Just as the nation’s largest soda producer launches an advertising campaign applauding their role in addressing obesity, public health advocates are challenging them and their industry cohorts to step from behind the public relations curtain and make real, constructive changes that will have a meaningful impact on the nation’s obesity epidemic.
“The Coca Cola Company admits in the ir new advertising campaign that there is a serious obesity crisis and they say that they want to be part of the solution,” says Dr. Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA). “Since they and their beverage industry brethren played such a major role in creating the problem (43 percent of the increase in daily calories Americans consumed over the last 30 years came from sugary drinks), we encourage them to use their considerable assets – a broad product mix, unrivaled access to youth markets and unparalleled influence on what Americans drink – to make real changes to protect the health of Americans.” To that end, CCPHA and other health advocates from around the nation have outlined seven concrete steps the beverage industry can take to address the nation’s growi ng obesity crisis.
All of these, Goldstein stresses, are doable and allow the soda corporations to maintain profitability, but they will demand a fundamental shift in the industry’s traditional marketing practices.
“The new Coca Cola ads leave you with the mistaken impression that the soda giant has voluntarily made meaningful changes to its business practices. In reality, Coke’s minor changes came only after enormous public pressure, through legislative mandate and as the result of growing public pressure to regulate their marketing practices. We’re inviting the industry to demonstrate their commitment to the health of our children, our families and our nation, by making important changes that can have a dra matic impact on obesity rates across the country. Our proposals are aimed at the largest consuming sector (children) and at the marketing practices that make heavily sweetened beverages nearly irresistible to youth.”
Over 20,000 people, including some of public health’s most esteemed professionals, have signed onto a petition urging the beverage industry to enact these seven steps. Report by The California Center for Public Health Advocacyisa nonprofit, nonpartisan organization
