COCA-COLA, COMMUNICATION, AND CONFUSION

J.S.B. MORSE*

hen the soft drink behemoth and branding superpower Coca-Cola decided to open up its market to a fifth of the world's population in China near the end of the 1920s, a problem arose. The Coke execs wanted to maintain the pronunciation of the brand so that customers would ask for a "Coca-Cola" just as they do in English-speaking countries. But when Chinese shopkeepers created their own signs to promote the beverage, putting together a string of Mandarin characters that were pronounced "ko-ka-ko-la," the characters they used meant something completely incomprehensible. Instead of promoting Coca-Cola, they really advertised what translated to "female horse fastened with wax," "wax-flattened mare," or, my favorite, "bite the wax tadpole." I don't know about you, but nothing sounds more refreshing to me than a tall glass of "bite the wax tadpole!'" Those names certainly would not do, so Coke execs sorted through 40,000 Mandarin characterstwo hundred of which were suitable for the sounds they were trying to produce. Still, nothing quite represented a beverage one would want to drink. So they compromised and chose "l" instead of the troublesome "la" sound to create the genius Rl P Rl?^. The new phrase sounded like "CocaCola" and meant "to allow the mouth to be able to rejoice." One can imagine how sales were affected when stores began marketing "happy taste buds" instead of a "wax-flattened mare." This story shows how Coke marketing execs overcame the language barrier between English and Chinese and got everyone on the same pageif only for the sake of selling a few million bottles of brown carbonated liquid. While urban legend tells a different story, claiming egocentric Coca-Cola marketers pushed the nonsensical phrases above (instead of the Chinese shopkeepers who were actually responsible), the execs did in fact realize that the word "Coca-Cola" didn't quite convey the same idea in Chinese, so they took great pains to find a suitable altemative and make sure their meaning was not being confused.

* J.S.B Morse is the author of the new pop philosophy book, Everyone Agrees, from which this article is an excerpted.

162

COCA-COLA, COMMUNICATION, AND CONFUSION

163

The Coke marketing genius seems to be one of a kind, but most of us fail to realize that situations similar to the Coke problem arise in our lives every day, even without the obvious language barrier. Communicating our ideas effectively and efficiently is a task that is as difficult as it is underappreciated. Finnish Communications Professor Osmo Wiio once summed up this notion in a Murphy's Law-esque manner by saying, "Communication usually fails, except by accident."^ And it is no wonder; just look at the complexity of communication. An idea is developed in one person's mind, translated into some form of communication (speech, writing, text-messaging), perceived by another person (usually with some loss in fidelity), and finally translated into an idea in the second person's mind. One of the main problems we face in communication is that since we all use the same words, we assume that they have the same definitions. People think they are on the same page when they are actually in completely different books. This form of miscommunication happens in all types of situations: in arguments about the quality of music, in political discussions, and most dramatically, in religious debates. On one side of the religious debate there is writer Christopher Hitchens, biologist Richard Dawkins, philosopher Daniel Dennett, and fifteen percent of the world's population who claim that religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children."^ Or something along those lines. On the other side of the debate stand scholar Dinesh D'Souza, biologist Francis Collins, spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra, and the other eighty-five percent of humanity who think that religion is a pretty darned good idea, including 2.1 billion Christians, 1.5 billion Muslims, and nearly one billion Hindus. On each side of this debate are groups of clever, thoughtful, and recognized intellectuals who have found themselves diametrically opposed to each other on a topic that has been around well before people knew what "diametrically" meant. How can this be possible? How can a collection of extremely competent minds have such vastly different views on the same exact thing? How can some rational people see a single institution as the scourge of humanity, while others see the same institution as the direct opposite, the savior of mankind? Could it be that the two groups are not talking about the same thing? Yes. When two people or two groups appear to disagree, they are really talking about two different things, or at least two different aspects of the same thing. They use the same labels, but those words have markedly different connotations to the individual participants in the debate. Just as the label "koka-ko-la" meant a refreshing drink to an American and a wax-flattened mare to a Chinese consumer, "religion" implies something different to atheists than it does to religious adherents. Religion, to Hitchens, Dawkins, and Dennett, is a

164

^ r C APRIL 2009

manmade organization designed to coerce people into doing things for the benefit of a few leaders. To D'Souza, Chopra, and Collins however, religion is a vehicle used to uncover truth, give people hope and happiness, and promote morality. Each participant's definition comes from his respective research, analysis of the subject, and personal experience, all of which is unique to each person. The reason why the two groups perceive the term "religion" so differently is not because the group representing one side of the debate has been fooled while the group representing the other is a bunch of geniuses. Nor is it because there is no absolute truth to what religion is. Rather, it is because "religion" is one word being applied to two distinct concepts. Another confijsing label in the realm of rehgion is the word "God," which is one word consistently used to describe two separate ideas. But when people argue about God, they rarely take the time to define their terms, so I asked them to myself. Over a period of six months, I asked participants (people who claimed to believe in God and people who claimed to be atheists) to describe their impression of God via two online polls'*one which allowed respondents to define the controversial celestial presence in their own words and one which required respondents to select their definitions from a designated list of words. For believers, this was a fairly straightforward task, as those who believe in something usually have a clear idea about the characteristics ofthat something. For atheists, the task was a bit different. Since they don't believe God exists, some found it difficult to describe the concept. "How can I describe something that doesn't exist?" they protested. Their point was well taken, but also easy to resolve. I certainly do not think the Easter Bunny exists, but I can tell you a few things about it: it's around five feet tall and wears a lot of really tacky pastel-colored garments. As humans, we may be restricted by egocentricities and physical flaws, but we certainly are not restricted by our lack of imagination; thus, describing something that does not exist should be a feasible task. Likewise, if someone does not know with what characteristics to describe something, how can he or she be certain of another characteristic for that something, specifically its existence? The only reason I know that the Easter Bunny does not exist is because I know that five-foot tall rabbits do not exist; even if they did, they surely would not wear tacky pastel-colored garments. My goal in this poll was to determine how atheists, who assert that God does not exist, define that God, and to compare their definitions to those of the believers who assert that God does exist. The results were oflen humorous and thoroughly enlightening. Love. This is the word that believers used most often to describe God. In fact, almost 75% of believers polled said that God is love (or loving), a characteristic that is becoming much more synonymous with the deity every day. Some respondents were more explanatory, quoting the passagefi-omthe Bible in which

