Palestine Cola goes to war on SA market

On a digital billboard diagonally across the road from the Great Park Synagogue in Houghton, Johannesburg, there’s an advert for Palestine Cola. At first glance, many assumed it was either a controversial joke or an interesting way of expressing an anti-Israel agenda.

However, it turns out to be a genuine product being sold in stores in South Africa.

The bold branding uses the colours of the Palestinian flag, while adorning the undeniable bright Coca-Cola red. At the bottom of the can is the pattern found on the Palestinian keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress now commonly used to symbolise Palestinian resistance. The front of the can reads “Palestine” in big white letters. Then, the adverts show the South African and Palestinian flags, which is a clear political indicator.

The product is imported from Sweden as a provocative alternative to Coca-Cola, using emotive branding tactics to cater to a clearly niche market. According to the website, the producers are a Palestinian family living in Malmo, Sweden, and decided to launch this drink in February 2024.

“Most organisations these days have some purpose-driven or cause-related aspect to their brand,” said marketing expert Heidi Brauer. “The best way to do it is when you create a shared-value approach in which the impact you have on the world or the way the business impacts the world is connected to the purpose-driven work you do. Everybody is entitled to do that, and the world usually ends up being better.”

However, Brauer, who consults as Brand Mama or Heidibeeee&Co, says she is “curious” about the company’s choice of branding as “all brands want to appeal to as many customers as possible, and the more niche you are, the fewer customers you’re going to appeal to. The decision to label your soft drink ‘Palestine’ is de facto going to make your niche smaller.” Brauer commented on the lack of other products named after countries or territories.

“The product is not overtly supporting conflict, but rather leveraging it,” she said. “It’s certainly a risky choice for a product. But if they feel that they’re prepared to exclude a whole lot of consumers from their market, that’s their choice.

“The only way to make your product distinctive is to build a brand around it and choose a target market. More and more consumers are conscious and want to support brands that they believe are doing more than just taking. Conscious consumers want to know what a brand stands for and that’s part of a brand’s distinctiveness. Palestine Cola has chosen support of Palestine to make it distinctive and appeal to its target market. All the artefacts and symbols are there, but that’s what’s used to build a brand,” she said.

However, as Brauer said, “it will be provocative to the people who aren’t in its target market”.

Another marketing expert, who asked not to be named for professional reasons, said he believed it was an unusual way for a commercial enterprise to launch a brand.

“It’s different to selling MAGA [Make America Great Again] merchandise to people on the Trump bandwagon,” he said. “What’s different is that this is a war. They aren’t marketing it off a war per se. By using the keffiyeh and the Palestinian flag as well as the timing of it, it’s taking commercial advantage of a conflict and a tragedy. What we’re seeing is people trying to be opportunistic and take advantage of religious fervour by selling things. It’s not so ethical in terms of traditional marketing and business ethics to try and commercialise a conflict and struggle.

“But it seems fact, history, and logic has taken a back seat when it comes to Palestine. Given this, and the religious fervour and antisemitism it ignites in many [most-interconnected], it’s conceivable that selling this Cola off tragedy and hate may appeal to a large audience which wants to show solidarity towards Hamas and the elimination of Israel ‘from the river to the sea’. So bizarre as that may seem, it’s possibly a far larger selling point than an alternative to Cola itself, if not the only selling point.

“If it’s registered as an NPO [non-profit organisation] and audited as a charity raising money for a humanitarian crises, and none of the money is going towards paying huge salaries and bonuses in South Africa while they ostensibly try to raise money, then it might have a different complexion and be an innovative fundraising strategy, but this would need to be legitimately proven,” the marketing expert said.

According to the Palestine Cola website, the company represents “a symbol of unity and community” and “100% of our profits go directly to war-affected people and children in Palestine”. The company presents Safadfood AB, a charity that claims that “every purchase of our products, you contribute to educational programmes, healthcare services, and cultural preservation that foster hope and prosperity in Palestine and around the world”.

The SA Jewish Report contacted the representative of Palestine Drinks South Africa, who said that bringing the product to the South African market was “based on the taste of the product, on the conscious consumer, and a humanitarian campaign”.

“I don’t want to have a Coca-Cola or anything related to these companies on my table,” she said. “And if I don’t want that, I need to provide an alternative. It gives people the opportunity to be conscious consumers supporting a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ending business ties with those that are complicit and support Zionism.”

She said the product was about the legacy they were leaving for future generations to understand how people contributed towards supporting people in Gaza during the “genocide” and against “imperialism and colonialism around the world”. Although the drinks are the product of Sweden, 100% of the profit goes to help those in need in Gaza, providing them with drinking water and food,” she said.

She believes there’s a gap in the market for those who are boycotting Coca-Cola and PepsiCo because of their Western links, making this alternative product apparently viable.

“In the six months following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the invasion of Gaza, PepsiCo beverage volumes in the Africa, Middle East, and South Asia division barely grew, after notching up 8% and 15% growth in the same quarters of 2022/2023, according to Reuters.

“Volumes of Coke sold in Egypt declined by double-digit percentage points in the six months ended 28 June 2024, according to data from Coca-Cola HBC, which bottles there. In the same period last year, volumes rose in high single digits.”