It’s The Real Thing – The Bad Coke Joke

Few Coke drinkers would suspect that there could be a darker side to the company which produces their favourite drink, but tear the ring-pull off the corporate can and it’s not the smell of a sweet fizzy drink that hits your nostrils.

The company and its products appear to pose a threat to health, human rights and to the environment.  There is certainly enough evidence to make anyone with a conscience do a little investigation before picking up another Coca-Cola product.

Health warning

Most people will know about the health issues arising from too much sugar in their diet (some critics claim a 330ml can of Coke contains nearly 10 teaspoons of sugar, Coke’s own sources confirm a sugar content of 10.6%) but thanks to the efforts of whole armies of corporate lawyers a lot less is known about the dangers of the artificial sweeteners which appear in most fizzy drinks, especially the diet variety.

Aspartame is one of the controversial ingredients which has enjoyed significant political and financial support to oppose and suppress the investigations of concerned scientists and nutritionists.  It’s hard to believe that the corporate concerns are putting people’s health before profit.  Another one to look out for is acesulfame potassium (with its ‘cute’ nickname ace-k).  More details about aspartame can be found in articles in The Ecologist.

One of Coca-Cola’s natural enemies is water.  It’s cheaper, healthier and, once upon a time, was more easily available.  The company has launched various campaigns – such as “Just Say No To H2O” - with its corporate customers (chain restaurants), working together to reduce orders for tap water and increase the sales of carbonated drinks.  Check out the details in articles on News Target and Lard Biscuit.

Strangely, we see few fat, toothless, sick people in Coke adverts.

Environmental warning

In its efforts to increase production and reduce costs, Coca-Cola has opened bottling and canning plants in poorer countries where wages are significantly lower.  Unfortunately many of these countries also suffer from a scarcity of water and local peoples are suffering as a result.  Coke uses precious water supplies even when the original supply levels are inadequate to meet a local community’s drinking water and agricultural needs.  According to Coca-Cola HBC’s Social Responsibility Report 2004, 2.95 litres of water are used for each litre of produced beverage. 

According to WaterAid, “Clean water is essential for life, but over a billion people in the world do not have it. This and the lack of sanitation result in over two million people dying from water-related diseases every year. The lack of clean water close to people's homes also affects people's time, livelihoods and quality of life.”  Its Spring 2006 campaign letter adds, "somewhere in the world a child dies every 15 seconds from water-related diseases."  It’s difficult to equate social responsibility with a company exploiting vital resources in poor nations in order to reduce its production costs.

"somewhere in the world a child dies every 15 seconds from water-related diseases" WaterAid  and other organisations campaign and work to make clean water available to some of the world’s poorest people, but it would be interesting to know how many of their supporters buy Coca-Cola products in sweet ignorance of the company’s contribution to the problems such charities are trying to solve.  You can investigate further at the India Resource Centre.

Human rights warning

Coca-Cola’s treatment of its workers – or those of its subsidiaries, contractors and franchisees – in countries like Colombia is well documented on internet sites such as killercoke and cokewatch.  At best the company is linked to union-bashing and strenuous efforts to restrict workers’ rights.  At worst, it appears to be linked to intimidation, physical violence, kidnapping, torture and even murder.  One example, In 1996 Isidro Gil wrote to Coca-Cola HQ in Atlanta informing them that the plantmanager had threatened workers that he would use paramilitary groups to destroy the union.  He got no written response.  Armed paramilitaries somehow entered the Coke plant, killed Isidro, and escaped without capture. Lax security or "aiding and abetting"? In addition, the union office was burned down, another worker was killed and the entire union formed to renounce its membership - on forms previously prepared by Coke management(source: Columbia Solidarity Campaign). 

The IUF and Coca-Cola have recently agreed that the UN’s International Labour Organisation will conduct an independent investigation into the company’s Colombian operations.

Great Drinks for Thirsty Fascists

According to sources including a transcript from Mark Thomas' speech at a rally in London in June 2004, Coca-Cola entered the German market in 1929 and had gained a foothold in the drinks sector by 1933.  In 1936, it was an official beverage sponsor of the Berlin Olympics.  It’s alleged that one of Coca-Cola’s products was launched in Nazi Germany, the reason why Mark Thomas calls Fanta “the drink of the Nazis”.  The company had bottles manufactured in the annexed territory of Sudetenland and imported into Nazi Germany.  In fact, one of the few threats to Coca-Cola’s success in Germany was its link to America and rumours of its owners Jewish origins.  The sale of its products in Germany in the thirties and forties seems out of step with its 1943 US patriotic slogan, “Universal Symbol of the American Way of Life”.

Hogwash and Greenwash

Like many corporations, Coca-Cola churns out numerous reports boasting of its policies on ethics, social responsibility, environmental concern etc. but the suspicion remains that these are produced for two main reasons.  Firstly, because they are obliged to do so by legislation and regulatory authorities, and secondly, to convince concerned customers to carry on consuming.

It Runs In The Family

If you decide to withhold your custom from Coca-Cola, you should be aware that Coke is just the tip of a nasty iceberg.  Other Coca-Cola products include Dr Pepper, Fanta, Five Alive, Kia-Ora, Lilt, Malvern Still & Sparkling Water, Minute Maid, Oasis, Powerade, Roses Lime Juice Cordial and Sprite.  It’s a bit like the end of a Scooby Doo movie, when the villain’s mask is peeled off to reveal……another villain.  Hey, this isn’t Sprite, it’s Coca-Cola in drag!

In June 2006 Coca-Cola North America plans to launch Coca-Cola Zero, a drink with the Coca-Cola taste but no calories (but plenty of aspartame and acesulfame potassium).  To be honest I’m hoping for a more anagram-based outcome for the UK – zero Coca-Cola.

Action – It’s The Real Thing!

Admittedly, Coca-Cola isn’t the only corporation which markets unhealthy products, undermines workers’ rights, damages the environment and contributes to the spread of poverty and disease, but we’ve got to start somewhere.  If you need any further evidence, take a look at War on Want's excellent 2006 report on Coca-Cola.  Boycotting their products will work.  It has in the US where at least 12 universities and many individual consumers have chosen to do so. It will also send a clear message to Coca-Cola’s management and shareholders.  Clean up your act or lose our business.

One of Coke’s old advertising campaigns included the cheesy song, “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)”.  I’m struggling to imagine a rich Coca-Cola executive, a Colombian union man’s widow and a thirsty Indian child, arm in arm singing this song lustily in unison.  But it’s a funny old world……

LINKED ARTICLES

Top Mark Fails Coke (Mark Thomas' adventures in Cokeworld)