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Last week, as Cokemen surveyed their empire, on which the sun never sets, their blood almost audibly fizzed with pride.
The Battle for Europe. The most active and vocal resistance to Coca-Cola, which had arisen in France, was showing serious signs of crumbling. An unholy alliance of Communists and winegrowers had forced an anti-soft-drink bill through the Assembly, under which the Health Ministry might ban Coca-Cola (TIME, March 13). So far, the Health Minister has not budged, and it seems unlikely that he will. Meanwhile, Coke's French bottling firm kept turning out 840,000 bottles of Coke a month, a modest but promising beginning. Bright red & yellow Coke trucks made the approach of spring in Paris seem more colorful than usual. Wine drinkers (the overwhelming majority of all French men, women & children) bent protectively over their glasses; Coca-Cola was on the march.
To the north, Belgium had fallen. Red Pundit Ilya Ehrenburg, a recent visitor to Brussels, indignantly reported catching a man in a café in the act of ordering Coke for himself and his innocent child. In vain, Ehrenburg warned: "A person who starts drinking Coca-Cola soon finds himself turning to other sinister habits." Belgian bottling plants were hard put to keep up with demand.
Over in Germany, where it had been popular before the war, Coke had just celebrated a triumphant return under the slogan: "Coca-Cola 1st Wieder Da!" (Coca-Cola Is Back!). Once, beer-drinking Germans had thought soft drinks sissified, but the German Coke people licked that by putting ads in the papers proclaiming: "Got a hangover [Katzenjammer]? Drink Coca-Cola."
The decisive battle for Europe had only just begun. Meanwhile, light for Coca-Cola came in through Eastern windows.
New Shoes in Cairo. "Cacoola," as it is locally known, was flooding Egypt like a second life-giving Nile. Egyptians, barred by Moslem law from alcoholic refreshments, used to buy sickly sweet, dirty concoctions from street vendors. Now they are enthusiastically consuming nearly 350 million cool, clean Cokes a year. Barely five years after Cacoola appeared in Egypt, the country is dotted with shiny red coolers, many of them presided over by Egypt's oldtime ice merchants who, thanks to the raised living standard caused by this minor economic revolution, now wear shoes for the first time in human memory. Egypt's six bottling plants are run (or owned) by the Pathy brothers (Ernest, Ladislas, George and Alexander), Egypt's shrewdest businessmen. Says Ladislas Pathy: "We have become consciously and willingly intoxicated by Coca-Cola."
The situation was even more intoxicating in the Philippines. Before the war, Coca-Cola had sold a modest 5,000,000 bottles a year in the islands. Last year, Filipinos tossed off a dizzying 193 million, which meant twelve bottles of Coke for every Filipino, including babes in arms and Huk rebels in the mountains. Filipinos were crying for more. Manilans tell the story of an ex-bootblack who makes a living hanging around Coke machines and selling 10-centavo pieces (the only coins that fit the machines) for 15 centavos to thirsty people who are too eager to go and get the proper change.