COCA-COLA, COMMUNICATION, AND CONFUSION

165

John writes, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." Other popular characteristics attached to the believers' concept of God include (in order of popularity) "just," "merciful," and "graceful"all very positive traits. Believers also see God as "kind," "forgiving," and "benevolent." Some took a humorous approach and characterized God as having "happy bugs flying around his head." I am no psychologist, but since they believe such a positive entity exists, I would guess that these respondents must be extremely optimistic people. In essence, they believe that love, justice, and mercy exist and that those qualities are embodied in a being they call "God." On the other side of the equation, those respondents who claimed to be atheists had a much diferent take on the concept of God. Apart from taking a more frivolous approach to the poll (Morgan Freeman was mentioned a number of times as the embodiment of God, no doubt because of his godly acting in movies like Bmce Almighty), atheists seemed to have a distinctly negative concept of God in their heads. With the atheists, one word represented God more universally than any other: "nothing." 32.5% of the atheist respondents used this word to label the nonexistent God. But besides that tautological reference, atheists saw God as "selfish," "hatefiil," "unjust," "vengeful," "controlling," and "contradictory" (in order of popularity). If I thought a particular being was associated with those words, I would hope it did not exist, too, and I certainly would not worship it. Who would want a "sexist," "power-hungry," "thirty- to forty-foot-tall" "old man" with "lightning bolts" looking over him everywhere he went? These are ugly characteristics, to say the least. To atheists, God is a nastyone could almost say evilbeing. The fact that the atheists believe this negative being does not exist is a positive sign. To the atheists in this poll, one supematural creature that is selfish, hateful, and unjust does not exist, nor does it have power over us. From this, one might rightly conclude that these atheist respondents were also an optimistic bunch. At the very least, the nonbelievers were consistent. Their number one response, "nothing," along with the synonyms they selected in the poll ("invisible," "fictitious," "fake") aligns perfectly with their claim that God does not exist. "Nothing," by definition, does not exist. The believers were also consistent. One of the believers' most popular characteristics for God was the word "everything," and, by definition, "everything" does exist. Thus, the two groups are perfectly consistent within their frames of reference; the problem between atheists and believers occurs when you bring them together and say the word "God." Immediately, the believer pictures a gracious, forgiving, and loving being, and the atheist envisions a controlling, vengeful, and hateful monsterthey are not thinking of the same thing. But if they used their

166

r C APRIL 2009

definitions of "God" instead of the actual label, they would essentially agree. Those who say God does not exist surely would not claim that love does not exist. And, on the other side, believers certainly do not see a hateful, bearded oldtimer watching every move they make. When you get down to the definitions, the two groups actually agree! As it tums out, disagreement is nothing more than a lack of clarity, and once clarity is attained, it is easy to see that everyone really agrees. Both sides of the religious argument and in fact most public debates and interpersonal arguments hold valid and rational points of view. Though they seem to disagree, this is simply because they are not communicating their ideas effectively. This is an easy trap to fall into because of a subtle but extremely problematic aspect of human communication: we confuse the labels we hear in conversations with the ideas we have in our heads. In essence, we blur the relationship between perceptions and conceptions and assume that everyone shares our single perspective. Our ability to translate ideas and concepts into communicative language is our most effective and efficient means of transmitting ideas; but with language comes the potential for miscommunication, which is detrimental to society if it goes unrecognized. However, if we can reconcile two rational yet seemingly opposite mindsets the sure ingredients for an argumentwe will find that everyone actually agrees. So, the next time you think you disagree with someone, I recommend that you fix yourself a tall glass of RT P R J ^ and start defining your terms. You may just find that you really agree. Notes 1. "Snopes.com: Bite the Wax Tadpole." Snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages. 29 Jan. 2009 <http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp>. 2. "Osmo Wiio: Communication usually fails, except by accident - (37signals)." Simple small business software, collaboration, CRM: 37signals. 29 Jan. 2009 <http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/986-osmo-wiio-communicationusually-fails-except-by-accident>. 3." Blog Archive Hitchens v. God." Open Source. 29 Jan. 2009 <http://www. radioopensource.org/hitchens-v-god/>. 4. Morse, Joseph. Define "God". Unpublished study, Amelior Institute. 2008.