Refreshing In Any Weather 

Danny Galieote painted this scene of a young couple sharing a Coca-Cola beneath a yellow raincoat. But beyond them rises a menacing mushroom cloud. Here, the shared Coca-Cola becomes a symbol of cultural normalcy amidst the looming spectre of nuclear annihilation. It’s the kind of darkly humorous juxtaposition we have seen before. The cloud reminds me of images of Mount Doom from fantastical, apocalyptic visions of the end of times. The simple act of sharing a drink beneath a makeshift shelter in Galieote's painting is more than an ad. It speaks to a collective psychological response to existential threat. Like earlier religious paintings depicting the apocalypse, it reveals a psychological process of projecting our deepest fears onto the external world. This reflects the enduring human need to find simple pleasures even as cataclysm looms.