Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Two Sides of Coca-Cola's Slippery, Sugary, Mouth

I love these two dueling stories from this past spring - so much so that I'll share them with you here.

Up first is the indignant upset of Joseph Tripodi, Coca-Cola's chief marketer, who along with such gems as,
"If you are sitting on your ass all day then have a Diet Coke."
was quoted in this June 21st piece in the Guardian as rejecting a proposal for a tax on sugary drinks and stating,
"We are easy to demonise as we are the world's largest brand and so people say 'you guys are causing all the problems'"
Up next, just 5 days later is this report from the Associated Press, also based out of the UK, which reports on a Coca-Cola brand strategy document that asks,
"How do we motivate people to make soft drinks, like smoothies, juices and other on-the-go products, part of their morning ritual in the same way as tea or coffee?"
Of course Tripodi's got it wrong. Not in that we shouldn't target Coca-Cola and other sugary drink makers, but rather Tripodi's wrong about why Coca-Cola's easy to demonize. Coca-Cola's easy to demonize not because they're causing all the problems, but rather because they're duplicitously suggesting they're part of the solution when it comes to obesity.