This 3 minute video has been viewed over 2,000,000 times.
It celebrates one the world's most beloved brands, one sustained by multi-billion dollar advertising. It is about migrant workers in the oil-rich countries of Arabia, their sense of homesickness and subsidizing international phone calls through proof of purchase of a soft drink. The camerawork and sound editing are flawless. But that's not important. It is the human stories that are key.
(See below for link, in case the embedded video does not work, or you presently lack the time and patience to watch a video)
It celebrates one the world's most beloved brands, one sustained by multi-billion dollar advertising. It is about migrant workers in the oil-rich countries of Arabia, their sense of homesickness and subsidizing international phone calls through proof of purchase of a soft drink. The camerawork and sound editing are flawless. But that's not important. It is the human stories that are key.
(See below for link, in case the embedded video does not work, or you presently lack the time and patience to watch a video)
The joy,
the happiness, the empathy with those missing home. The authentic faces, the
unmistakeably genuine accents, the honesty, the simplicity. All good things.
But it
sounds a bit like supplying aspirins to a labor camp in the tundra. They help,
they ease suffering, but do not solve the essential problem of the camp, of the
Lager.
Lager: German for camp, occasionally short for Konzentrationslager, concentration camp; infamous for sustained atrocities and the perversion of the human spirit. A misleading slogan offered by some was "Arbeit macht frei", "Work will set you free".
This is a
story of Lager. Of hopelessness, of desperation, of exploitation, of discrimination,
of inhumane living conditions, of police-issued papers, or lack thereof, and
the vulnerability of those without. Of the disenfranchised, of those who cannot speak the language of those in the power structures. Of the travesty of justice that those at the
bottom of the socio-economic pyramid are incentivized to buy a certain sugary drink, or
to rummage in garbage bins for discarded caps. 2014 and we still have Lager.
Even though the
Liberty we so cherish is presumably not the freedom to drink Coca-Cola, this is no polemic against the soft-drink giant or against the callousness of their advertising agency. It is a cry of outrage against the state of affairs in Arabia and elsewhere – for supply
and ownership chains are now intertwined and global – but without offering any
solution. Only – let us not forget that men and women are forced to live with little
dignity, in cities that offer the luxuries of the world.
Let us occasionally think of the Other – for how can we be free when some of us are still in chains?
______________________________________Let us occasionally think of the Other – for how can we be free when some of us are still in chains?
For an evaluation of international brands: http://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/
For the Coca Cola advertisement that is being discussed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlA9tXYxD8g
(View count is 2.3 million, however youtube.com measures these things - whether they need to be visited by unique Internet Protocol addresses, and whether one needs to watch to the end, or at least half-way through, for it to count as having been viewed)
