In the Bizarro world we've created, where selling illness to fund charity is totally normal, the fact that Food Banks Canada has elected to partner with 7-11 and sell "Name Your Price Day" large sized Slurpees to raise money to fight food insecurity won't bat many eyelashes.
RT @SlurpeeCanada: Sept. 16 is #NameYourPriceDay! What would you pay for a large #Slurpee? Whatever it is, 100% goes to @FoodBanksCanada
— Food Banks Canada (@foodbankscanada) September 11, 2015A large Slurpee is 28oz (828ml), and if you order the Dr. Pepper flavour (that's the one I would have ordered if I were a kid), your large's 525 calories will come from the 3/4 of a cup of sugar (36 teaspoons) it'll contain.
For 7-11, this is killer marketing. Water and sugar cost them virtually nothing. 7-11 generates tremendous brand goodwill, gets huge social media marketing via the public's sharing of the day's event, draws huge numbers of customers through the door, and rather than you getting a tax receipt for a charitable donation, they get one - and I'm betting it'll more than cover the cost of the day's Slurpees.
There's no doubt that the practice of junkfood fundraising with sugar-sweetened beverages (where I'm betting a huge percentage of those taking advantage of 7-11's Name Your Price larges will be children) will one day end, but that day won't come until the general public recognizes just how backwards these cause-washing initiatives are in the context of health.
Food Banks Canada should know better.
