Wednesday, August 19, 2015

This is How Coca-Cola Teaches "Energy Balance" to Kids

By way of example, two of their initiatives.

The first is called, "Get the Ball Rolling" and according to Caren Pasquale Seckler, VP of Social Commitment at The Coca-Cola Company, it was launched because,
"At that time, we made an important decision to take a public stand against obesity. And the reason is simple: Coca-Cola cares about the health and happiness of everyone who drinks our beverages.built on our Company’s global commitments to help fight obesity"
Read about the program on Coca-Cola's website and you'll learn that apparently fighting obesity for Coca-Cola means handing out Coca-Cola branded soccer balls, driving traffic to "MyCokeRewards" loyalty program (which no doubt collects personal information, allows for permission marketing, and of course markets their beverages directly), asking people to vote for their favourite national park, and bringing their "Happiness Trucks" to events where kids are apparently placed in giant cans of Coca-Cola to race around in (photo up above). Oh, and of course, Coca-Cola beverages are distributed as noted in this Coca-Cola piece on a Get the Ball Rolling event with the Texas Rangers and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America,
"All Boys & Girls Clubs participants and coaches received a José Guzmán autographed baseball, Powerade t-shirt and goodie bag and Coca-Cola “Open Happiness” soccer ball, along with plenty of Powerade and Powerade Zero."
Next up is Mixify. Mixify is a joint project between Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association.
The intervention seems geared to directly target teens and teaches them that following sweaty workouts you should eat "whatever you're craving",

And at their travelling road show of events, Mixify literally has children "balancing" what they drink with exercise as illustrated by their real life Jenga game.

So what do you think? Helpful altruism, or slick marketing?