For a Better Start in Life, Start Cola Earlier!
A trifecta of sugary media.
Okay, this looks like a parody. It’s so over the top. Check out the text. The mirrored Coca-Cola text on the bottle also hints at something fishy. The ad below this image however, is genuine. I scanned it from an old National Geographic (circa 1971).
Photo disCredit: Soda Pop Board of America;
more likely (Credit) some prankster
“Sugar, it isn’t just good flavor; it’s good food.”
Photo disCredit: Sugar Information, General
Just a cool picture (not necessarily marketing)
Rock On!
credit: not sure; looks like a cover of Ron English’s version
In 2003 the Center for Science and the Environment (CSE), a nonprofit institute in New Delhi, published analyses of popular soft drinks (including Coke and Pepsi) showing that they contained levels of pesticides, including DDT, lindane, and malathion, eleven to seventy times higher than those established by E.U. drinking water standards. (CSE’s analyses of American Coke and Pepsi showed zero pesticide residues.) The Indian parliament banned Coke and Pepsi from its cafeterias, and ten thousand schools and colleges on the subcontinent became Coke/Pepsi-Free Zones. The US companies fought back. Allegedly, Secretary of State Colin Powell intervened at the highest levels. Lawyers swept in from the United States to lobby Indian officials. A massive ad campaign was mounted featuring Aamir Khan, one of the most popular film stars in India, assuring his countrymen that Coke was safe. In 2006 the tests were repeated, and Pepsi and Coke again contained the highest pesticide residues of all soft drinks analyzed. Adding to the controversy, Coca-Cola had been distributing wastes from its bottling plants containing lead, chromium, and cadmium, to local farmers for use as fertilizer.
….protests have spread to soft-drink plants throughout India and all the way to college and university campuses in South America, the United States, and Europe, spawning an organization called the Student Coalition to Cut Contracts with Coca-Cola. Michigan, Swarthmore, Bard, and other colleges have banned the sale of Coca-Cola products because of the company’s environmental practices and violations of human rights. (Source: Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken; p. 160)
At Coca-Cola’s official India website, on the health and wellness section (!), among other things, it advises:
“The best way to maintain good oral hygiene is to regularly visit the dentist.“
How about avoiding Coke, especially in a country where most people don’t have to the means to afford regular dental care?
Lest we think the kind of education provided in the the advert above is a thing of the past, you might want to take a look at Coca-Cola’s slick, online brochure, Straight Facts About Carbonated Soft Drinks. It begins:
Carbonated soft drinks help give your body some of what it needs to function from day to day. Specifically, soft drinks are a source of hydration for your body as well as a source of energy. After we have covered a few of the more useful facts about carbonated soft drinks in this section, you can read further as we balance some rumors you may have heard with a healthy dose of reality.
Hydration
Coca-Cola as well as most soft drinks, both regular and diet, contain between 87% and 99.8% water, which makes them good sources of hydration. Some studies have actually demonstrated that consuming a wider variety of beverages, including soft drinks, helps us consume greater amounts, making it easier to properly hydrate the body.
It only gets better.
Does your school sell or advertise such sugary products? (Or even bottled water for that matter? Dasani comes to mind. Check out Tappening.com) Does it address any of the issues arising from these products’ manufacture, shipping, disposal, or consumption? When it comes to these products and their effects on people, who is doing most of the education–your school, or some corporation?
