Coca-Cola isn t taking the blame for America s obesity epidemic lying down. The world s biggest beverage company unveiled a new ad campaign yesterday that is airing on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC highlighting its low- and no-calorie drinks, marketing smaller servings of its beverages, and encouraging physical fitness. Entitled Coming Together, the ads encourage everyone to be careful about watching their weight.
For over 125 years, we've been bringing people together, the narrator says. Today, we d like people to come together on something that concerns all of us: obesity.
The ads also highlight Coca-Cola s efforts to promote physical fitness. But critics like Michael Jacobson of the the Center for Science in the Public Interest says the move just seems like a full-blown exercise in damage control.
Jacobson told Reuters that if Coke really wanted to be part of the solution, it would stop advertising full-calorie drinks, price them more expensively, or stop opposing soda taxes.
ACSH staff rolled their eyes at this. ACSH's Dr. Josh Bloom thinks that Coke s strategy is a win-win. They are making a very good decision in providing products that will give people some additional, helpful options. Just because they have their own self-interest in mind as well does not mean that it s bad he asserts. Maybe it is to the professional crybabies like Jacobson, but to me it s just plain smart.