Dedicated Idiocy | School Year 1992-1993: The Coke-In

Strangely enough, reading Mark's account it appears as if he regrets having spoken up about the possibility of delaying the event. I, for one, have always felt bad about railroading him into going along with it anyway.

The MPS was frankly divided on this, with most people arguing that we'd jumped through enough hoops — filling out forms, sending out press releases — that it would be a great inconvenience to reschedule. Not to mention the fact that the press representatives were there, ready to report on this event. Good money was not on them coming back on Friday, when other assignments would no doubt be vying for their attention.

But as Mark wrote in Completely Different, the event was successful in that we did get the press to pay attention.

And the video I produced from the event, appropriately titled, The Coke-In, survives as eternal evidence of our inspired, but soggy, silliness.

In fact, I've watched the edited Coke-In video so often that it wasn't until watching the raw footage that I remembered some other bits. I'd cut out much of my own opening comments, because it was simply too difficult to hear me through the megaphone I was using, which along with the steady pitter-patter of rain, formed a virtually indiscernible buzz.

My notes, written on 3 X 5 cards, show evidence of having been rained upon.

But in addition to reading the letter which the Pepsi-mongers at the Daily Collegian had refused to run, I also gave a speech in which I asked, "What has Pepsi ever done for us?"

People in the crowd called out, "A nice new scoreboard."

"Money for the HUB expansion."

"New convocation center."

"Well, apart from those things," I asked, "what has Pepsi ever done for us? Nothing!"

I continued, mentioning that we had invited student activist Rob Kampia to be with us today but he had declined. From this, I surmised that the only reason could be that he was the recipient of an all-expenses paid reeducation seminar in Hackensack, New Jersey.

I read our manifesto: "As you know, while Penn State students slept unaware in their collective bed last year, the Penn State administration was busy working late into the night, sealing a quiet, 11th hour deal with the PepsiCo megacorporation. The result of this deal was a virtual coup d'etat, under which PepsiCo seized control of the lucrative beverage concession here on campus. Our freedom of choice was gone without a shot being fired. Today's rally is but the first step on a long, hard road. The multinational corporation has the money, the ad men, the media representation and the lawyers. All we have is our collective, but justice will prevail. And we all look forward, with tears of joy in our eyes, when we can all truly know we've earned the right to say 'all soft drinks are created equal.'"

This hit the cutting room floor (so to speak), since it wasn't nearly funny enough.

And then there were testimonials by Holli Weisman, Joe Foering and Neale Lanigan, in the style of the Gay Pride rallies: "I tried Pepsi once, we all did. But I just told my parents that I'm a Coke drinker and a Coke supporter." Though funny, the sound was terrible, and in the interest of keeping the finished video to a sensible length, they were out (in more ways than one!).

I also cut out most of the sing-along, although I included the candlelight vigil (in mid day, during a rain storm) and sing-along to "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," with an intentionally overwrought intro.