While Coca-Cola remains the number one soft drink company in the world, a new book by Murray Carpenter, author and journalist, reveals how the company continuously misleads and deceives people about the health effects associated with its products. “Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick” is a detailed account of the tactics used to maintain a great reputation despite company’s secrets.
Decades later and billions of dollars earned, the Coca-Cola Company holds all the leverage, Carpenter said.
“Coke is in the business of selling sugar water,” Carpenter said. “If it tries to reduce sales of its products, it would be violating its obligations to its shareholders.”
According to research, Coca-Cola’s products are significantly contributing to diabetes and environmental crises worldwide. One tactic the company uses to maintain its reputation is funding organizations like the Sugar Research Foundation and the Global Energy Balance Network—two organizations that Coca-Cola pays to “spin food science in its favor,” Carpenter said. The Global Energy Balance Network, which was started and funded by the Coca-Cola Company in 2014, used the nonprofit to promote the idea that lack of exercise was the reason for obesity rather than a poor diet. Yet soda has been associated not only with diabetes, but other serious health conditions, like cancer, according to research.
As the biggest producer of branded plastic pollution worldwide, the book revealed that the Coca-Cola Company isn’t living up to its sustainability goals. Coca-Cola announced its goal to recycle all its bottles by 2030, but when all said and done it will only recycle 70 to 75 percent of the bottles and cans and after committing to use 50 percent recycled materials by 2030, the company now said it will try to use 35 to 40 percent recycled material in its packaging by 2035, The Cool Down reported.
“Coca-Cola’s decision … is short-sighted, irresponsible, and worthy of widespread condemnation by its customers, its employees, its investors[,] and governments worried about the impact of plastics on our oceans and health,” Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Oceana, said.
Because Coca-Cola has “all the resources, power, and connections needed to spin narratives and manipulate public opinion,” Carpenter said that it might be hard to hold large corporations accountable, but we should still try.
To learn more about the book, “Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick,” click here.
COMMENTS