This exploitative stuff that Coke gets up to is all well and good, but it's nothing we haven't heard before. We know this is how massive multinational corporations ensure their standing - these are the ways you get the biggest profit margins. It's this kind of awareness that can so often lead to compassion fatigue's twin sister: ethical consumer fatigue. So what's particular about Coke in this instance?
There is a point in the book where one of Coke's PR bodies asks tubby, little, lonesome Mark, from behind however many billion dollars worth of brand recognition and lawyers, "Why are you picking on us?". Mark obviously has something of a field day with the idea of Coke playing victim to him, but the question is reiterated "No, why us, why not Pepsi or someone?". Mark's response was quite simply "Well, no-one has the number of human rights abuse charges against them that you do".
Do check out and get hold of Belching Out The Devil, it is very compelling and well researched (although, infuriatingly, all his footnotes are at the back of the book), as well as being very moving and funny.
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