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The post-World War II Cold War era between the United States and the Soviet Union was also an era of democracy vs. communism. Coca-Cola, born in the U.S., was expanding its bottling plants around the world and globalizing its operations. And coca-Cola had come to represent freedom, democracy, and capitalism.
Supporters of communism made an example of Coca-Cola, a symbol of capitalism, and bashed it. They argued that the spread of Coca-Cola would spread American values and contaminate European countries. They spread false rumors that drinking Coca-Cola would cause cancer, infertility, and overnight white hair.
Incidentally, beer companies, mineral water companies, and soft drink companies joined the communist side in protesting Coca-Cola in order to prevent Coca-Cola from monopolizing the market.
A placard held up at the Coca-Cola Company's general meeting in 1948 read; When we think of the communists, the Iron Curtain comes to our minds. But when communists think of democracy, they think of Coca-Cola. Then, in 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed, as did the Soviet Union in 1991.
The first things East Germans bought as they streamed over the Berlin Wall to the West were hi-fi equipment, televisions, refrigerators, food, etc., and boxes of Coca-Cola. As one West German said "We welcomed them with bananas, Coca-Cola, flowers, and other things that tasted like Western consumerism.
The Middle East wars around 2000 led to anti-Americanist movements through attacks on American soft drinks such as Coca-Cola. Muslim youths in Thailand protested by throwing Coca-Cola on the ground. Meanwhile, American troops barbecued, ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and drank Coca-Cola during the 2003 occupation of Saddam Hussein's palace in Baghdad. Coca-Cola was a symbol of all things American: freedom, capitalism, globalization, and so on.
