My Visit to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum

Last week, as well as going to Fishbourne Roman Palace, I had the pleasure of being able to visit the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum with my family. We explored several of the site's buildings. I had been there on a school trip when I was younger, mainly to see the Victorian school and other buildings dating to the Victorian era. This visit was actually to see as much of the museum as possible, regardless of era.

The site is composed of about 50 buildings from across the South of England, ranging from the 13th to the 19th centuries. This corresponds to a period ranging from the medieval to Victorian eras. All buildings have been carefully disassembled, transported from their original sites, and rebuilt in the
Open Air Museum. Restoration work has been carried out where necessary.

Later this year, an Anglo-Saxon style wooden hall is to be finished; it will be historically accurate but is not restored like the other buildings. No wooden structures survive from the Anglo-Saxon era, so this is based on archaeological records of a house from 950 AD. When I was at the site the building was under construction, but was taking form nicely; it was visibly recognisable as a Saxon building. The Gateway Project, which aims to reconstruct dismantled buildings, is also underway.

We visited several houses around the site, which were very interesting to explore, especially compared with each other. The variations in house age made it possible to witness the differences between medieval, Tudor and early modern housing After early modern housing it was possible to witness the innovations made over the ages. Some of the houses had guides who were well-educated and very helpful. Many of the houses had period-appropriate gardens as well, for example there were no potatoes in the Tudor gardens. None of the houses had modern heating, although they had either firepits or fireplaces, and none of them had obvious electricity either. Some of the houses, like Tindalls Cottage had discreet electric lights for safety. All of the buildings were furnished, some very modestly, and others more comfortably. This was based on the affluence of the inhabitants.

This is an image of one of the information booklets present in each building, which describe where the building was originally located, when it was built, and who lived in it.

Global Culture and Coca-Cola

In what way is the worldwide spread of Coca-Cola sales a result of the global culture in Western society?

Document 1

This chart shows some useful statistics on Coca-Cola sales. It dates from 2014.

It is obvious from this infographic alone that Coca-Cola is very much a drink that maintains its American origins, although available in over 200 countries about half of its sales occur in North and Latin America. Its global popularity is displayed too, with an estimated 1.9 billion servings a day, enough for a third of the world to have a serving each.

Other key points -

• Coca-Cola mentions its age, it has been around for 129 years (since 1886)
• The company’s net income in 2014 was $7.1 billion with an $8 billion return to shareholders
• Coca-Cola has had 53 years of consecutive demand increases, showing its worldwide popularity

Document 2

This is a photograph showing the familiar Coca-Cola cans in various other languages and notably other alphabets such as the Chinese one on the far left.

We recognise the cans as Coca-Cola but at the same time there's something a little off about them.

This shows that Coca-Cola is American it is willing to adapt and rebrand itself for worldwide market. Rather being all American all the time there's a certain flexibility which still remains recognisable.

Document 3

The cover of TIME magazine from the 15th of May 1950. Quite clearly shows the Coca-Cola logo, possibly bottle cap, giving a drink to the world. Captioned “World and friend”.

One could argue that Coca-Cola is forcing the world to drink because Coca-Cola is holding the bottle and has one arm around the world. However this is flimsy at best because the world is smiling.

This shows how even in 1950 the world was seen as drinking Coca-Cola.

Conclusion

Coca-Cola set out well from the start. Founded in an era when gassy drinks were thought beneficial to health, and with cocaine in the original ingredients list it was only a matter of time before people were hooked and demanding the drink. When cocaine was removed the still addictive caffeine and sugar were left.

After the Second World War being American and all things American became fashionable. Coca-Cola would have been exported as a luxury label. By our time it has become synonymous with American culture, albeit not always in a positive way, but it has also become something of a standard, no longer a luxury but indeed the World’s drink. It is the most popular soft drink in nearly all of the 200 countries in which it is sold, except for Scotland, India and Peru, where local drinks (Irn Bru, Thums Up and Inca Kola respectively) are more popular.

Coca-Cola has long used successful advertising campaigns often involving huge celebrities at the time, one that comes to mind is the “I kissed Elvis” from the 1950's and as a result the brand name has grown even more. A phrase sometimes used in English is “Cocacolonisation” which refers to American cultural influence spreading into countries via things such as Coca-Cola; they claim that this also leads to other American companies such as McDonald’s moving in, and has created an international culture that can be witnessed all over the developed and developing world.

The brand is also distinctly recognisable, with little changing since their first logos. Even in other countries one can instantly recognise the distinctive colours and logos. This is one of the reasons for the continued success of Coca-Cola worldwide. It is a distinctive and unique brand which many have sought to (unsuccessfully) imitate.

Sold everywhere.

Occidental cultures accept most things American when under American influence. Most of Europe shows the example of being under American culture that they accept as their own and Coca-Cola shows this.

Coca-Cola has personalised advertising for each country where it’s sold. This tailoring to every country rather than forcing the countries to become American. Father Christmas changed from green to red because of one of these successful campaigns. This shows how although Coca-Cola is American it is also Japanese, German, French as it tailors itself to each country where it's marketed.

Even countries in the former Soviet Union have stores stocking Coca-Cola, and whilst most nations have regional imitations or variants few soft drinks (other than perhaps Pepsi) can hope to compete well with Coca-Cola and its international influence.

Annexes

Document 1

Coca-Cola sales and profits from 2014

Document 2

The photo came from here:

Document 3

Here is a good source for general information regarding the company’s history

The TIME Magazine cover is from here:

Conclusion
I found out about Cocacolonisation here:
Cocaine in early Coca-Cola and some other facts: