Obi-J

While traveling in Nepal, I rather enjoyed treating myself to an Fanta Orange after a long days trek. It’s about as close you can get to an orange popsicle you can get without being frozen. On occasion I’ll still buy one, although I’m attempting to not drink soda, though that’s a rather hard thing to do, as I’m a lover of Ginger Beer and Orangina…yumm!

So while watching The Corporation the other night, the documentary stated a connection between Coca Cola and Nazi Germany. At first I was like, “oh my god, coke supported the nazis!!! i’m drinking nazi soda!!” but when I thought about it some more it seemed a bit deceptive in that it implied Coca Cola somehow supported the Nazis during WWII.

From what I’ve read here and here, Fanta Orange was invented by Max Keith in Germany in 1940 when World War II made it difficult to get the Coca-Cola syrup to Nazi Germany. Max Keith was the head of the German bottler and distributor for Coke. “Investigations found Keith did not join the Nazi party despite pressure to do so and that instead of taking the profits from the production of Fanta, he turned them over to Coca Cola after the war.”

Overall, The Corporation is an amazing film and definitely worth watching, but I’m rather disappointed the movie resorted to such a sensationalistic and deceptive example. Especially at the expense of a beverage I think is just tasty. I guess when you want to demonize someone or something, and you can make any sort of connection to Nazis, it’s hard not to go that route. Does it mean corporations are all wondeful and responsible? No way, but it makes me wonder how else the documetary may have missed the mark.

And yes, I shouldn’t drink Coke products in the first place :p