In Dubai, they installed five special phone booths in a labor camp. To use these phone booths, workers had to use a bottle cap from a bottle of coke, which retails to about 54 cents. Each cap would get a three-minute international call. Over 40,000 people used the phones in only about a month long timeframe. After that, Coca Cola took down the phones. The short time these workers were able to use the phones to connect with family and loved ones were a great way to find happiness in an unfortunate situation. Dubai’s migrant workers lead hard lives, as most of them come from other area’s of the world on promises of money and better lives, however once they arrive many get their passports revoked and are not allowed to bargain collectively. They end up trapped and not making much money as they originally intended. The phone booths that were set up by the Coca-Cola company were a symbol of happiness for these workers. For a short time they were able to forget about the lives that they are trapped in, and to hear the voices of their wives and children for the first time in a long time. Some people argue that this strategy was not a tasteful one, however. To take advantage of people at such a time, to promote a product isn’t right. Vauhini Vara, author of The New Yorker article Coca-Cola’s Happiness Machines says, “The question is weather Coca-Cola is shedding light on a little-known human-rights crisis and, in its own small way, helping to alleviate the troubles of the victims of that crisis, or whether it is adding to the exploitation of migrant workers in the Middle East and Asia.”(Vara) Either way, people are talking about Coca-Cola, so the advertising
In Dubai, they installed five special phone booths in a labor camp. To use these phone booths, workers had to use a bottle cap from a bottle of coke, which retails to about 54 cents. Each cap would get a three-minute international call. Over 40,000 people used the phones in only about a month long timeframe. After that, Coca Cola took down the phones. The short time these workers were able to use the phones to connect with family and loved ones were a great way to find happiness in an unfortunate situation. Dubai’s migrant workers lead hard lives, as most of them come from other area’s of the world on promises of money and better lives, however once they arrive many get their passports revoked and are not allowed to bargain collectively. They end up trapped and not making much money as they originally intended. The phone booths that were set up by the Coca-Cola company were a symbol of happiness for these workers. For a short time they were able to forget about the lives that they are trapped in, and to hear the voices of their wives and children for the first time in a long time. Some people argue that this strategy was not a tasteful one, however. To take advantage of people at such a time, to promote a product isn’t right. Vauhini Vara, author of The New Yorker article Coca-Cola’s Happiness Machines says, “The question is weather Coca-Cola is shedding light on a little-known human-rights crisis and, in its own small way, helping to alleviate the troubles of the victims of that crisis, or whether it is adding to the exploitation of migrant workers in the Middle East and Asia.”(Vara) Either way, people are talking about Coca-Cola, so the advertising