S3 Coca-colonization and McDomination

Question 1

Matthew Fraser

Answer 1

“Coca-colonization” and “McDomination” : food can also be a tool used to “dominate” or “colonize” other countries on a cultural level

Question 2

Benjamin Barber

Answer 2

“McWorld” to refer not only to McDonald’s ubiquitous presence around the world but to other American giants.
Fraser : “a bleak Disneyland civilization where values are transmitted by MTV, Macintosh, Microsoft, and Big Macs.”

Question 3

Franchise system

Answer 3

A franchise is “a contractual relationship between a company that controls a brand (…) and companies that buy the right to use the brand’s name and products.” (Lane Crothers, Globalization and American Popular Culture)
It amounts to a form of conformity but one of the goals of such system is to develop brand fidelity.

Question 4

Fraser about brands

Answer 4

Customers are “walking (and driving) advertisements for their products”.

Question 5

Coca-Cola history

Answer 5

1886, in Atlanta, pharmacist John S. Pemberton invented the drink. Coca-Cola was first promoted as a drink that could help people with headaches (contained coca leaves extracts).
Pemberton sold his rights to Asa Griggs Candler, a Methodist businessman, for the ridiculous amount of 2,300 dollars.
In 1891, Candler turned it into a business – the Coca-Cola Company, and in 1903, he removed the coca leaves extracts from the recipe.
1991 nationwide franchising started, the drink conquered the world

Question 6

Coca-Cola’s conquest of the world

Answer 6

1916 Corporate leader Rochard Woodruff resp for standardization of the product and conquest of the world market
1928 Compagny sent 1000 boxes to the Olympic Games in Amsterdam to increase visibility, successful!
1030s 44 countries sold CC, 1960s doubled (Hollywood, WWII as General Dwight Eisenhower asked company to send bottles to the soldiers, Woodruff ship material to build 10 bottling factories)
American soldiers addiction (5 billion bottles during war) become contagious : Fraser “ti drink Coke was to be an American”
Stress Americaness of CC & overshadow competitor Pepsi-Cola 1898

Question 7

1950 Time Magazine cover “World and Friend”

Answer 7

Represent the brand helps the Earth drink a coke as if it was a baby drinking its milk bottle : no need for the reader to even be able to read the full name of the company.
Coca-Cola has become the symbol of the US around the world. Managed to have people associate the color red to Santa Claus, who was not a “jolly fat man with a white beard dressed in red from top to bottom” before Coca Cola marketers decided so.
“World and Friend”: illustration of early globalization, not always seen positively.

Question 8

France reaction

Answer 8

French Communist Party expressing anti-American feelings.
Felt threatened by the fact that economically speaking, they needed the US and the financial aid provided by the Marshall Plan to recover from the war.
In France: people have a love-hate relationship with the US, they admire it and yet, reject the core values of its society (capitalism, consumerism).

Question 9

“Anti-coke bill” (France)

Answer 9

Communist Party tried to have Coke legally prohibited on the grounds that its ingredients were unknown. In reality: worried that the American beverage was going to overshadow the wine and mineral water industries. The “anti-coke bill” actually passed, and the U.S. officials threatened France with economic reprisals. The French government eventually backed down.

Question 10

Italy VS Coca-Cola

Answer 10

The Communist Party told people that if they drank Coca-Cola, they would develop a disease called Coca-colitis. And yet, it was and is still widely consumed.

Question 11

2 only countries not drinking CC

Answer 11

Cuba : there is still an embargo
North Korea:a country that does not have normal trade relations with the others because of a policy of autarky.

Question 12

Coca-Cola and politics

Answer 12

Diplomatic incidents : 1970s conflict between Israel (Jewish) and the Arab world almost ruined Coco-Cola’s market.
Most American presidents of second half of 20th century enjoyed and promoted CC, except for Richard Nixon (1959 with Nikita Khrushchev, 1968 Nixon president)
Carter: “good-old democratic drink” (CC), entry in China for CC until 1990s Chinese accused CC of being culturally intrusive.
1999: U.S. accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during Yugoslavia’s civil war. The event infuriated the country: “Resist America Beginning with Cola, Attack McDonald’s, Storm KFC.”

