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What problem did soda solve? My understanding is that sodas were mostly introduced as mostly phoney patent medicines.. in other words they claimed to (but did

• diminoten 13y ago
  The "what do I drink that'll taste better than water?" problem.
  • rayiner 13y ago
    Isn't that a manufactured phenomenon?
    • diminoten 13y ago
      I mean, frankly, that's a somewhat arguable point. It might be, but it wasn't, I don't think, consciously sold in the "devious" manner deodorant was sold. Soda wasn't invented first, and then people started drinking things other than water after being told they need to. Soda was sold as, "here try this, it's pretty good!" You can't really compare food with nonfoods in this area. Food and sustenance products come embedded with a need - survival. You have to drink/eat something, why not drink/eat my product?
  • jlgreco 13y ago
    If lacking something carbonated and sugary was a problem that sodas solved, then not smelling like a horse was a problem cleaning products solved. Put another way: If "not smelling like a horse" was not a legitimate problem because marketers created it, then "not having something sugary and carbonated" was similarly not a legitimate problem, because marketers created it.
    • diminoten 13y ago
      It's not "not smelling like a horse", it's "body odor is bad". Did you read the article?
      • jlgreco 13y ago
        You, and the article, assert that the negative connotation of the smell is manufactured. By "smells like a horse", I mean "considers the smell to be bad". If "people smell like horses" is illegitimate because it is manufactured, then why isn't "I am unsatisfied with this wide array of beverages that are not simultaneously sugary and carbonated"? Either both are illegitimate because they are "manufactured", or both are legitimate. Did you read my comment?
        • diminoten 13y ago
          Food and drink are different, because they come with built-in need satisfaction - "you're going to eat/drink, so why not eat/drink my product?" That need was not manufactured. Smelling nice was. It's different.
  • nsxwolf 13y ago
    Everyone thought water tasted like the most delicious fruit imaginable, the nectar of the gods, until some cynical profiteer busybody came around and told them it was plain. Now we all believe it tastes plain because we've been drinking Coke for all our lives. I don't believe a word I just said, but a lot of people apparently will.
  • sliverstorm 13y ago
    Folks, remember your historical context. Before people drank soda, they mostly drank beer (or other alcohol). Soda is the non-alcoholic replacement. There's still echoes of this left in modern-day asian culture. Particularly authentic asian restaurants will still look at you funny if you ask for iced water with your meal. Traditionally, it's either hot tea or hot sake.
    • jlgreco 13y ago
      > Particularly authentic asian restaurants will still look at you funny if you ask for iced water with your meal. Traditionally, it's either hot tea or hot sake. As someone with the habit of burning my mouth with hot beverages, this drives me bonkers.
    • ValentineC 13y ago
      > Before people drank soda, they mostly drank beer (or other alcohol). Soda is the non-alcoholic replacement. Didn't people historically drink alcoholic beverages because of alcohol's antiseptic properties? (Oddly enough, I can't find much reference to this hypothesis in Wikipedia.) Soda appears to fulfill the need for cold, sugary, flavoured drinks.
      • sliverstorm 13y ago
        Not always. Beer back then was usually too weak to kill bacteria, but the brewing process involves boiling, and we now know what that does to bacteria! But yes, generally speaking alcoholic beverages were safer than water. I'm not saying that soda took the job of "drink that is safer than water". I'm merely pointing out that people did not migrate from water to soda. They went from beer to soda.