Surreal. From Mecca-Cola Launches Across Mideast To Protest US Policy:
French company Mecca-Cola, which sells its cola to protest U.S. foreign policy, announced its product launch across the Middle East on Thursday.The company, which has sold its slightly less sweet version of the classic soft drink across Europe for the past two months, has signed sales and distribution agreements with local companies to distribute its cola brand across most of the Middle East and North Africa, its founder, Tawfik Mathlouthi, told a news conference in Dubai.
“Cola is the pre-eminent symbol of U.S. culture,” said Mathlouthi, adding that his company, by targeting the market shares of Coca-Cola Co. (KO) and PepsiCo Inc. (PEP), hopes to send a message to the U.S. administration that Muslims want a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Mathlouthi, a French national of Tunisian origin, set up the company with EUR25,000 of his own funds. He has an agreement with a French factory that allows the company to produce his cola as and when the company receives orders, thereby reducing startup costs.
He also plans to set up a $3 million-$4 million factory in Jebel Ali, Dubai’s industrial free zone, to provide half of the Middle East’s demand.
The company’s product range — soon to include a coffee-flavored cola, as well as tonic, orange and lemon drinks — will go on sale in the Gulf region in one-and-a-half months’ time, once the product receives official sales approval.
Mecca-Cola will donate materials worth 10% of its profits to Palestinian children’s charities and 10% to Catholic charities in Europe. The remaining 80% covers business costs, such as advertising, marketing and tax.
A few things caught my eye. If “Cola is the pre-eminent symbol of U.S. culture,” isn’t selling cola an odd way to protest U.S. cultural imperialism? Is the mix of charities a shrewd political move? I wasn’t expecting 10% of its profits to got to Catholic charities — which must seem the French equivalent to Muslim charities to the Tunisian owner? And why is the U.S. the only place on earth where bottled coffee-flavored drinks don’t sell?