Should you find yourself hot and thirsty in Tehran, you'll have no trouble locating your favorite soft drink. Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are shipped into Iran, in spite of the American ban on dealing with the most dangerous gang of crackpots in the world today.
Why pass up the opportunity to make more money, when all those Iranians are happy to slurp down a bottle or two? In 2006, it's estimated that the average Persian consumed 95 bottles of pop, and they'll chug down as many as 120 each this year. It's addictive, that lovely caffeine and sugar buzz. We're talking of a billion dollars or so, give or take, in sales, and aren't the stockholders happy when they look over the annual report.
What? How? you may blubber, shocked by the news. It's all so simple, really, and Dick Detwiler assures us that it is all legal. He's the senior vice president for public affairs at PepsiCo International, so he knows what he's talking about. Pepsi has been shipping to Iran since 2002, he says, and he's very up front and open about the trade.
Charles Sutlive, senior communications executive of Coca-Cola, has been a bit more cagey about Coca-Cola's activities. A bit of an embarrassment, to be found out. Rah, rah, patriotism, and all that, and what's more American than Coca-Cola? Turning a profit, corporate greed, that's far more American.
The soft drink concentrate that is shipped to Iran for bottling as Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola is manufactured in Ireland. There's no embargo in Ireland, so the giant soft drink companies can legally sell their goods in a country that would love nothing better than to wipe out Western civilization, and Israel along with it. No matter that Coke has its headquarters in Atlanta, which just happens to be in the US. It's their Irish arm doing the selling, and the American arm accepts the money without flinching.
The hard core anti-American contingent in Iran rails against the American beverages, which only helps to boost sales. It's the drink of the young, hip and trendy Iranian. Maybe it's not such a bad thing after all, this loophole in the embargo. Any chance to poke the mullahs with a sharp stick, or a frosty cold Pepsi, and you've got to enjoy their pain.
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