(6 of 9)
But most Coke skits, carefully rehearsed, revolve around simple, symbolic characters strongly reminiscent of medieval morality plays. Typical was a dramatic production put on at a recent meeting of 55 Egyptian and other Near Eastern bottlers in Cairo. Protagonist was Barsoum, a Coca-Cola Dealer with a fine Egyptian mustache and an uncertain faith in the product; for possession of his soul contended, like angel and devil, the Good Coca-Cola Salesman and a salesman of a competing soft drink, obviously representing the Forces of Evil. Another character was the Confused Coca-Cola Salesman, neither good nor bad but caught in the limbo of inadequate know-how. Under the influence of the competition's salesman, Barsoum gets careless, fails to ice his Coke cooler, lets point-of-purchase signs go un-revitalized, even pushes the competing soft drink. But the Good Salesman puts everything right in the end and the Confused Salesman gets straightened out.
The epilogue (on the importance of refrigeration) showed evidence of greater theatrical cunning, reminiscent of Pirandello. Discovered at stage center is a bright red Coca-Cola cooler. Enters a Coke field man, who begins talking about refrigeration. Suddenly a loudspeaker hidden in the cooler's cool interior cries out: "Stop talking! I can speak for myself." Coke man hurriedly exits, Cooler continues: "I'm a 24-hour salesman ... I advertise the product, I cool the product, I present your product attractively . . ."
And a Dash of Movie Hero. Most sales promotion material emerges from the amazingly fertile brain of a short ex-lawyer and Rhodes scholar named Frank Harrold, who runs the entire sales promotion department of the Coca-Cola Export Corp. with the help of only two assistants, a few stenographers, and what amounts to a commuter's ticket on all the world's airlines. Harrold has developed a green kit containing fat instruction books, slide films, records, etc. Even a man with a stammer and an inferiority complex can become a dynamic lecturer. Sample instruction for a salesmen's meeting:
CALL MEETING TO ORDER. IF WIVES ARE PRESENT, YOU WILL WISH TO MAKE AN APPROPRIATE RECOGNITION OF THAT FACT. HAVE A LARGE CALENDAR HANGING PROMINENTLY IN THE FRONT OF THE ROOM. STEP TO CALENDAR.
"This is no ordinary day, men. No, sir."
(USE RED CRAYON AND DRAW LARGE CIRCLE AROUND THE DATE.)
"This is a red-letter day. It's the start of a carefully planned program which is going to affect the lives and pocketbooks of everyone in this room . . . Let's stop and think for a moment about happiness.
(PAUSE.) That's right, I said happiness . . . Sometimes you wonder what it is that makes you feel so good. It seems to me one of the things that makes a man feel best is making someone else happy . . . doing something that brings a smile or a shout of pleasure to someone else's lips."