The Coke Machine, Michael Blanding
The Coke Machine, Michael Blanding
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The Coke Machine
The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink

Author: Michael Blanding

Narrator: George K. Wilson

Unabridged: 12 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/16/2010


Synopsis

Ever since its "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" commercials from the 1970s, Coca-Cola has billed itself as the world's beverage, uniting all colors and cultures in a mutual love of its caramel-sweet sugar water. The formula has worked incredibly well, making it one of the most profitable companies on the planet and Coca-Cola the world's second-most-recognized word after hello. However, as the company expands its reach into both domestic and foreign markets, an increasing number of the world's citizens are finding the taste of Coke more bitter than sweet.

Journalist Michael Blanding's The Coke Machine probes shocking accusations about the company's global impact, including:

—Coca-Cola's history of winning at any cost, even if it meant that its franchisees were making deals with the Nazis and Guatemalan paramilitary squads

—How Coke has harmed children's health and contributed to an obesity epidemic through exclusive soda contracts in schools

—The horrific environmental impact of Coke bottling plants in India and Mexico, where water supplies have been decimated while toxic pollution has escalated

—That Coke bottlers stand accused of conspiring with paramilitaries to threaten, kidnap, and murder union leaders in their bottling plants in Colombia

A disturbing portrait drawn from an award-winning journalist's daring, in-depth research, The Coke Machine is the first comprehensive probe of the company and its secret formula for greed.

About Michael Blanding

Michael Blanding is a Boston-based investigative journalist whose work has appeared in the Nation, the New Republic, Slate, the Boston Globe Magazine, and Boston. He is currently a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute of Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and the author of The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Grumpus on July 09, 2011

Recently, I have found that I have been the contrarian to these Goodread reviews and have found that disconcerting. For years, I have been able to count on these reviews in helping me identify books I would not have normally read. I’ve read the anti-Coke reviews of this book and went in with the sne......more

Goodreads review by Kinga on December 07, 2012

I wonder if Michael Blanding’s children drink coke in secret, making sure their father would never know. Just like other kids do when they are DOING coke. I guess, I don’t like to read anything so obviously and openly biased, even if the author’s goal was good and true. I wouldn’t call it eye-openin......more

Goodreads review by Kirk on August 26, 2020

Holy cow that book took me forever to finish! (Audiobooked). The book was 1/3 mundane history, 2/3 infuriating (because of the details it shared about Coke. Corporations literally get away with murder), and 2/3 boring. I know, that’s 4/3. Think of it more like a Venn diagram. The boring overlaps with t......more

Goodreads review by Emiliya on March 12, 2019

До 50-та страница: злоба и предубеждение във всяко изречение, хаотично и избирателно поднасяне на откъслечни общоизвестни факти, стремеж към бомбастични генерализации. Неприкрито желание за сензация, без да е подплатено с балансиран и изчерпателен анализ. Зле написана и зле обоснована, жалко. Edit: В......more