Coke Blames Video Games For Obesity?
Coca-cola CEO Neville Isdell wants to "get the target off our [coca-cola's] backs". The target he is talking about is the association between obesity and sugary beverages. He feels Coca-cola is unfairly targeted.
Get ready to watch how an enormous company will throw millions of dollars into marketing spin. The goal is to make you think that all their drinks are "healthy".
Coke plans to engage the public in a conversation about its expanding waistline. The company will spend money on everything from nutritional studies to awareness campaigns about diet and exercise.Coke executives will try to refocus the obesity debate away from soft drinks and toward sedentary lifestyles, arguing that even a 150-calorie can of Coke is an acceptable choice for some depending on their level of exercise. (from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Strategy Number 1 - Mix up the words
Coca-cola will change the terminology from "Carbonated Soft Drinks" to "Sparkling Beverages". Some lightly carbonated waters and green teas are already called "sparkling beverages". Coca-cola can then mention "diet coke" in the sentence.
Strategy Number 2 - Make your own truth
After some of the bad press (and CSPI suit) about Enviga - Coke will "disseminate its own science and facts". This implies that large companies have their own special brand of "science" and the word "facts" actually means something else altogether.
Strategy Number 3 - Blame someone else
After analysts quizzed Coca-cola CEO about obesity - Isdell claimed "Video games are a major part of the problem,". So drink as much Coke as you want -- just don't play video games.
Strategy Number 4 - Find countries where people aren't fat yet.
"We are committed to win on our home field, but international is the key to the future," says Coke CEO. Many other fast food vendors are aggressively pushing into parts of Asia and the Middle East. Obesity will follow in their footsteps.
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I find this especially ironic now that video game companies are finally making an effort to get kids up and moving. Take the Nintendo Wii and the Konami's Dance Dance Revolution. While soda is being removed from many schools, video games are being incorporated into a number of physical education programs. Isdell is apparently behind the times and in total denial. What's next? Will he try to blame video games for the kids' cavities?
ReplyWhile sitting and playing video games is not any exercise whatsoever, what the heck does Coke think these players are doing while sitting there? Eating carrot sticks and drinking WATER?
The blame game is getting us nowhere and like Kelly said, I know for a fact that a lot of the big game companies are trying to figure something out.
Realistially, the only person to blame for any of it is the person doing it anyway, sheesh ;).
ReplyI think there's something subtly wrong about the fact that Coca-cola is worried about/combatting the idea that its products are harmful in the first place. Everyone should know that Coke is just something you have very occasionally, maybe like once a week, which shouldn't contribute too much to obesity. Coca-cola shouldn't have to hide its head. The fact that they're in trouble says to me that people's habits are the problem, not Coke itself.
ReplyI totally agree. Having a Coke once a week when you go out to a restaurant or something is not going to make you fat. Buy a 2-liter and then drink it all in two days to keep it from going flat and then you're into dangerous territory. Eat or drink too much of anything and you can get fat -- just look at sumo wrestlers' diets.
ReplyCaffeine is so addictive, and caffeine with sugar would be twice as addictive. If I drank regular coke, I wouldn't have one cup a week, or even one cup a day. I'd have a ton of it. I have a ton of Diet Coke already cause I love being hopped up on the caffeine, if I got a double buzz, I'd be even more hooked. It would be something like 8 cups of it a day, at least, I'm estimating, so over a thousand calories in sugar.
ReplyCoca-Cola and other soft drinks ARE largely to blame for the Obesity Pandemic. They account for $11.7 BILLION dollars in annual sales in the American grocery store market. They account for 1/3 of the total carbohydrate consumption in the American diet DAILY. ONE soft drink (8 ounces) a day adds 15 POUNDS a year to the typical human body. Most people drink significantly more than ONE 8 oz serving per day. The other vices that factor into the Obesity crisis are FAST Foods and TV/sedentarly livestyles. Therefore, Coca-cola is partically correct when they say video games/sendentary lifestyles are to blame, but they should be very thankful for that fact, after all they spend 900$MILLION a year on ads on TV to convince us to drink their crap!
www.DrinkChooseLive.com for the truth about Coca-Cola's civic duty and corporate morality.
If we do not bust the worst vices that contribute to the Obesity Pandemic, we will see more than the 300,000 who died last year directly due to Obesity and the 2.6 MILLION who died indirectly related to it, die this year!
It is a very serious problem and one that MUST be dealt with.
Sincerely, Julia Havey, author, The Vice Busting Diet
ReplyAs someone who is completely addicted to Diet Coke (Pepsi usually, but Coke will do), I can attest to the truth of that. Thinking people will have an occasional Coke is as realistic as thinking a smoker will have an occasional cigarrette, once a week or so.
ReplyBack in the 1950s... people used to go to Soda shops and by the occasional coke for a nickel, etc. They weren't addicted. People have no one to blame for themselves for their lack of self control.
ReplyIt surprises me how much soda people drink... very rarely factoring it into their diet. I knew a girl who complained about not losing weight... and she did, in any of the time I was around her, eat very little. However, every 4 hours or so she'd have a 20 oz bottle of soda. D'oh.
Liquids are just too easy to consume and forget.
I stikc to water, my daily can of vegetable juice (can't help it, I love it!), and maybe a diet soda every 3-7 days.
ReplyHey video games can be healthy. DDR and Nintendo wii are two examples. Even if u are just sitting playing a game, at least u are improving ur hand eye coordination.
ReplyWhile I agree Coco cola isn't the main part of the problem, I would definitely say they are not being part of the solution.
ReplyAccording to Michael Fumento the average can of soda has 15 teaspoons of sugar. Would you put that in your tea or coffee?
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