Cola Wars: The Ethiopian Front

Just so you know, the cola war between Coke and Pepsi is alive and well in Ethiopia.

As usual, Coke strikes first.

What does every "traditional" Ethiopian restaurant need? That's right. Coke.

But soon, you realize Pepsi is not rolling over without a fight. What are you going to drink at the gas station?

A little reminder while you're buying from the street vendor.

One of the major fronts is the restaurants and hotels. I'm not sure if they get paid or just get a free sign for their business.

Not sure about Pepsi's choice in sponsoring "Testy Burger," but in general I think the trench warfare on this front is at a standstill. Plus, in actuality, both are losing to the several Ethiopian beer companies, who totally own this space.

I mean seriously, even here where the wall is a huge Coca-Cola ad, the two establishments are sponsored by rival Ethiopian beer companies.

So where's that leave our combatants?

Pepsi bus stop!

 Yeah, but who's got the bus!

(Author's note: This bus is not in any way, shape, or form indicative of Ethiopian buses. This is probably the nicest bus I've seen in the entire country.)

But once you get off the bus, what're you gonna see? Another Pepsi bus stop.

Oh yeah, well the airport's the real cutting edge for transportation.

We've got some of those, too. In fact, you can even see our carts in your picture! In case you're blind, here's a close up.

Fair point...but we've got the airport toll booth...

...and the farewell sign driving up to the Bahir Dar airport.

Even our carts are branded.

From a giant building ad with a Coca-Cola heart inside of Ethiopia...

...all the way to Coke branded souks.

"Enjoy your movies with Pepsi" at the only major ferenji (foreigner) movie theater in the country.

Whatever, Coke building ad!

Wait a minute! What's the green at the lower left side. Zoom out some.

Ha! You're sharing your building with 7-Up - a Dr. Pepper brand. Man, that's just embarrassing.

Coke branded Lalibela hotel.

Yeah, I'm real impressed by your "hotl."

Addis's Central Park (aka Peacock Park) is sponsored by Coke.

And Santa drinks Coke.

Well, this guy clearly drinks Pepsi.

The coup de grâce, Coke branded souk in the shape of a Coke bottle!

Hmmm...legitimately impressed, but I branded a traffic circle!

Anyway, you get the idea. The bigger story is that in Ethiopia, it seems the enemies are breaking the rules and fraternizing.

Why is there a Pepsi ad in the middle of these Coke ads?

Why is one side of this fence branded Coke and the other side branded Pepsi?

Why is there a Pepsi fridge right next to a Coke fridge at this hotel?

And perhaps most disturbingly to the people at HQ, how can this restaurant serve Coke to one person at this table and Pepsi to the other?

Someone's definitely getting fired over this.

As a closing note, I wanted to discuss Ethiopia's dry season. I know you're wondering, "How dry is that? Surely it does sometimes rain during the dry season." Well, right you are! As I learned in November, all it takes is for a huge tropical cyclone to hit Somalia. Add a few days, and Addis gets some rain.

I joke, but this actually turned out to be a huge deal because the couple days of rain in the highland areas around Addis led the about to be harvested tef and wheat to start sprouting, which ruined some of the crop this season. Turns out weather is the fear of farmers all over the world.