Re/aktion: Is Mecca Cola post-modern, post-colonial or post 9-11?

text by Khaled D. Ramadan
In the year 2002, a new product challenging the design, ideology and symbolism of Coca-Cola appeared on the European market. This new product is Mecca Cola. This multicultural product can be seen as the outcome of dynamic changes, and as an example of cultural expansion and the introduction of new norms.
The founder of Mecca Cola, the French-Tunisian radio journalist Tawfik Mathlouthi, is reacting against American domination. According to a representative of Mecca Cola, “Coca-Cola has become a symbol of American politics, and I can imagine there are a lot of people out there who would like to try something else. People who buy this drink (Mecca Cola) are making a political statement”.
In France, Mecca Cola has become a cult object, especially in small Muslim-run stores, where most bottles are sold. Since introducing Mecca Cola in November 2002, Tawfik Mathlouthi claims to have sold more than 3.5 million bottles.

Mecca Cola’s red and white label, an overt mocking imitation of Coca-Cola, calls on the consumer not to drink like an idiot but to drink with commitment. Mathlouthi has politicised the product by donating 20% of all profits to charity and political causes. 10% goes to the Palestinian intifada and another 10% goes to European NGOs.
It is interesting how the cultural war has been fought via commodity and commercial objects. While Coca-Cola has always been associated with imperialism, soon Mecca Cola will be branded as a terrorist object.

Mathlouthi says: “I had the idea to launch this new engaged beverage; it’s a new concept, it’s economics serving ideology and politics, a little gesture against US imperialism and foreign policy.” Coca-Cola has dismissed Mathlouthi’s move, saying he has “identified a commercial opportunity which involves the exploitation in Europe of the difficult and complex situation in the Middle East.” That is exactly Mathlouthi’s intention, and he is making progress.
If his product will generate more anti-Americanism sentiments Tawfik Mathlouthi said: “It is not my problem, it is the problem of the US administration. If they want to change anti-US sentiment they must change their policies and their double standards on human rights and politics”.

Tawfik Mathlouthi is a second-generation Tunisian immigrant to France. In a way, his product is a copy aiming at beating the original. Rather than calling it a copy one could characterise his product as a paraphrase, or as a design expansion of a multicultural nature.
Mecca Cola has become the Arab world’s answer or more likely the European immigrants’ answer to the American Coca-Cola, and in very short time, it has become a cult object in France, Germany, Holland and Belgium. Mecca Cola has become a design object of communication, which is also for members only, and only for those who know the ciphers of the game.

Coca-Cola is being sold as a universal and multicultural product. Mecca Cola, on the other hand, is much more than a commercial product, as it has been made to explicitly serve a political agenda. Muslim activists around the world, in particularly after the 9-11 events, are circulating different information in order to influence young Muslims to boycott American goods.
To Tawfik Mathlouthi, Mecca Cola answers the need of the world’s citizens by contributing to the fight against American imperialism.

Mecca Cola is a ‘multi-post-ism’; it arrived as a reaction to the monopoly of cultural objects and political domination. Born and sold in the French ghettoes, this political commercial cult object is gaining identity and one cannot analyse it without including the post-colonial and post 9-11 loop.