Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Coca-Cola's "Together We Move" Promotes The Nutritionally Indefensible

So what do you do if you're a company whose flagship product packs a massive caloric punch while providing virtually nothing redeeming in the way of nutrition and the world has started yelling about your company's product's role in rising rates of diet and weight related illnesses? Why you buy sport of course.

I mean what else could you do? Your product isn't defensible nutritionally, and that coupled with that same product's absolutely merciless marketing means you've got to deflect attention.

And what better deflection than sport? Sport is healthful, which may, by extension, lead people to think of your flagship product as less awful, ties your company's branding to the joy associated with exercise and competition, infers that diet and weight related diseases are not your product's fault but rather the fault of individual inactivity, opens the door to marketing directly to children, and allows you to claim that you're doing your part to help when facing product unfriendly legislation which you're working tirelessly to forestall.

If I were that company's CEO, I'd do the same. What other choice would I have?

Whoever at Coca-Cola managed to put together their Together We Move program and its subsequent purchase of sport in Europe, sadly they deserve a raise.