"Not One Drop!" - New Russian Kvass Calendar Takes Aim at Coke

This 2009 anti-Coca Cola calendar was designed by the Russian ad agency Great for its client Deka, a purveyor of fine Russian beverages. It's main brand of kvass (which is a fermented, mildly alcoholic beverage made from bread) is "Nikola," which is a play on words: "Nikola" is a common Russian name, but also sounds a lot like "ne cola," which means "not cola." The slogan to the right of the month on each page reads "Kvass- Don't Drink Cola, Drink Nikola!"

To best understand this campaign, we need to turn the clock back almost twenty years - to the fall of the Soviet bloc. As previously state-owned businesses were either shuttered or bought up by a combination of well-connected former bureaucrats and Western multinationals, soda brands like Coca Cola and Pepsi flourished. The portable and easily stored bottled sodas did much better in such an apocalyptic economic climate - kvass had been traditionally served by street vendors directly out of their large fermenting tanks.

A resurgence of sorts came about in the late 1990s, when kvass started being bottled en masse and several kvass companies started aggressive marketing campaigns - kvass was not only much cheaper than Coke or Pepsi, it was also a native drink (though it technically has alcohol in it, the percentage is so low that it's an accepted kid's beverage). In particular, Deka has been pushing the anti-U.S. sentiment hardest of all the Russian kvass manufacturers - an earlier slogan was based around "anti cola-nisation." While it's always fun to take swipes at large multinationals, it's worth noting the political environment in which these ad campaigns' pro-Russia sentiments reside: the increasing tide of right-wing nationalism being pushed by Vladimir Putin.

The designs themselves are on the whole pretty clever - though most of them are close copies of old Soviet anti-alcohol ads (ironic for a fermented beverage ad!). For the ones I know are copies I've placed the original below it. I really hope I see these on posters at the next anti-Coke action.

Further assistance on translating the slogans is greatly appreciated - some of them seem a little suspect to me.

"Chemistry or life?"

"Smash!"

"Let's thrash it!"

"Not a single drop!"

"Way to degeneration"

"The dealer is the worst enemy!"

"Stop before it's too late"

"The sad end..."

"Obey!"

"With such a shakey foundation
You can not build a steady life —
No matter how strong you are!"

"Enemy of the mind"

[Not sure; the first word translates to "defective"]

"Together we'll overcome!" [Good lord, this one's beyond suggestive!]

(h/t to wtf_inc)