Coke is Going Biblical?!?

Anything to sell a hit...

“May God bless you like Sarah, Rachel, and Leah…” goes the blessing Jewish parents say for their daughters on the eve of the weekly Shabbat (Friday night), or for boys, “…like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…” So, the other day when in line at my local grocery store in Maine I saw these Coke labels in the cooler, I heard myself snort.

I’m guessing Rachel, Sarah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not far behind…

Why does it irk me so much that the Coke conglomerate uses (our) personal names on their Coke bottle labels, I wonder? It feels a little to me as if they’re invading our privacy, our personal space, our heart-space or identity-space, where in my humble opinion, they don’t belong. They are not invited. It reeks of a (clever) scheming marketing ploy, and it doesn’t take an Einstein to know that it is. Somehow, if I think I’ll find my name, or I discover the name of my kid or best friend, it’s more likely that I will buy a bottle of Coke, rather than Pepsi, or Sprite, or water for that matter. It’s a slimy gimmick and I find it annoying.

I was going to let it go, becasue why let this too bother me what with so much other more pressing slimy things going on in the world, but then I took a photo of Aaron and Leah, and that’s when I knew I had succumbed to letting it burrow in my conscience. And bother me.

And then, here I was in Oslo, Norway, these past 8 days, and lo and behold, at the supermarket close to my mom’s nursing home where I stopped in to pick up some fresh cut flowers for her and a six-pack of her favorite treat, kokosboller (essentially chocolate covered cream puff pastries covered in shedded coconut, about the most sugary thing you can find in the bakery section and this for a woman who turned down sweets her entire adult life. Until now, at 88), when I spotted Coca Cola’s attempt at highjacking the Norwegian psyche, too, by plastering iconic Norwegian names on the bottles aimed at Norwegian consumers:

Oh the sneaky mo-fo’s: When in Norway do as the Norwegians!

Snap; another picture. And with this, I of course realize I have let myself be totally highjacked, and my ADHD propensity to hyper-focus and hold onto a specifically annoying thing, about to be allowed free reign to bully and control my consciousness. It’s not a good or healthy character trait of mine as it eats up precious time and emotional energy.

Unless.

Unless I write about it, metabolize it, let it flow (like Coke?!?!) through my veins to be processed by my writerly/emotional liver-filter where the nutrients (creative outlet; writing) are separated out from the drek (emotional shit, crap, toxins; take your pick —none of them good for us) and I can siphon off something valuable and let go of the rest. Out it goes.

Let it go.

Not easy for me. Can you tell? Who writes an entire post about names on Coca Cola bottles? Okay. Well. Thank you for your generosity allowing me this little venting-session. I will now be done with it and Coke.

Unless there’s a Coke Zero bottle out there somewhere with “Nina” on it. Then I’ll most likely have a relapse, have to face my demons yet again, and fight to dig myself out of that “holding a grudge dungeon,” which involves a new round of toxins and processing. And so it goes.

Isn’t it curious what can take a hold of us sometimes, and f—ck with our minds?

Please tell me I’m not alone. What has the power to take hold of your consciousness or emotions until you manage to exorcize it in your own way? And what way might that be? How do you let it go? Oh I beg of thee, indulge me. I need your camaraderie to make me feel a wee less weird.

Hey, thanks for checking in today!

Here’s to a week of nameless, incognito, natural tap water!

xo Nina

The countdown to the launch of my new book, Body: My Life in Parts, on may 27th is getting sooooo REAL!! You can learn more about it and/or pre-order it HERE, and check out a short sneak preview video below:

If you have it in you to write a review, I can send you an eARC today! ;-)