25 Comments

Good analogy as far as it goes, but I don't remember the Coke half of the country in hysteria because Pepsi was going to usher in the Fourth Reich and the Handmaid's Tale. In fact, Kamala is not so much New Coke as she is Pelosi's warm glass of water she bragged she could get elected by slapping a D on the front of it.

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I missed that comment from Pelosi about glasses of water. How interesting.

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Pelosi isn't too far wrong. Presumably this is what she means by "democracy".

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Pepsi came out with the 'Pepsi Generation' in 1963 - I was 11 and I think it did garner a lot of sales. The message seemed to be Coke (without mention) was your parent's drink - you have Pepsi. The Cola Wars started about a decade later. I did a taste test once - and whatever I chose, the tester didn't seem happy with the results (I couldn't really tell the difference).

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This is a great commentary that truly made me laugh. It reminds me of Judy Collin’s wonderful rendition SEND IN THE CLOWNS. In dark times we deserve some good humor and a bit of satire. Aristophanes would approve.

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so accurte this commentary be.

Thankk you. She will always be genocide Harris from my point of view. How does one repackge genocide? Ask either party. They'll show you the ways. It's Green party for me this November.

People, Planet, Peace. I'm voting Jill. Ya it's so stupid to vote your conscience isn't it. We can't let the one(s)that can not be named be elected. both these "not be named" can be named. Call them Genocide baby killers. Call them sociopath neocon neo liberal serial killers. Vote either of them in you'll be complicit in their actions of inhumane acts on humanity.

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I'm certainly no marketing expert, but I agreed with my teen kids in '85 that New Coke was a really bad idea. Great analogy, Bill. I am SO using it.

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" This is in no way a promotion for another overhyped, oversold, and dangerous product, one commonly known as Trump." Well said, Bill, well said.

Although in keeping with the rebranding theme, I know a lot of GOP players are praying for a "Lite Trump" product these days. And I am definitely going for Jill Stein as an alternative.

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Kamala New Coke has a certain ring to it!

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Translation of NYT article: "Harris getting better at reading the teleprompter".

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From my reading, New Kamala has reneged on her former anti-fracking and pro-single payer positions. Gotta change up the formula to make it more bland.

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Everytime I see a bit of political marketing, I hear Jackson Brown's song, "Lives in the Balance".

"There's a shadow on the faces

Of the men who fan the flames

Of the wars that are fought in places

We can't even say the names

They sell us the President, the same way

They sell us our clothes and our cars.

They sell us every thing, from youth to religion

The same time they sell us our wars"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKjmSnne7Z8

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To paraphrase The Who: Meet the New Coke. Same as the Old Coke.

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I think it does say a lot about how well advertising (anodyne term for propaganda) works.

Take something - no matter how bland or not what you're told it is; dress it up with new labels and colors; and then have celebrities sell it to you (with musical themes that are popular songs or jingles - the latter that become brain worms). Worked for Coke, toilet paper, and fast food - and even now the endless stream of pharmaceutical commercials.

Recall that in 2008 the Obama campaign won Ad Age's Marketer of the Year. Whatever else that phony was and is, he got the power of a polished advertising campaign - even before Trump's more crude efforts in 2016 that did the same.

Harris is such a lightweight, I think the Democrats will follow the Obama playbook and it'll work again; Trump, unless he starts listening to his advisors, won't campaign effectively against the onslaught.

(As always, this is in no way is an endorsement of any of these fools).

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Scott Ritter’s full and detailed account of THE FBI'S RAID ON PEACE is at https://scottritter.substack.com/p/the-fbis-raid-on-peace.

As Caitlin Johnstone noted in her 10 Aug piece: WASHINGTON FURTHER ESCALATES ITS WAR ON DISSENT [ https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/washington-further-escalates-its ] .

It will be very interesting to see what unfolds next week in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention; 56 years after 1968 and the “Police Riot”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_National_Convention_protests .

It was certainly quite interesting watching all that unfold over in Vietnam, where i was just finishing up my second year there, and headed back to the States for good. And beginning to wonder exactly what it was i was headed back to.

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A much better ad campaign was 7-Up as "the UN-cola" but I do think Pepsi tastes better than Coke, I think because it has more sugar.

Regarding Kamala, she seems to be on a roll, is able to play the politician perfectly compared to Trump whose mouth always gets in his way. My sense is he is going to go down and let's hope that event will be no more than entertaining. He will still have the bible, so important in his life, to console him.

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From what I understand, Clif, Coke is lime-infused and Pepsi is lemon-infused; that's the difference. Or at least it was; no telling what the chemicals are now. But the two have always tasted very different to me, as do all the other cola varieties.

As for your tRump comment, I agree. Also appreciate your snark!

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@Denise Donaldson

Old/classic Coke is ORANGE zest infused, Pepsi uses LEMON zest.

Although you could at various times buy syrups and canned/bottled additionally flavored coke, including cherry & lime.

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Same old, same old Kamala.

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... she's not been elected yet, there's a way to go till November... being in politics today, against individuals like him is a new landscape, fighting on multiple fronts (inside-outside-politics) ... saying what keeps momentum flowing, but little-nothing that will surely-instantly be harshly-turned against you... clawing to stay alive in a system never-designed-meant to elect the best-possible-right-person for-the-job

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OFF-TOPIC; but not really: Bought and paid for courtesy Uncle Sam’s already maxed-out credit card thru the magic of Deficit Spending...:

THE NUMBERS SHOW: GAZA WAR IS ONE OF THE BLOODIEST IN THE 21ST CENTURY

As the Gaza death toll approaches 40,000, Haaretz examines the data from a global perspective. The rate and pace of deaths - as well as the living conditions of those still alive – overshadow the conflicts in Iraq, Ukraine and Myanmar

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2024-08-14/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-death-toll-in-gaza-is-bad-even-compared-to-the-wars-in-ukraine-iraq-and-myanmar/00000191-50c6-d6a2-a7dd-d1decf340000 .

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