Question 13

Birth of McDonald’s franchise

Answer 13

Ray Kroc (founder) sold malt and shake mixers to 2 brothers who owned a burger restaurant in California, Maurice and Richard McDonald. People queued up because it was cheap: market to be developed.April 15,1955 first restaurant of the McDonald’s franchise opened in Des Plaines, Illinois : burgers only cost 15 cents (4 extra cents for cheese). Later on, the brand became a national franchise (marketed carefully in order to increase its visibility).Successful: 1958 34 franchises, 1959 over 101.1969 MDs sold 1 billion hamburgers, opened 1000 stores, making $3 billion in 1976.
1978 5000 restaurants

Question 14

Adaptation of McDonald’s to customers

Answer 14

1965 Filet-O-Fish (Catholics on Fridays)
1968 Big Mc (satiate workers’ appetite)
1979 Happy Meal to satisfy children
1971 McDonald’s Playland and Ronald

Question 15

McDonald’s relationship with France

Answer 15

McDonald’s targeted for its association with unfair capitalist methods.
1999 French farmer and activist José Bové and 9 other people vandalized and demolished a McDonald’s in Millau. Goal: catch people’s attention and gain local support. Bové managed to rally many people to the cause. According to Bové: McDonald’s = symbol of globalization and liberalism, destruction of local traditions (large-scale French farms that Bové wanted to denounce)
21st century: “mad cow” disease in British beef scared people (adaptation: teriyaki burger and a Shrimp Filet-O, Veggie McChicken, Blue Cheese and Bacon burger: marketing strategy taking into acount local cultures while selling American culture)

Question 16

McDonalds’ around the world, victories and challenges

Answer 16

Soviet Union did not reject McDonald’s, 1990. Today: Russia is the 10th country with the highest number of restaurants
China: after early feelings of suspicion, the Chinese used the brand for social status: eating at McDonald’s = modern and trendy. For many, consuming or not consuming American is an identity statement.
Asia, generally speaking, the introduction of McDonald’s was not always easy. (India, South Korea, Japan)

Question 17

Cultural imperialism

Answer 17

Dread of cultural corruption, imperialism and homogenization, fear of losing identity.
Because the US has pursued an aggressive policy when it conquered the territory that it has today, and because of the imperialist reputation that Americans have, added to the way their economy functions, most people have equated cultural imperialism to capitalism.

Question 18

John Tomlinson

Answer 18

People think that cultural imperialism is scary because it is associated to “the idea of an invasion of an indigenous culture by a foreign one.”
Calls into question the value that we ascribe to our culture. To him, rather than “indigenous” culture, it is better to talk about traditionally “accepted practices” that are to be understood in the general historical development of a nation-state over time : what people fear is the loss of their national cultural identity via the disintegration of its accepted practices.

Question 19

Thomas Friedman

Answer 19

Argued that no two countries that have McDonald’s would ever declare a war against each other (presence of the fast-food chain or any other emblematic brand was a way for countries to announce if they were the US’ allies or not)

Question 20

John Tomlinson’s arguments

Answer 20

He refuses to say that cultural imperialism is in the service of capitalism.
It is not because you enjoy a latte at Starbucks from time to time that it means that you embrace capitalism.
Tomlinson insists on the notions of choice and autonomy. What is more plausible to him is people’s fear about a potential loss of autonomy and a greater dependence on a model that does not correspond to what they believe in.
He asks : “who speaks?” Whenever we talk about fears of globalization and capitalism, we need to figure out where the fears come from. (Ex : Bové, it came from somebody who had economic interests: project allowed, linked to economic health of the region, its attractivity)

Question 21

“Do things really go better with Coca-Cola”? Fraser

Answer 21

Main target of those who criticize the spread of American brands is their association to the American Way of Life.
In other words: are Coca Cola bottles and McDonald’s restaurants that threatening to our cultures? The “easy” answer according to him is “yes” (movies, music and fast food portray America as a great and attractive country and gives them leverage in soft and hard power)

Question 22

Tomlinson

Answer 22

Why do we keep criticizing the AWOL and its core tenet: consumerism? “What it is about capitalist culture that makes the prognosis of its uniform spread across the globe such a gloomy one?” The criticism he is referring to is often done on the grounds that such way of life is not spiritual and moral enough, and in the end selfish.

Question 23

US consuming = patriotic

Answer 23

After 9/11, George W. Bush told Americans to “go shopping,” not just to avoid thinking about the tragedy they had been through, but to put the economy back on track.
Consumerism has its drawbacks, whether they are environmental or economic.

Question 24

Fraser

Answer 24

The US needs to be present and visible for our world to maintain its order.
“American soft-power resources have become important cultural antidotes to prevent the growth of attitudes and values that foment hatred and incite violence.”