Before I get started, let me first say that I am neither a conspiracy-theory enthusiast, nor a blogger with too much time on my hands. Truth be told, I'm a tenured history professor with a crippling workload and the firm belief that one person killed JFK. Until my son helped me construct this site, I would have guessed a "blog" was some creature dreamt up by Tolkein.

If I am anything (other than crusty and obsolete), then it's a keen observer of things that don't fit. Chalk it up to advanced years. When youv'e spent as much time as I have on this planet, anomalies kind of leap out at you.

That said, I have discovered an anomaly so astounding I feel obligated to share it whomever I can. Forgive me for not revealing my identity, but the breadth of my discovery has led me to believe that anonymity is in my best interest.

A COKE COMMERCIAL LACED WITH SUBLIMINAL PEACE SYMBOLS

For the record, Coke has always seemed to me neither evil nor benevolent. It just seemed like a company behaving like a company, doing it's best to make lots and lots of money. So when I happened to be watching TV the other night and a Coke commercial aired, I was surprised to see two rather conspicuously placed references to peace.

The commercial, which features a group of young people singing on a rooftop, is actually for something called Coca-Cola Zero, which is a new variant of the company's flagship soft drink. As the camera changed places to show the singers from different angles, I caught the unmistakable image of a dove painted in the background.

 
Just as I was about to chalk this up to an ironic oversight on Coke's part, the camera angle changed again to reveal the world "Frieden," which is German for peace.

Just as I was about to chalk this up to an ironic oversight on Coke's part, the camera angle changed again to reveal a very large olive branch, yet another highly-visible symbol of peace.

According to the biblical story of Noah's Ark, Noah sent out birds after the rains had stopped to see if they returned with signs of land. To Noah's great relief, one dove returned with an olive branch, and both the flora and fauna were adopted as peace symbols by Picasso in 1949. The large olive branch at left is clearly visible in the Coke Zero commercial.

At this point my curiosity was piqued, and I began scanning intently for more symbols. Unfortunately, the commercial was over.

But I was ready when it came on again.

THE MORE YOU LOOK, THE MORE YOU'LL FIND

The next time through the commercial, I confirmed the existence of the first two peace symbols I had seen. But it was a third, new symbol that caused me to bolt upright in my chair and spill my scotch in the process (a tradgey on par with anything written by sophocles).

What I saw, beyond all shadow of a doubt, was the Roerich Banner of Peace, a relatively obscure symbol consisting of three circles which are themselves contained inside one larger, all-encompassing circle. This is no ordinary peace symbol. You will not find it hastily affixed to the backpacks of affluent college kids looking to make a clever fashion statement down at the student union.

The Roerich Banner of Peace was created by Russian artist and humanitarian Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) in response to the violence of World War I and the Russian Revolution. It is an integral part of the Roerich Pact, an international peace treaty agreed to by all countries of the Americas and signed in front of FDR at the Whitehouse in 1935

 
This symbol, an arcane expression of the triune nature of life, existed long before Roerich adapted it for his Banner of Peace. For the Banner of Peace, Roerich assigned each circle it's own meaning. The three small circles represent religion, art and science, while the larger circle represents the unification of these three elements by culture. As outlined in the Roerich Pact, the symbol holds all cultures around the world sacrosanct. Hardly the kind of thing you'd expect from a company who some accuse of homogenizing planet earth, but there it is, painted on a wall in plain view during the new Coca-Cola Zero commercial.

The inclusion of such an esoteric peace symbol compelled me to get out of my armchair and head straight for my study, where I have a home computer. If you knew how old I was, how loathe I am to leave my favorite chair once ensconced in it's synthetic leather recesses, or how strong an aversion I have to my own home computer, then you would no doubt comprehend the gravity of this move.

IT GOES MUCH DEEPER THAN A TV COMMERCIAL

The first thing I did was pay a visit to the Coke Zero website, where I was pleased to discover that a person can watch the TV commercial over and over again. This would save me from days or weeks of television viewing, time I simply do not have thanks to the anemic funding and woefully inadequate staffing practices at my beloved university. Anyhow, the fact that I could watch the commercial repeatedly allowed me to uncover several additional hidden references. Among them was a partially-obscured antenna shaped like the Japanese kanji for peace.

 
This large aerial antenna, which appears on the rooftop behind the singers, is shaped like the Japanese kanji for Peace. A colleague of mine and well-regarded astrophysicist was kind enough to point out that the configuration of this antenna would not exactly be conducive to good reception, leaving little doubt that it was placed this way for a different purpose.)

