Nodal Thinking

Yesterday I posted about Max Headroom and New Coke. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Coca-Cola was making news that very day. The New York Times has the story.

Coca-Cola is dropping “Classic.” These cans await soda at the Swire Coca-Cola bottling plant in West Valley City, Utah. The Coca-Cola Company is dropping the “Classic” from its red labels in some Southeast regions, and the word will be gone from all of its packaging by the summer, the company said Friday. The story was first reported by the trade publication Beverage Digest.

The “Classic” designation — which appears under the “Coca-Cola” script on labels — was added to the packaging in 1985, to distinguish the original formula from a sweeter, wildly unpopular new version of Coke.

It has been a curiosity of mine for a long time how I am able to talk about coming trends, changes, and make predictions so easily. Why 24 years after New Coke comes and goes would I write a post about it on the same day that news comes out related to the last remnant of that fiasco fading away?

It reminds me of a concept explored in several of William Gibson's books. In Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties of the Bridge Trilogy, a prominent character dives into the net and is able to gain information by looking at nodes. While not necessarily even looking at specific information that appears relevant to the questions he is trying to answer, somehow the pieces come together for him and he can make sudden intuitive connections. I think that this sort of nodal thinking is becoming more and more possible as our world of information is consolidating more and more into places were it can almost all be located simultaneously.

I have a love/hate relationship with this trend. I love it because being connected to information makes me feel as part of the system. It is very important to me to be able to understand the context and the narrative arcs of the world I live in. I can paint you an amazing picture of the past 200 years that will put this whole world in context for you, and every foreign policy decision or domestic policy decision will make perfect sense within that context (regardless as to whether it is a poor decision or not). The more than I know - the more nodes floating in my consciousness - the more sudden, intuitive connections form for me at seemingly random times.

Why now would Max Headroom and New Coke be on my mind? I will create a list to bring you into my psyche:

1) I've been thinking heavily about the ideas of simulation and simulacra of Baudrillard, and possible PhD theses I could come up with relevant to those ideas.
2) I've noticed recently the deluge of animated films and television shows that have been better than ever at creating realistic looking three-dimensional models. The graphics have looked so smooth, in fact, that this has struck me at times as being extra-real.
3) With the election of Barack Obama, there has been a new media blitz by many corporations riding on Obama's coattails - stealing his themes for their commercials. The top culprit in this blitz, Coca-Cola's largest competitor: Pepsi







These thematic ideas carried forth of course would also lead me backwards in time toward pivotal moments (nodes). You can see how I got there, and it is no wonder than Coca-Cola would use this opportunity for another self-remaking. It is, no doubt, ironic following this that Pepsi and Coca-Cola are using this year's Super Bowl in a new push against each other of epic proportions.

Rival cola makers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co. have together purchased nearly 10 minutes of ad time during Sunday's game, and both plan to use the widely watched spectacle to launch new branding and marketing initiatives.

So, the obvious question will be what is this new initiative be, and will it also follow in Obama's lead? Well, yes it will (from the first article) -

With the introduction of a new global advertising campaign, called “Open Happiness,” Coca-Cola decided it was time to make its American product match what it was called elsewhere.

This campaign will connect with Obama's new openness toward the world and willingness to cooperate and collectively problem solve with Coke's desperate need to be viewed as a positive influence in the world considering its numerous abuses abroad. Coke is branded as an American company, and a beneficent one. "Open Happiness" will be as much a PR campaign as it is a campaign to get us to collectively put our money in to buy their products in this rapidly decreasing market.

Why should we care about any of this? Coca-Cola is as much as anything else a symbol of American colonialism (they have appropriated much of the water in many countries around the world, despite local protest), American idealism, American culture in general (think Norman Rockwell), among other things. Coca-Cola is a powerful American symbol - how the meaning of Coca-Cola changes will also reflect how the meaning of America changes. Do not underestimate the power that corporations have in generating meaning, and the immense stress they are under to manage trends to remain relevant and profitable.