Hypotheses for the the Coca-Cola Companies "Jesus" brand are starting to come in:First, a sort of serious one:
marketed in Mexico, where lots of men are called Jesus {Haysus} and where religion permeates everything, as it does in most Latin countries. It would be a cynical ploy on the part of Coca Cola Corp. in that case, but not matter for shock or distress by the population to whom it's being marketed. Only explanation I can think of.
And then, from Brian of Kairos:
In response to your question about Coke, I found the following text in the section marked "our beliefs":
The heart and soul of our enterprise have always been our people. Over the past century, Coca-Cola people have led our success by living and working with a consistent set of ideals. While the world and our business will continue to change rapidly, respecting these ideals will continue to be essential to our long-term success.Nothing is more important to our success than integrity. This begins with insisting on absolute quality for every one of our products, and acting with a strong sense of accountability in everything we do. Coca-Cola people have always known that building and nurturing our relationships with other people and the world around us is an essential part of our work. No matter how big or complex our business becomes, we must always demonstrate complete respect for each other. As the world becomes more interconnected, yet more firmly rooted in local pride, recognition of our interdependence with our stakeholders becomes even more essential. A large part of our relationship with the world around us is our relationship with the physical world. While we have always sought to be sensitive to the environment, we must use our significant resources and capabilities to provide active leadership on environmental issues, particularly those relevant to our businesses. As we have expanded over the decades, our company has
benefited from the various cultural insights and perspectives of the societies in which we do business. Much of our future success will depend on our ability
to develop a worldwide team that is rich in its diversity of thinking, perspectives, backgrounds and culture. Coca-Cola is the world's most inclusive brand, and Coca-Cola must also be the world's most inclusive company.
Since this sounds an awful lot like what many people suppose Christianity to be, perhaps they just decided to go ahead and register Jesus as a trademark, just in
case.
Or, perhaps, they think they are bigger than the Beatles.
Finally, it may be that they just wanted to expand on that great moment in Dr. Strangelove, when Col. Guano and Captain Mandrake argue about getting change, and decided to upgrade from President to Big Cahuna.
"Guano: Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?
Mandrake: What?!
Guano: You're gonna have to answer to the Coca Cola company!"