Coca-Cola, the drink my officemates couldnÕt eat their meals without, may soon be losing more business than it can afford in the First World as consumers become more aware of its nature as a Ònutritionally worthless and damaging productÓ. I suppose that means we can expect the soda manufacturing companies to dump more of their unsold junk in Third World markets, including the Philippines.
A new policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, published in the January 2004 issue of its journal, Pediatrics, calls for the elimination of soft drink sales in schoolsÉ
CanadaÕs Education Minister, Christy Clark, told the Vancouver Sun (11/18/03) that she has been Òdeluged with e-mails and phone calls and people stopping me in the street to tell me they want junk food out of their kidsÕ schools.Ó [PHX News]
Even Coca-ColaÕs marketing strategies are under fire.
Coke paid Warner Brothers, a subsidiary of Time Warner, $150 million for exclusive global marketing rights to the Harry Potter movies, the first of which was released in November of 2001. Obviously, the whole point of CokeÕs investment was to entice kids to consume more soft drinks. ÒItÕs outrageous that Coca-Cola is using the magic of Harry Potter to lure kids to drink more (of its products)…contributing to the doubling in the percentage of obese teenagers,Ó said Dr. Patience White, professor of pediatrics at George Washington University Medical Center. What she and other critics of Coke term the childhood Òobesity epidemicÓ in turn fuels a growing Òdiabetes epidemic.Ó [PHX News]
Great news.
Coke is mostly sugar so it really has no nutritional value whatsoever, just empty calories. The same is true with other softdrinks.