El Generalissimo

Coca-Coal reported that, "second-quarter profit rose 18 percent as sales in Latin America and Asia gained." Great news for the NYSE, but how the fuck is that possible?! Apparently by, "... opening new plants in emerging markets and pushing more profitable package sizes overseas." In other other words, "... by finding super cheap labor abroad and marketing the 3 liter bottle as the new regular size." In a nutshell this post is all about Cocacolonization.

An 18% rise in profits is pretty incredible, because Coca-Cola saturated the Honduran market decades ago, and still maintains a strong grip on overall soft-drink sales. Although that banana soda is making a move. Is it possible that people are drinking more Coke now then they were just 1 quarter ago?! It's not logical, but I guess it would be possible. It's unknown what the profit growth was in the Asian sector, but still this recent news provides a pretty good opportunity to explain Coca-Cola in Honduras, and how the two are desperately intertwined. If you ever want to create real foreign policy change here in Honduras, then slap an embargo on Coca-Cola and see what happens. I'm dead serious.

A town welcome sign on the north coast featuring Coca-Cola

In the United States I rarely drank Coke, but now there are days where I just seem to crave it. Is it that the subliminal messaging has finally gotten to me, or could it be an addiction to the real sugars used in place of the high fructose corn syrup?  Is it because the Honduran version of the Happy Birthday song has an added part at the end, which screams, "We want Coca-Cola also." Is it because Coke has it's logo plastered on every national soccer team jersey and player (the most visible people in Honduras)? Perhaps the most obvious reason is that Coke or soda is inescapably served at every meeting, lunch, dinner, mid-day break, friendly visit, birthday, roadside stand, pulperia, bus stop, public hearing, church service.....

Let's just say soda/pop is large facet of life down here. First, most every small business here in Honduras has a sign featuring a large advertisement for Coke. Also, traffic signs for towns are almost entirely utilized by Coca-Cola for advertising. To explain, one half of the sign will be the Coca-Cola logo and the other side the name of the business or town. So at least one positive here, if it weren't for Coke I'd be more lost in Honduras than I already am.

Slowly, but surely that messaging has to sneak into your head. It has to. I've seen kids almost too young to talk grasping 20 oz. bottles, and I'm not trying to be hyperbolic when I say that nearly every single person in this country drinks some sort of Coca-Cola product every day, everyone finds away.

This mountainside in Tegucigalpa is pretty indicative of Cocacolonization

There are stories of many a volunteer trying to seek community funding for local projects by comparing the amount of their donation in terms of Coca-Cola products to their meeting's attendees. "Go one night a week without Coke and we'll have our budget met." Never, have I heard that comparison strategy end successfully.

Then you have so many options and ways to get your Coca-Cola fix. So when Coke executives talk about, "more profitable package sizes," what they're really saying is, "Let's make sure Honduras gets Coke products in so many formats that people won't know what to do with themselves."

All of the American types of bottles are available, plus returnable glass bottles (or easily bagged in plastic) are available in 6, 8, 12, 1/2 liter versions. There is the jumbo 3-Liter plastic bottle, which is just an absurd amount of Coke. Then there are cans and small plastic bottles of varying sizes as well. The one area of packing that Honduras lacks is in 12 and 24 packs of cans. For the most part it's all plastic and glass.

Needless to say Coke is a way of life here, and I'm dead serious about using Coca-Cola as a diplomatic tool. Why that wasn't utilized during the political turmoil of 2009 is unbeknownst to me.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-19/coca-cola-earnings-increase-18-as-sales-gain-in-latin-america.html