress in efforts to employ commercially viable HFC-free refrigeration technologies. In 2006, the Company announced it had achieved the conversion to HFC-free insulation for more than 1,300 models of refrigeration equipment, representing over 98 percent of the new equipment the system purchases. The Company also continued to invest in carbon dioxide refrigeration. By the end of 2006, 6,000 units with carbon dioxide refrigeration had been placed in markets throughout the world.
The Company also continued to address energy consumption of refrigeration equipment. By the end of 2006, approximately 200,000 units of a proprietary Energy Management System had been placed in the system. The combined annual energy reduction associated with this technology is estimated to be more than 250 million kilowatt-hours, with a corresponding greenhouse gas reduction of more than 100,000 metric tons.
About the Annual Environmental Report
The report was independently reviewed and verified by environmental auditors BECO Group, following the ISO 19011 general principles of environmental auditing and audit procedures for international standards. The company also applied principles of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the AA1000 assurance framework.
The report, as well as more information and case studies on Coca-Cola's environmental efforts, are available at www.environment.coca-cola.com.
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest non-alcoholic beverage company. Along with the Coca-Cola® trademark, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands, including Coca-Cola®, Diet Coke®, Fanta® and Sprite® beverages, and a wide range of other non-alcoholic beverages, including diet and light beverages, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees, energy and sports drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1.4 billion servings each day.
For more information about he Coca-Cola Company, please visit our website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
"Our America" Coca-Cola Educational Material, 1940s
Issued by Coca Cola and Distributed by its Bottlers in the 1940's these albums "were provided to schools to educate students in key American Industries."
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
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