Coca Cola
Personal branding satire: sell lover and customer a dream, lie to keep them happy: keep it coca cola, treat yourself just do it, vanity in the storm.
Listen: SpotifyApple Music
ISRC QZK6P2060458 (soundexchange)
Track thirteen on Masks and Monsters. Luke solo, North Park lockdown, August 2020. The back-half pivot from pandemic tenderness (Happy Birthday) into advertising brain: the album that named masks literally and socially now names personal branding as intimacy’s evil twin.
The refrain is the whole argument, repeated until it sticks: whether it’s your lover or your customer / sell em on a dream / lie to all you love / it’s the only way that they can stay happy. Romance and commerce run the same script, lying reframed as kindness. The chorus turns a soda name into a verb for staying on-message, Coke as a stand-in for every personal feed rather than a jingle for the drink. The bridge stacks borrowed slogans (treat yourself / just do it), Nike meeting self-care.
Same capitalism register as Shaggy’s Anthem, but influencer-native. A chopped snippet of this song also closes While My Beerus Gently Sleeps on Dragon Ball $d, teasing the next record before cutting it short. Leads into Corona.
Written, performed, mixed, and mastered by Luke Francis Walton. Album art by Gentle Giant Illustrations.
Lyrics
Are you lonely Like me Are you frustrated that No one's listening All the training And skill Couldn't change a thing In this constructed world Whether it's your lover Or your customer Sell em on a dream Gotta keep it simple And stupid Full of mystery Lie to all you love It's the only way That they can stay happy Whether it's your lover Or your mother Gotta keep in mind Personal branding Coca cola Keep it coca cola Gotta make your money with that personal branding Coca cola Keep it coca cola Gotta make your money with that personal branding Are you happy With more In the realm of the ideal And self assured Is it lovely and warm At the foot of vanity Outside the storm Whether it's your lover Or your customer Sell em on a dream Gotta keep it simple And stupid Full of mystery Lie to all you love It's the only way That they can stay happy Whether it's your lover Or your mother Gotta keep in mind Personal branding Coca cola Keep it coca cola Gotta make your money with that personal branding Coca cola Keep it coca cola Gotta make your money with that personal branding Why don't you Treat yourself Just do it Why don't you Treat yourself Just do it Whether it's your lover Or your customer Sell em on a dream Gotta keep it simple And stupid Full of mystery Whether it's your lover Or your customer Sell em on a dream Gotta keep it simple And stupid Full of mystery Lie to all you love It's the only way That they can stay happy Whether it's your lover Or your mother Gotta keep in mind Personal branding Coca cola Keep it coca cola Gotta make your money with that personal branding Coca cola Keep it coca cola Yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah yeah