Coca-Cola and the Chain Bridge of Budapest

Coca-Cola and the Chain Bridge of Budapest A Multi-Ethnographic Experiment Zoltan Fej6s Fojos, Zoltan 2000: Coca-Cola and tho Chain Bridge of Budapest. A Multi Ethnographic Experiment. - Ethnologia Europaea 30: 15-30. This paper presents and analyzes tho "encounter" of a mu ltination al corporation, Coca- Col a , and tho local environment as a typical example of contempora ry cultural processes. It does not directly concern itself with adverti sing and market i ng methods or with tho variou s contemporary strategies of increasing market shares although the case to be analyzed is of interest largely duo to theRe Rtrategies. Advertising, or more precisely the debate that took place in Hu n gary around a 1996 advertising initiative put fo rth by Coca-Cola, is only of interest in as much as it provides the setting in which the "global" and the "local" encounter each other. The debate has unequivocally demon strated that this terrain is fu ll of land mines and approaching it is especially perilous if we imagine ourselves to be witnessing the clash of "good" and "evil". The text presents the case through the an alysis ofthree relationships based on the fo llowing nodal points: a) sum m ary of the main components of the event and of the main views and passi ons that surfaced in the ensuing controversy; b) the question of the relationship of the urban landscape and identity; and c) the problematic of exerting control over meanings and taste. Dr.Zoltdn Fej 6s, Director,Museum of" Ethnograp hy, Ko ssuth Lajos ter 12. H-1055, Budapest, Hungary. E-mail: zf"ej os@hem. hu Cola, a tapestry of differing opinions constitut A Christmas Gift ed the points of view of the "capital" and "public Hungarian television viewers and newspaper opinion". The fo urth main character, the Chain readers were informed at the end of September Bridge, only serves as a backdrop, and as such 1996 that the Hungarian subsidiary of the Coca is a passive participant of the story acted out by Cola Company and the Municipal Government the three protagonists. ofBudapest had concluded an agreement about From the point of view of the history and the the fe stive Christmas decoration of the Chain cityscape ofBudapest the Chain Bridge is one of Bridge, the oldest bridge of the Hungarian cap the most significantfe atures of the Hungarian ital, built between 1842-49 . The news item was capital. immediately fo llowed by a press debate as a Historically it is the most important achieve result of which the idea came to naught, amidst ment and physical symbol of the liberal nation incomprehension and protest the company aban al reform movement which charged itself with doned the plan. What exactly took place is the creation of modern Hungary. Its building difficultto tell because - and this is the nature was initiated by Count Istvan Szechenyi (1791 of the beast - those concerned saw and inter 1860), the thinker and politician - who had preted events very differently fr om each other. earned the label "the greatest Hungarian". Con The story had three protagonists : the Coca-Cola necting the at the time separate cities of Pest Company, the General Assembly of the capital and Buda with a permanent stone bridge did - more precisely one of its committees - and the not mean merely creating a link between the public. As opposed to the uniform - though two banks of the Danube, but also the joining of variously interpreted - point of view of Coca- Buda, the royal seat which symbolized the past, 15 Chain Bridge, builL in 1842-49. Print by Alt-Sandman. and Pe st, the center of bourgeois transforma lights, the slim arcs ofthe bridge reflectedin the tion. The bridge, built according to the design of river constitute the unique visual symbols of the Englishman William T. Clark, and super the capital. From a purely functional point of vised by Adam Clark, also an Englishman,1 view, in today's traffic the bridge is built in a fore shadowed the unification of the two towns rather inconvenient, if spectacular, spot: the in 1872. The Chain Bridge connected the heart flow of vehicles through the bridge is led into of the one time civic town to the Castle Hill of the Castle Hill of Buda. This is why at a later Buda, which had been the seat of Hungarian point a tunnel had to be constructed under the kings - and at the time of its construction ofthe Castle Hill - according to the plans of Adam Habsburgs who were occupying the Hungarian Clark. Thus it is not an exaggeration to state throne. Thus it is a historical symbol, but it is that the historical and visual significanceof the also a special part of the contemporary urban Chain Bridge is greater