However, it wasn't until I broadened my search beyond the immediate rooftop that the true scope of the Zero Code began to materialize. Buckle up, friend.

First of all, the rooftop occupied by the singers is located in Philadelphia, PA. If you watch the final sequence, you will see that they are actually facing the statue of William Penn, holding up their drinks as though in tribute to Penn himself.

The famous statue of William Penn that sits atop City Hall in Philadelphia is situated just Northwest of the rooftop. At the conclusion of the commercial, the singers stand in unison and raise their Zeroes directly toward the statue of Penn, one of the most famous pacifists in American history.

For the uninitiated, William Penn (1644-1718) was a prominent Quaker and a very devout pacifist. His unshakable belief in peace is evident in a letter he wrote to the head of the Philadelphia Public Watch absolving himself and other Quakers from duty, dated March 19th, 1782. "We cannot in conscience support or contribute directly or indirectly to the Business or Practice of War," stated the letter. "Riotous and Ill-dispos'd people would be under small Restraint from persons who cannot even (commit) to bodily defense, and who wou'd therefore more likely meet with injustice and abuse themselves than be able to control Boisterous and Unruly men." Are the singers in the Zero commercial toasting Penn's philosophy?

If you think not, then witness this next bit of evidence, which is to me the most fascinating of all. According to an entry made in the journal of George Fox, founder of Quakerism and close personal friend of William Penn, Fox and several other Quakers were confronted by soldiers while preaching pacifism in Perth, Scotland (then called Johnstons) in the year 1657. As they were being led out of town, one of their number burst into glorious song. But here's the weird part. This year's G-8 peace summit is being held July 6th-8th in, where else, Perth, Scotland. And guess what's floating right there in the sky when you watch the Coke Zero commercial? Eight birds forming the letter G! Again, I had the luxury of consulting a colleague, this time an assistant professor of zoological science, who assured me that the formation was unnatural.

Meaning that the original film was altered so the birds would appear that way. But why? And by whom?

This formation consists of 8 birds in the shape of a letter "G." But birds never fly directly behind one another. They fly behind and to the left or right of the lead bird to avoid the turbulent wind vortices in it's wake. Meaning this formation is likely a cryptic reference to the G-8 peace summit.

And then I got to thinking about Picasso and Roerich, and it hit me like a ton of bricks: There was a famous work of art called "The Coca Cola Plan." painted by Robert Rauschenberg, who had left the navy in 1943 after declaring that he "did not want to kill anyone." The meaning of "The Coca Cola Plan" has long been debated. Does it symbolize the triumph of consumerism? The ascendance of the US economy? Now I looked at the wings, so much like Picasso's dove, and the three bottles, so analogous to Roerich's three circles, and I arrived at a very different conclusion, one that has become increasingly difficult for my skeptical side to argue with.

Pacifist Robert Rauschenberg's The Coca-Cola Plan, completed in 1952, features three round Coke bottles flanked by a pair of outstretched wings. The fact that Rauschenberg espoused pacifism upon leaving the Navy, as well as conspicuous allusions to Roerich's Peace Banner and Picasso's dove lithograph make me wonder if this is in fact a cabalistic expression of peace.

SO WHERE DOES IT END

I could tell you that Ginsberg's most famous poem, "The Howl," contains the line: "who appeared on the West Coast investigating the E.B.I. in beards and shorts with big pacifist eyes...," and that E.B.I., or Efes Breweries International, is in fact a huge Coca-Cola distributor based in Amsterdam, where Ginsberg himself was known to record.

I could hit you with some crazy minutia, like the fact that City Lights, a progressive bookstore which first published Ginsberg's "Howl" in 1956, was run at that time by a Japanese man named Murao Shigeyoshi, who was known to carry with him at all times a copy of I. Chang and a bottle of Coca-Cola.

In fact, I could go a lot farther, but not long ago an anonymous letter showed up on my desk respectfully asking that I let the matter alone. I immediately attributed this to some joke on the part of my fellow faculty members, many of whom I approached with these findings. But no one would cop to it. And if there's one thing history has taught me, it's that there are really big things moving just beneath the surface. Things far too heavy for these old, calcium-depleted bones. But if you're young, or full of wonder, by all means, keep digging...

NOTE: SPECIAL THANKS TO MY SON, WITHOUT WHOM THIS SITE WOULD HAVE TAKEN AN EPOCH TO COMPLETE.