On November 13, 2023, a Russian-language Facebook user published a video in which a Russian-speaking man asks the voice assistant of a search engine 2 questions: 1) What does the word “Coca Cola” mean in Hebrew translation; 2) What does “Pepsi” mean in Hebrew translation.” To the first question, the voice assistant answers that according to the information published on one of the sites, “Coca Cola” is translated from Hebrew as follows: “No Muhammad, no Mecca.” As for the second question, according to the search engine, if the word “Pepsi” written in Latin letters is turned upside down and dots are placed between them, the letters will resemble the numbers 12.9.39 – which turns out to be the date of the genocide of the Jews. Also, PEPSI is an anagram and stands for “Pay Every Penny to Save Israel.”
The claim that the names of “Coca Cola” and “Pepsi” are associated with Jews and have hidden meanings is a conspiracy theory and is not based on any factual information. In addition, there are factual errors in the video:
- The meaning of the name “Coca Cola,” as if it means “no to Muhammad, no to Mecca,” is associated with the Arabic language and not with Hebrew, although even in this case it is not proven that the mentioned meaning is included in the name;
- The company Pepsi and its name Pepsi-Cola was created at the end of the nineteenth century, 40 years before 1939.
Conspiracy theories about Coca Cola’s name translating to “No Muhammad, No Mecca” have been around for decades. The claim is based on the theory that when the Coca Cola logo is rotated in a mirror image, the letters visually resemble Arabic letters, and if observed closely, it represents the above-mentioned phrase in Arabic.
Contrary to this claim, Business Insider noted in an article that this is a simple myth, and even if the name of Coca Cola is reversed, the letters must be changed to “Coca-Cota” and only then can it be translated into the Arabic phrase “No Muhammad no Mecca”. At the same time, the Coca-Cola company noted that this fact was studied by a number of clergymen and commissions, who did not find any violation or insult to religion. It should also be noted that the logo was created in Atlanta in 1886, when the company did not have much knowledge of the Arabic language. In 2000, one of Egypt’s highest religious figures also commented on this issue, saying that such claims are baseless and that the Coca-Cola logo does not offend Muslims in any way.
As for PEPSI, as mentioned in the circulated video,if we mirror the name, the letters will resemble the number 12939, and if we put the dots between them correctly, we will get the specific date 12.9.39, which according to another Russian source is September 12, 1939 – the first date of concentration of Jews in the ghetto. However, the first ghetto for Jews was created in October 1939, on the occupied Polish land. Besides, Pepsi was created long before these events. Initially, the company was established in 1893 under the name “Brady’s Drink,” however, in 1898, the name was changed to “Pepsi-Cola”. The company claimed that the drink helped with indigestion or “dyspepsia” and that’s where the name “Pepsi” came from. Therefore, deciphering it as shown in the video is baseless.
Notably, Coca Cola and Pepsi did not enter the Israeli market for a long time, because they did not want to lose the huge Arab market because of a small country like Israel. Coca Cola announced the production and sale of the product in Tel Aviv in 1966, which was the result of a boycott of their drink by the Jewish population living in the United States. In contrast, Arab League countries themselves boycotted the company in 1968, and in most of them it lasted until 1991. As for Pepsi, it refrained from doing business in Israel until the 1990s for similar reasons. Consequently, part of the US population has long considered both companies to be anti-Semitic corporations. Currently, both drinks are successfully sold both in Israel and in the Arab countries of the Middle East.
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