An ad in a Greenlandic supermarket captures the local mood after Coca-Cola arrived to the arctic region in February 1998.

By Rudy Brueggemann
Written August 1998

As recent as 1997, one of the world's most ubiquitous commercial logos was still unseen in Greenland. That changed in February 1998, when the infamous red-and-white ads and their accompanying black beverage hit the North American arctic region like a gale-force storm.

By all accounts, the world's largest island happily submitted to the Caesar of soft drinks.

"If you controlled the distribution of Coke in Greenland today, you'd be a rich man," a Greenlander told me during my visit in June 1998.

Coke's invasion of Kalaallit Nunaat -- as Greenlanders call their land -- was the latest in its quest toward global beverage dominance. At last count, 195 countries sell the world's most popular soft drink.

"It was important to make Coca-Cola part of daily life in Greenland," said Jennifer Scherer, a Coke spokesperson in Atlanta, Ga.

Coke boasts that its flagship product is distributed to 95 percent of Greenland's 60,000 or so residents on the island's populous west coast. Though a Danish territory, Greenland has controlled all local affairs since 1979 with its Home Rule government. The government definitely scored a big hit by opening the island to cola commerce.

Sipping half-liter bottles of locally bottled Coke, Greenlanders aren't complaining. An isolated people who passionately embrace anything new, they welcomed Coke as enthusiastically as they did cell phones and the Spice Girls.

In fact, when Coke first hit the shelves of Brugsens and other stores last winter, the Greenlanders couldn't have enough. Next to coffee, it is now the island's most popular beverage.

Meanwhile, Coke's arctic campaign continues to be waged on all media fronts, as seen in a lavishly produced TV commercial shown on Greenland's national TV station. A lone kayaker, a powerful icon of Greenland's 4,000-year-old Inuit culture, paddles to an iceberg, where he carves a massive statue from the ice block. As he slides away, the camera pans to solitary coke bottle sitting in the sea -- an icy monument to Coke's success.

Perhaps independence-yearning Greenlanders should invite Coke's marketeers to help plan their future self-rule, with a promise for a soft-drink monopoly. In exchange, the Coke logo could fit inside Greenland's red-and-white national flag, conveniently the same colors seen on Coca-Cola bottles the world over.