than its practical func landscape. Today, when globalization reigns and tion, although the bridge is an indispensable transmits images of the still existing unique part of the traffic flow between Pest and Buda. spots of the world a penetrating and typifying The Coca-Cola Company of Hungary sum fo rce which thus become self-consciously unique marized its ideas relating to the decoration of in the face of globalization. Thus the Chain the Chain Bridge in a ten page document enti Bridge and its environs is perhaps the most tled "Merry Christmas Budapest 1996", which important such symbolic image of Budapest. contained three visual plans. This compilation The Buda side and the Castle Hill looming came into being as a result of consultation with behind it and the building of the Royal Palace some members of the General Assembly of Bu on top, as well as the spectacle of the bridge at dapest. In the course of the preliminary discus night with its robust abutments in the flood sions the representatives of Cola primarily took 16 into consideration th e view:;of the Chairman of phasis on the idea of' giving, the sharing of' the Committee on Urban Plannin g and the profi t "H's a great idea - he is quoted by the Protection of the Cityscape and some expert proposition - to f,fivebac k some of' th e pro/'it.s to members of the Committee. In the course of the com munity" (sic - emph as is in the origi nal). preparing the detailed plan they also relied on In addi tion to the openly stated reasons and the advice of experts on tourism and others, goals the re was one other. In decorati ng the including - to a lim ited extent - some opinions Chain Bridge and its environs the Coca-Cola fr om the publ ic. Company did not want to displa y its well -know n "To give a Christmas present to the town and logo, that is to say - increasing as it were the people of Budapest" is the stated goal of the value of the "gift" - it would have sacrificed the campaign in the plan submitted to the General advertising opportunity in people bei ng able to Assembly of the capital. The "gift" would have immediately associ ate their joy and gratitude meant the decoration and festive illumination with the multinational company. This example of the Chain Bridge duri ng the Chri stmas peri of bashful "unselfishness" which is in seem ing od (between November 15 and January 10), contradiction to business interests, is not inde with accompanying events. The underlying con pendent of the holiday in question (Christmas) siderations as stated by the Company were that and its main, and supposedly essential ch arac "Hungary represents a market of outstandi ng teri stic, gi ft-giving , which shows a deeper con importance for the Coca-Cola Company," among nection to the context. Secrecy was a key fea others because as the plan explained "the per ture of the plan, and when it became public capita consumption outstrips the average for knowledge that it was Coca-Cola who wished to France or for California". This then is the busi decorate the Chain Bridge, it was not only this ness motivation which is not independent of the element of the plan that came to nothing, but war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola taking the entire initiative, as rejection became much place in the background, especially in its Cen more pronounced precisely because of the iden tral and Eastern European fo rm.: Beside the tity of the giver. business motive, which fr om the point of view of The visual plan attached to the document Coca-Cola was the primary motivation, the plan primarily gave an atmospheric picture of Coca also detailed other arguments in favor of the Cola's idea, as the size, quality, material etc. of initiative, which were related to the interests the decoration much debated later on could not and tasks of the capital's leading administra really be shown on it.4 The mood was set by the tive body, thus for example enhancing the beau illumination and the use of red and green colors. ty and fame of Budapest and other tourism This color combination is unequivocally linked related considerations. Another point made to Christmas colors, but at the same time also to called attention to the mobilizing potential of Hungarian national symbolism, although it can the initiative, that is to say it "would motivate also be said that indirectly it also refers to the other companies to join in the Christmas deco red ofthe trademark of Coca -Cola. According to ration of Budapest." These supporting argu the visual plan, the decoration would have been ments appeared in the plan as ifbeing of equiv comprised of lit-up garlands.

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