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Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Coca-Cola Japan Going Mario? (And LGBTQ[A] Pride)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I mean, still better than Pepsi...

It didn't cross my mind, because anniversaries aren't important to me (I write that as I've been agonising about what I'm supposed to do for KoopaTV's nine-year anniversary next week and I don't really have many ideas), that Super Nintendo World has been open for a little over a year now. You can't make me excited about this. But in spite of me and the several times the park has had health concerns, it's still open for business and your (or a Japanese version of you) visit.

To celebrate, Coca-Cola Japan has made these Super Nintendo World-themed 250 millilitre slim bottles that look a bit cooler than the standard plastic Coca-Cola bottle you might otherwise encounter. They otherwise taste the same and have the same ingredients. These are extremely similar to other 250 millilitre slim bottle designs that Coca-Cola Japan has done for other occasions. They are available now.


Coca-Cola Japan slim bottles Super Nintendo World Universal Studios Mario Princess Peach
On the left bottle is Princess Peach's castle with balloons and fireworks.
On the right bottle is that plumber jumping to open a ? Block and revealing a Super Mushroom, with a Piranha Plant stretching out of a warp pipe.
Unfortunately, it appears that there is safe ground beneath the plumber.


Coca-Cola Japan has also had a Coca-Cola Peach flavour for years, but it doesn't seem directly related to Princess Peach, besides something she'd probably want to drink. I didn't find a Coca-Cola Daisy.

A couple of days before they announced that, Coca-Cola Japan has also revealed that they made rainbow-designed Coca-Cola labels for bottles (but not special bottle designs) for their participation in a Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2022 festival. These seemed to only be for people at the event, and thus were limited-time. The Super Nintendo World bottles with Mario don't have a special end date. The pride article went on to say that Coca-Cola Japan had internal inclusion sessions featuring pink masks and pink cupcakes where one can “consider the importance of LGBTQ inclusion and promote understanding of the LGBTQ community.” They didn't go into detail about how pink masks and pink cupcakes achieve such an understanding, or what kind of masks they were.

Coca-Cola outside of Japan goes into substantially more detail about their pro-LGBTQ corporate efforts within the United States, though. They cite an “LGBTQA Business Resource Group” that “ensures equality for its LGBTQ associates.” It is unclear where the A in LGBTQA went between quotes, or which word the A stands for. (If it happens to stand for “associates”, then it wasn't dropped. Otherwise...?) The rest of that article continues to use “LGBTQ”, excluding whomever the A represents. The Japanese news item never mentioned an A. I'm personally very interested in this A.


Coca-Cola's main competitor, PepsiCo, doesn't seem to have ever done any Nintendo promotions according to me searching their site (and the Japanese site ran by Suntory) for “Nintendo” or “Mario” and finding zero results. But they do say they support “the LGBT+ community through our products”, such as with “rainbow-colored Doritos.” (They don't seem to have special flavouring... and they are letting that plus sign carry Qs, As, and any other letters—or numbers, looking at you, 2S—that could possibly pop into that acronym.) Nonetheless, Texas senator Ted Cruz (a Republican) loves Doritos, contrary to many other social conservatives who have long since boycotted PepsiCo for their LGBT+ support. He also loves Candy Crush Saga, so it should be easy to dismiss his preferences.

Meanwhile, fellow Republican Herman Cain loved Coca-Cola, having jump-started his corporate career there. Super Smash Bros. franchise director Masahiro Sakurai is also a big Coca-Cola drinker.

I think as long as Coca-Cola keeps this Mario bottle in Japan, or maybe that Piranha Plant gets close enough to eat him, I'll keep supporting Coca-Cola over Pepsi. Personally, I don't drink either soda often... although my favourite soft drink ever is Fanta Grape, and that's owned by Coca-Cola. I've since learned that Pepsi owns Mug Root Beer, my second favourite fizzy drink. Perhaps I should listen to my natural aversion to dogs and switch root beer brands to Barq's? (Which is named because the founder was named Barq, not because it's trying to bark like a dog... or a Chain Chomp.)



Ludwig actually had a small bottle of Diet Coke before writing this article. He didn't buy it, but he did take it from someone who did buy it without that someone's explicit permission. Apparently there was more than what was on the ingredients list, because how else would he lose all sense of inhibition and think writing this article was a good idea? Did Elon Musk already buy Coca-Cola?


Wondering what Ludwig did for KoopaTV's nine-year anniversary article? Here it is.

8 comments :

  1. A stands for Asexual to my knowledge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It could also stand for "ally" given that it's an employee resource group that'd welcome those people in their meetings!
      Or it could stand for "agender"...!

      Delete
    2. I'd rather like to think it's asexual. Given that I just put it out there yesterday that I, you know, am that.

      Delete
    3. ...Lheticus? ...Aren't you supposed to sign your name?

      Anyway, if they end up dropping the asexual part for the rest of the article in terms of identities they're standing up for, that's rather dismal for asexuals, ain't it?

      Delete
    4. Oh, I think it's because I changed my Google password recently, sorry. That anon IS me. And yes, it is.

      Delete
    5. Personally, I wouldn't find any commonality among a group of people identified by their desire to have sex with someone else, because that's the exact opposite of my own interest, though I guess the "T" isn't about that either. (Honestly not sure what the "Q"s are around for.)

      Delete
  2. Barqs root beer is the best. A&W, Mug, Dads root beer, those are all great root beers.

    I’ve never cared for coke or Pepsi so I suppose I’m uneffected by this article. Funny that their giving out masks for Social Distancing, and then going for Inclusion. Doesn’t that seem a bit ironic?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Ah, I... ain't ever heard of Dad's root beer. But I gotta make a root beer choice soon, since my supply of expired Mug is running out.
      In the article, I questioned what kind of masks they were, because MAYBE they were cool masks that serve an aesthetic (or warmth?) purpose and not a health purpose. I mean, people gotta remember that's what people USED to associate masks with.

      Delete

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