Why Clint Eastwood Movies Banned Coca-Cola Products Over The Karate Kid

Product placement is a prevalent aspect of filmmaking. Sometimes, it’s hilariously terrible (like the way most Michael Bay movies handle it), but at other times it’s seamlessly integrated into the rest of the film (as is the case in “Jurassic World,” surprisingly enough). Still, there is a difference between product placement being used to populate a cinematic world with recognizable brands and when it’s a mandate from above — whether it’s to alleviate the budget or because the studio behind a movie is owned by a conglomerate that makes sodas.

Such was the case when, in 1982, Coca-Cola acquired Columbia Pictures for three-quarters of a billion dollars. This, in turn, gave rise to an era of blatant product placement, whether it was E.T. eating a bunch of Reese’s Pieces or “Back to the Future Part II” featuring so much Pepsi product placement that it was literally a part of the plot. Such was also the case with one of the biggest hits to emerge from Columbia Pictures under the Coca-Cola regime: “The Karate Kid.” Directed by the late John G. Avildsen, the film overcame a quiet box office debut to birth a massive franchise and ultimately cemented itself as one of the best family movies of all time.

“The Karate Kid” was almost a very different movie, however — one helmed by none other than legendary actor turned filmmaker Clint Eastwood. Only, after Eastwood passed on directing the movie, he decided to wage war on Coca-Cola and ban all its products from his movies.

Clint Eastwood is no stranger to taking personal grudges seriously. His feud with Spike Lee over the lack of Black soldiers in “Flags of Our Fathers” got so bad it took Steven Spielberg mediating before they made peace. Still, that’s nothing compared to Eastwood’s long-lasting feud with Coca-Cola. 

It started when Eastwood’s eldest son, Kyle, made his acting debut in his father’s 1982 musical western comedy-drama Honkytonk Man” and decided to try and join a big new project. Speaking with The Guardian in 2007, Kyle Eastwood talked about auditioning to play Daniel LaRusso in “The Karate Kid.”

“I was actually willing to do it,” the younger Eastwood said when asked if he had turned down the role. “My father was looking at the script originally and then decided not to do it. He had mentioned it to me and said he thought it was an interesting part. He ended up passing the script on to somebody else and it ended up becoming ‘The Karate Kid.'”

Meanwhile, actor Sondra Locke, who was Clint Eastwood’s partner in the ’80s, offered a slightly different perspective. In her autobiography “The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly,” Locke said that the elder Eastwood agreed to direct “The Karate Kid” for Columbia Pictures on the condition that “Kyle played the lead, but they had refused. Clint forever more banned Coca-Cola from his sight.” After that, Clint Eastwood never drank Coke in his movies again.

As for Kyle Eastwood, he was not the only nepobaby who auditioned for the leading role in “The Karate Kid.” Everyone from Robert Downey Jr. to Charlie Sheen also tried out before the part went to Ralph Macchio. During an appearance in “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Macchio once recalled seeing Sheen in between auditions, noting that he didn’t look “like an Italian guy from Jersey.”