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The New Faces of Coke

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Re: The New Faces of Coke

#3

Post by prsimp »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #2

One cannot help but wonder if the Soda industry is/will become the Tobacco industry of 50 years ago.

While not limited to the Soda industry, this sentiment is expressed pretty vividly (even comparing testimony, marketing etc.) in the documentary Fed Up[1]. Worth a watch if this sort of thing is interesting to you and currently available on Netflix.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381335/

Re: The New Faces of Coke

#4

Post by ecdavis »

> [...] making herself available as an expert for news outlets. If a story says something negative about artificial sweeteners, Flipse said she might contact the PR agency and ask, “Do you want me to do something about that?”

What does "do something" mean? That statement reads like a fairly blatant request for a bribe.

Re: The New Faces of Coke

#5

Post by joe5150 »

"When you’re watching your favorite Food Network show and Coca-Cola is used as an ingredient, do you know that Coke is paying the chef? It never occurred to me."

Why wouldn't it occur to someone that a brand-name product used on television has been paid for? Especially when every other product used has been conspicuously genericized, labels covered up and whatnot.

Also Coca-Cola as a glaze for food doesn't strike me as particularly better or worse than using barbecue sauce or ketchup or anything of the other sugary things we eat every day.

Re: The New Faces of Coke

#7

Post by batbomb »

joe5150 wrote: post #5

"When you’re watching your favorite Food Network show and Coca-Cola is used as an ingredient, do you know that Coke is paying the chef? It never occurred to me." Why wouldn't it occur to someone that a brand-name product used on television has been paid for? Especially when every other product used has been conspicuously genericized, labels covered up and whatnot. Also Coca-Cola as a glaze for food doesn't strike me…

The striking thing is this:

    virginia willis and 9 others recommended
The author actually misspelled the name in the article (it's Willis, not Wills, as it appears in the article)

Also, Coke has been around as an ingredient for a long time in BBQ because BBQ sauce has to have... sugar.

Re: The New Faces of Coke

#8

Post by jobu »

There definitely are some shady endorsements happening here, but I really don't see a problem with this one:

“Sometimes only the real thing will do when it comes to soda, so I am a big fan of the new Coke mini can! It is real soda classic, but it’s in a cute portion-controlled can that keeps my bubbly treat to only 90 calories!” - Sarah Bedwell

I would argue that this is actually the kind of endorsement we should be encouraging. It re-frames a soda as a treat that should be consumed in moderation instead of guzzled from a supersized bucket. Ice cream is worse than soda, but it doesn't get nearly the negative attention because everyone knows it's an unhealthy treat.

Re: The New Faces of Coke

#10

Post by neprune »

When there's strong suspicion you once hired militias to attack and intimidate unions [0] [1], paying off health experts feels a bit tame. It's still interesting to see how they went about it though, pushing the idea that exercise is more important in weight loss than your diet is pretty sneaky (and a patent lie).

[0] http://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jul/24/marketingandpr....

[1] http://colombiajournal.org/colombia73.htm

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