Cocacolonization (alternatively coca-colonization) is a term that refers to globalization or cultural colonization. It is a portmanteau of the name of the multinational soft drink maker Coca-Cola and the word colonization.
The term is used to imply either:
- the importation of Western (particularly American) goods or
- an invasion by Western and especially American cultural values that threatens the local culture.[1]
While it is possible to use the term benignly, it has been used pejoratively to liken globalization to Westernization or Americanization.
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Cold War years
In explaining the role of Coca-Cola as a universal influence of the "American way" in the Cold War period, scholar Richard Kuisel states, "Perhaps no commercial product is more thoroughly identified with the United States... Coca Cola was fast becoming a universal drink".[2] The dangers of cocacolonization were evoked after World War II by the French press, which regarded Coca-Cola as an American affront to the French culture.[2] A typical cold war joke stated that, following the moon landing, the USSR leapfrogged the U.S. by painting the moon red, whilst the U.S. retaliated by going back and writing Coca-Cola in white on the red background.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ Melnick, Merrill J.; Steven J. Jackson (September 2002). "Globalization American-style and Reference Idol Selection". International Review for the Sociology of Sport 37 (3–4): 429–448. ISSN 1012–6902.
- ^ a b Richard F. Kuisel, "Coca-Cola and the Cold War: The French Face Americanization, 1948-1953", French Historical Studies 17 (1) (Spring, 1991), pp. 96-116.
Further reading
- Wagnleitner, Reinhold (1994). Coca-Colonization and the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807844551.
- Flusty, Steven (2004). De-Coca-Colonization. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415945372.
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