Rally held against Pepsi deal
by Jim MacKinnon
The Centre Daily Times, May 1, 1993

Monday's rain-soaked Coke-In protest against Penn State's $14 million Pepsi Cola contract at the university's Schwab Auditorium was the real thing.

Or about as real as a noon-time protest can be when it's the Penn State Monty Python Society doing the protesting - and not just for the tastelessness of it.

Of course, it helps to have an audience to protest in front of, but the day's torrential rains limited onlookers to little more than a glance and a smile as they walked briskly by the auditorium on their way to dry classrooms.

Still, the Coke-In went on in the inimitable, and inimical, satiric tradition of the disbanded British comedy troupe despite only a dozen or so people in the audience - mostly from the society.

The protest came complete with a day-time candlelight vigil, a Coke jingle sing-along and an end-of-event disruption by the goose-stepping and toy gun-toting "Students For Corporate Cooperation" who sang "Springtime for Joab and PepsiCo." The song parodied the lyrics "Springtime for Hitler and Germany" in the classic Mel Brooks comedy "The Producers." The target: the 10-year contract Penn State signed with Pepsi last May, giving the soda giant exclusive rights to market its products and advertise on campus. To summarize the Coke-In in the society's words: "Remember! Don't let a man in a suit tell you what to drink!" Coke-In organizer Alyce Wilson led off the protest, megaphone to mouth, chanting "Just Say No To PepsiCo!" Society members held cardboard signs that read "What About YooHoo? It Tastes Better Than It Looks" and "Just Say No To Pepsi State."

Joe Foering, a 21-year-old education major portrayed "Gary the Cola Preacher," a take-off on Gary Cattell, known on campus as The Willard Preacher for his sermons at Willard Building.

"I don't need no megaphone, because, as you know, the megaphone is the tool of the devil," Foering shouted, pacing along the steps. "God knows Pepsi Cola is nothing more than a symbol of the avarice and greed of Penn State...Hell's a place where the rivers flow freely with Crystal Pepsi...Non-caffeinated drinks will let you sleep at night so you're not fornicating."

"I'm glad to see people are so concerned with important issues," said Scott Perry, 20, a sophomore in general arts and science, as he walked inside Schwab after briefly watching the Coke-In. Perry said he has no soda preference and drinks anything that's around.

Penn State spokesman William Mahon did not see the Coke-In but said that tens of thousands of Penn State students will benefit under the contract.

"I haven't heard any complaints," he said. "Life goes on."

Monty Python Society president Mark Sachs said afterward he thought the group had made its point.

The light turnout and rain didn't dampen Wilson's spirits, either. "You know," she said, "Pepsi's been seeding the clouds."

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