Coca-Cola and its logo are everywhere. In our homes, our workplaces, even our schools. It is a company that sponsors the Olympics, backs US presidents and even re-brands Santa Claus. A truly universal product, it has even been served in space. From Istanbul to Mexico City, Mark travels the globe investigating the stories and people Coca-Cola's iconic advertising campaigns don't mention. Child labourers in the sugar cane fields of El Salvador. Indian workers exposed to toxic chemicals. Colombian union leaders falsely accused of terrorism and jailed alongside the paramilitaries who want to kill them. And many more...Provocative, funny and stirring, "Belching Out the Devil" investigates the truth behind one of the planet's biggest brands.

About the Author

Mark Thomas has worked as a comedian for over twenty years. His activist, campaigning brand of comedy has been a thorn in the side of many politicians and corporations. He is one of a limited number of people to be awarded a UN Global Human Rights Defender Award and has also been awarded a Kurdish National Congress Medal of Honour amongst other citations. His three-year campaign to stop the building of the Ilisu damn in Turkey was ultimately successful and saved 78,000 Kurds from being displaced.

Prizes

Take a dangerously entertaining trip with Mark Thomas in search of the real story behind Coca-Cola...

Reviews

How can a book about a behemoth multinational company, with a string of environmental and labor violation allegations leveled against it, be entertaining? British TV presenter, comedian, and human rights activist Thomas somehow manages to make it so. Coca-Cola's PR double-speak in response to his persistent questions provides much of the fodder for his humor. (Full disclosure: this reviewer finds soft drinks basically devoid of nutrition and consumes none of them.) Thomas travels around the world, looking into allegations of union harassment by Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia and Turkey. He investigates water-use issues in India and obesity rates in Mexico. He searches for evidence of child labor in the sugar fields of El Salvador. He corners the head of Coca-Cola's Global Workplace Rights at an annual shareholders' meeting in Delaware. He witnesses a Mayan ceremony where worshipers use the burping effect of Coke to "belch" out evil spirits (hence the title). Verdict This is not a travel journey that any sane person would want to replicate. However, the author's findings do make one think of the global consequences of such an innocuous product as "fizzy pop." Recommended for both general readers and students who enjoy investigative memoirs or business studies.-Lee Arnold, Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.