Surely you are old enough to remeber New Coke....
Of course! That was a sugar taste issue, though. Also marketing. Apparently, consumers liked the taste, but they mishandled the marketing? I dunno.
Which megacorps? Biotechnica, Phizer, Dole, Johnson and Jhnson, Bayer?
Sorry, I was unclear. I meant Coca-Cola is anti-(illegal) drugs. Publicly, of course.
Yes, only 70 corporation are more powerful than that company that makes soda pop. How many of them have a more recognizable brand image though?
Quite a few, I'd think, but I haven't checked. It is pretty powerful. Soda-pop, discount goods, insurance...many powerful companies focus on banal products and do it well. That's one of my favourite things about 2020 - THOSE corporations make COOL stuff!
I can totally see them putting a major dent in coca production, but Cartels have botanists on payroll too, creating new, more powerful, and more resistant strains of Coca. The loss would be temporary.
I think if given the go ahead, western science could pretty thoroughly smear cartel science into the ground. Irrevocably destroy the strain and maybe all similar things, certainly outdoing whatever the cartels could do. They aren't First World powerful. Yet.
That raises an interesting question - what DID happen to the cartels in 2020? I'd have to look up the timeline, but didn't the DEA make them a moot point as well in canon? Or did they reconfigure?
Organized crime doesn't see much love and....
OH MY GOD WE ARE SO OFF TOPIC. RAINCOATS. RAINCOATS ARE NECESSARY. WISDOM QUICK SAY SOMETHING ABOUT CLOTHES BEFORE MODS MURDELATE US.