News - The soda progressives
Eliminating discrimination is good for business
Some things never change in Atlanta — and that’s not always a bad thing. In the early 1960s, Coca-Cola’s legendary chairman, Robert Woodruff, quietly made a few calls to some key city business leaders urging them to purchase tickets for a banquet honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
In those days, most white businessmen considered it risky to be seen in the company of the controversial Dr. King, and ticket sales for the dinner had been abysmal. Woodruff, fearing negative media coverage of Coke’s hometown, picked up his phone, and within hours, the event was a sellout.
Such was the influence of Robert Woodruff and Coca-Cola. Historians have long paid tribute to the fact that Atlanta managed to present a progressive image to the world even as other Southern cities raged with civil strife, largely due to the influence of the late Mr. Woodruff.
Woodruff had a supreme distaste for embarrassing controversies that might reflect negatively upon Atlanta. And his power was such that he could quickly quell potentially serious disputes among government officials and business leaders by making a brief single telephone call.
Atlanta in the year 2002 continues to owe a great debt of gratitude to Coca-Cola, even if its civic influence has waned a bit. Coke Chairman Doug Daft recently attempted to mediate a rather delicate situation involving another Georgia institution, the legendary Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters Tournament. Coke was a sponsor of the Masters television broadcast and inadvertently became embroiled in a media controversy after the National Council of Women’s Organizations sent a letter to Augusta National Chairman William W. “Hootie” Johnson requesting that the all-male club change its membership policy to admit female members. The letter suggested that pressure might be brought to bear on Masters sponsors if action wasn’t taken by next spring.
In his reply to the NCWO, Johnson wrote, “I have found your letter’s several references to discrimination, allusions to the sponsors, and your setting of deadlines to be both offensive and coercive.”
In a press release, Johnson characterized the efforts of the NCWO by saying, “We expect such a campaign would attempt to depict the members of our club as insensitive bigots and coerce the sponsors of the Masters to disassociate themselves under threat — real or implied — of boycotts and other economic pressures.”
Johnson’s indignant fit left Coke in an awkward position — and the timing couldn’t have been worse. The company had recently settled a lawsuit alleging institutional discrimination, and the unwelcome controversy involving Augusta National could cause many people to regard the company as an intractable enabler of discrimination.
And so Chairman Daft, recalling Woodruff’s paternalistic approach to such issues, called in a few favors to work the matter out quietly and with great sensitivity to both sides. Martha Burk, chairwoman of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, was encouraged by Daft’s interest. But Johnson insisted that no one would ever have any impact on Augusta National’s membership policy. Then, in a petulant huff, the knuckle-dragging Johnson declared the matter a non-issue by announcing that the Masters was severing all ties with its television sponsors, which included Citigroup and IBM, in addition to Coke. Augusta National would simply pay the CBS network millions of dollars to broadcast the Masters commercial-free, a move widely considered to be cutting off the club’s nose to spite its face.
And that’s where the situation remains, with the sponsors out of the picture and a hallowed Georgia institution looking like some kind of chauvinistic Taliban throwback, embarrassing the state and our city.
But you can’t blame Coca-Cola for this mess. In its great tradition of civic leadership, Daft went above and beyond to protect our community from the humiliation heaped upon it by Johnson and his pathetic gang of sexist cavemen in Augusta. Besides, what the hell kind of redneck name is “Hootie” anyway?
jeff.berry@creativeloafing.com
Jeff Berry doesn’t belong to any all-male clubs, because he’s heterosexual.??