Speaker 1: I'm Jason Colvin, I'm d Graves.
Speaker 2: Give us five minutes and we will give you the fire.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely You Can't
Be Serious Podcast Special Edition five Minutes of Fire. We
are here talking about the lyrics of We Didn't Start
the Fire by Billy Joel. We're covering only five minutes
at a time, which is about to link with the song,
so it works out kind of nicely. So please join
us as we dive into some new lyrics today.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, So here are the topics that we're
going to be covering today, all right, d In this
final episode, we talk about China's under martial.
Speaker 1: Law and rock and Roller Cola Wars War. All right, Jason,
tell me about China being under marshal law.
Speaker 2: The Tieneman Square protests, known in China as the June
fourth incident, where student led demonstrations hell in Tienaman Square, Beijing, China,
lasting from April to June of nineteen eighty nine. That
the protests were preceded by the death of General Secretary
Hugh Yao Bang. He was a pro reformed guy and
a very very popular leader in China, starting in April fifteenth,
many mourners spilled into tanem And Square to mourn the
death of this leader. Soon these mourners became protesters. Grievances
at the time included inflation, corruption, overall oppression. The protesters
wanted more accountability, democracy, freedom of speech, due process, and
freedom of the press. The government was not impressed. On
April twenty second, the funeral takes place, which in turn
leads to many protests. Three students actually kneel in front
demanding to speak with the Premiere of China. The state
led newspaper at the time writes and editorial condemning the protests.
Speaker 1: Because of this, the people.
Speaker 2: Really get mad now. Students begin a hunger strike. On
May twentieth, the Chinese government declares martial law. On June third,
the government begins to warn protesters to leave for their safety.
What the protesters don't realize is that soldiers are waiting
just a few blocks away. On June fourth, soldiers move
in and begin shooting unarmed people, and in one of
the most iconic moments of the nineteen eighties, on June fifth,
nineteen eighty nine, one man takes on a column of
Chinese tanks all right, D tell us about Roca.
Speaker 1: Roller Color Wars last one. Man, I know who We're
going to jump back to eighty six, No, not nineteen
eighty six. Eighteen eighty six? Whoa That is when John
Smith Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia, who has his
own stomach troubles after a lot of failed attempts, develops
the original recipe for Coca Cola. By nineteen eighty eight,
a bit of a con man named Asha Griggs Chandler
buys the recipe he had partnered up with Pemberton, and
then when Pemberton dies, he offered to buy the recipe
from the son and wife at the funeral. He founds
in eighteen ninety six the Coca Cola Company. Two years later,
eighteen ninety eight, Caleb Bradham renames his Brad's Drink in
to Pepsi Cola and forms the Pepsi Cola Company. In
nineteen oh two, this begins the Cola Wars Wow Now.
The two companies continued to introduce new products and new
advertising techniques, including Coke's first celebrity endorsement and nineteen fifteen
Contour bottle, until instability following World War one forced Pepsi
to declare bankruptcy in nineteen twenty three. Pepsi declares bankruptcy
again in nineteen thirty one, but recovers, begins selling its
products for an affordable five cents per bottle, and reignites
the Cola Wars through today. In nineteen seventy five, Pepsid
develops a new advertising campaign called the Pepsi Challenge, where
it pairs Pepsi against Coke in a blind taste test
of random participants. It's so effective that during the peak
of the Cola Wars, Coca Cola saw its flagship product
losing market share to Pepsi, and it changed the formula,
bringing in new Coke, regarded by much of the business
industry as the worst marketing decision of all time, but
the Cola Wars continue. Coke reintroduces classic Coke and a
new facet in the Cola Wars is In the late eighties,
Pepsi and Coke each begin hiring musicians rock and Rollers
if you Will to promote their product. Coke hires Paul Abduel,
Pepsi hires Michael Jackson. There is an incredibly famous and
unfortunate fire that occurs during the filming of one of
those commercials, leading to Michael Jackson's hair catching on fire.
They continue to try to outdo each other by getting
more and more musicians and celebrities to promote their product,
and guess what, they're both still around. There you go,
Although New Coke is dead and it's not in other
countries just in the US.
Speaker 2: Wow, all right, d that's going to wrap up our
series on We Didn't Start the Fire.
Speaker 1: Guys, we hope you enjoyed this. If you haven't heard
the episodes, be sure and go back and check them
all out. We loved doing this. This was a fun
walk through forty years of US history and something different
for us to do. We hope you will join us
for our next season, where we're going to be starting
off with a big Top five songs of nineteen eighty
four and then rolling into all kinds of fun movies
and music. For our new season.
Speaker 2: Go subscribe to the Shirley Can't Be Serious podcast wherever
you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: Guys, remember that we do hours of research for just
five minutes of products, So if you want to help
us out financially, go over to Patreon dot com. Backslash
Shirley Podcast and you can help us out for as
little as five bucks a month, and it's not something
for nothing. We also give you Patreon only episodes where
we cover one hit wonders of the eighties and nineties
and beyond. Thanks guys, Thanks guys.