Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola - Softcover

Thomas, Mark

3.85

518 ratings by Goodreads

9781568584317: Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568584318 ISBN 13: 9781568584317

Publisher: Nation Books, 2009

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Mark Thomas a legendarily seditious comedian and human rights activist is a recovering Coca-Cola addict, a self-described middle-aged fat dad with asthma” who decides to trek around the globe investigating the stories and people Coca-Cola's iconic advertising campaigns don't mention: child laborers in the sugarcane fields of El Salvador, Indian workers exposed to toxic chemicals, Columbian labor union leaders in Coke bottling plants falsely accused of terrorism and jailed alongside the paramilitaries who want to kill them.

At once hilarious and disturbing, Thomas builds a very detailed and damning case against the world's most ubiquitous drink.

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About the Author:

Mark Thomas is an English comedian, presenter, political activist, and reporter from south London. He is best known for political stunts on his show, The Mark Thomas Comedy Product, which have caused huge controversy for exposing political and corporate crime. He is listed in the Guinness World Records 2009 for staging the most political protests in one day. He lives in London U.K.

From The Washington Post:

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Justin Moyer A less-than-hilarious BBC comedian turned self-styled "libertarian anarchist," Mark Thomas once offered a bounty for George W. Bush's head. But this time, in his imperfectly written expos� "Belching Out the Devil," he takes on a cause without term limits: the Coca-Cola Co.'s shameful unwillingness to investigate its anti-union, anti-environment bottlers. "Coca-Cola is the biggest brand in the world," Thomas writes, "[with] a greater reach than a flu virus." After reading about this British Michael Moore's misadventures in Colombia (where Coke ignored the murders of union organizers), India (where its factories are depleting the water table) and Mexico (where bottlers illegally refused to sell to bodegas that stocked competing brands), one will agree with Thomas's indictment without relishing his endless supply of cheesy one-liners. "I feel like I've been beaten up by pesto," Thomas says after receiving a basil purification rubdown in a Mayan community that drinks Coke to, ahem, burp and expel evil spirits. As journalism, "Belching Out the Devil" does for soda what Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" did for the hamburger. As comedy, it's less "Some Like It Hot" than "Police Academy 4."
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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