Killer Coke (Sept. 14th)

As a continuation from last class, Mr.Paterson briefly talked about Fox News and its' employees. If I were to find a job, I would much rather work at a company where I can agree with their standing point.  I have heard that some influencers and celebrities carefully choose who they work with and make sure the product is something they actually enjoy. However, after hearing the decisions some athletes made, I realized that reality is not so flexible. Subsequently, Mr.Paterson addressed advertisment on the newspaper and other major media outlets. Advertisement is an industry my parents are a part of and I can see how marketing is necessary for various reasons. Notwithstanding, when advertisement invades the media/newspaper territory, and its' impact becomes less distinguishable to the public, matters escalate and become quite scary. As a matter of fact, just like the few Mr.Paterson introduced, there have been copious reported cases of manipulation, and even leading to terrorists shooting down workers in a factory. Further more, Coca Cola having such a fraudulent background blew my mind. Never in my life had I accused or even suspected a "globally popular" company just selling drinks to have such a history going back to before the war. To deepen our understanding of the shocking and hidden truths of the company, we went off into groups and did some research. 

Coca Cola being a global company with ample power made it impossible to find any of the mainstream media reporting about "killer coke". This "kick coke off campus" campaign is a huge embarrassment for coca cola, but only seeing one Japanese site talk about it was astounding. Coca Cola is allegedly exploiting peoples lives in not just one but a plethora of locations. Nonetheless, Japan, a country who loves Coca Cola, the degree of recognition is alarmingly low. On the contrary, one Japanese site even wrote that Coca Cola has one of the most positive and charming images among all other companies. For all the atrocities Coke has committed, I start to wonder how people would react if they knew about this. I have a strange instinct that even if Coke's unbelievable abuses gradually spread in Japan, its positive image is tough to break. Additionally, Coca Cola's long history rooting back to before the war is just another discouraging set of stories. As Mr.Paterson said, Coca Cola's influence may really be so substantial that we consumers to even be conscious of it. The carefully and professionally manipulated propaganda techniques inherent in Coca Cola's ads make it even harder to truly comprehend its domination in copious industries.  Putting aside all the misery and hopelessness, during my research, I came across several activists who expose the systematic intimidation, torture, murder and all the other exploitations that have happened. Although these incidents happened a few years ago, seeing activists provide continuous information brought little hope. 

Notes: 

Ronaldo was factually correct, but he got into trouble. if media manipulation is obvious in the sports industry, it's probably even less oblivious in a newspaper industry where they manipulate the information you get. 

some terrorists got past security guards with their guns and find workers in a factory. 

coca cola is too big an advertiser for any mainstream media to report about this. 

no articles or campaigns in japan. coca cola being detrimental to our health is a not-so-known fact in Japan. 

Some find it unbelievable that human rights abuses — systematic intimidation, kidnapping, torture and murder — are occurring at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia. 

coca-cola and Fanta have such a long history, rooting back to the war. german branch of coca-cola invented a rival drink that did not require a syrup, for the nazis. coca-cola has a horrible history that most people are unaware of, 

in documentaries and research books you find them, but it's a struggle to find it on the media. 

coca-cola may have a bigger influence, just so big we are unconscious of it there was one blog in Japanese I found about coca-cola exposing the truth