Empanadas

Uruguayan classic! A sweet or savory pastry filled with just about anything you could imagine. The most popular fillings tend to be ground beef and olives, chicken, ham and cheese, and of course dulce de leche for dessert. You can order them fried or baked. I prefer them al horno. Less grease please.


They have fast food empanada places, delivery empanada places, and gourmet empanada places for all your varying empanada needs. When you order them in (as Uruguayans often do) they come with strange holes poked in the end to tell the different flavors apart. More or less, it's impossible to distiguish little dots cut into pastry dough, so after spending an hour figuring out exactly what kinds to order, everybody ends up eating everybody else's empanada anyway.

(I find it amusing Uruguayans insist on washing these down with a Coca-Cola, even they don't have any in the house--that just simply means you have to run to the store. Immediately. And I suppose, in general, it's always prudent have to have a coca on hand to offer in case you have guests over, or you aren't going to be remembered for being a very polite host.)

Coca-Cola Light

In light of my post yesterday on Coca-Cola, I'd also like to point out another interesting tid-bit about the world's favorite brand. In countries outside of the US, they sell Coca-Cola Light which is yummy. I generally try to avoid the poison that is carbonated beverages, but Coca-Cola Light is actually tasty. And worth 0 calories.

However, Coca-Cola Light is different than Diet Coke because it is made with different types of sweeteners, the least of which is 30-50 times more sweet than sugar. According to Wikipedia: "Coca-Cola Light may be sweetened with a blend containing cyclamates, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium." If you are still confused, here is what Coke has to say about their different concoctions:

Coca-Cola Zero is sweetened with a blend of low-calorie sweeteners, while Diet Coke is sweetened with aspartame. As for Coke/Coca-Cola light, in certain countries, the term "diet" is not used to describe low-calorie foods and beverages. In these countries, we offer Coke/Coca-Cola light. The sweetener blend used for Coke/Coca-Cola light is formulated for each country based on consumer preference.

Ha ha ha "consumer preference." Or in other words, cyclamates, which are used in Coca-Cola Light, were banned by the FDA in 1970. They don't market it the US, because they can't.

In South America however, bring on the Coca-Cola Light. Gurgle gurgle.

Coca-Cola

Let's begin our series of Ad-Wednesdays by talking about Coca-Cola, arguably THE largest and most successful brand in world. (Coca-Cola is consistantly ranked number one in terms of "brand power" by Interbrand every year. And after spending an entire semester researching Coca-Cola brand identity and globalization I would likely agree, although there are several other monster brands out there).



This photo is taken out of my window. Coca-Cola awning. Coca-Cola umbrellas. Coca-Cola chairs. Coca-Cola sign. Coca-Cola everything. This restaurant is considered "posh" here, where the cool cats come to dine, to see and be seen.

Coca-Cola is highly visible here. Coca-Cola has many large and prominent advertising spaces throughout the city. Just about every place that sells beverages, sells Coke.

What do people call "soda" or "pop" here? Coca. You want a glass of cola? Oh, you mean you want a Coca? It doesn't matter whether you will be getting Sprite, Pepsi, Pomelo, whatever, you will be ordering a coca. I think of this phenomenon similar to the "oh, I need a Kleenex" or "I have to Xerox this report" phenomenon in the US. When a brand name becomes a substitute for the actual product (respectively a tissue and paper copy from the examples above), that is when they have achieved far more success than any other competitor in their market-share.

Coca-Cola is big. Bigger than you can imagine.

Design the World a Coke

Oh so cool. Design the World a Coke.


Look at the Coca-Cola bottle I designed (For some reason it won't face the right way in the still shot. Click on the link to watch it rotate in all directions and at all angles, because it's in 3D! So fancy, I know). Seriously, you have to check out my beautiful Coke bottle. It's pretty awesome.

Now make your own; but be warned, this site is highly addictive. I thought I would spend 10 minutes playing around with the design tools and ended up burning 2 hours getting the color of splattered paint just right.

You can't say you haven't been warned; but really, this is just too cool. Even more exciting than the M&M website that lets you make crazy photographs. Wait. I'm noticing a trend. I think I'm a sucker for these sort of interactive marketing things. And now I'm advertising for them on my blog... I have in no way been paid to tell you how cool Coke is.

Don't drink Coke; just design their bottles. Good, now I don't feel like I have broken any moral codes.