For each person whodoesn’t drink any soda, there’s someone chugging 24 ounces every day.
Why are we still drinking so much of a beverage that makes people sick?
In fact, Coke has been at this game longer than the tobacco industry.
The soda companies were pioneers of the PR strategy now known as thetobacco playbook.
Coca-Cola has yet to face a major reckoning for its outsize role inAmerica’s health crisis.
One of the dietary falsehoods that Coca-Cola spreads is the concept that a calorie is a calorie.
Those calories have fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients that are not present in soda.
Coke also promotes the related message of “energy balance.”
Coke has been especially interested in emphasizing the calories-out side of the equation.
The corporation had funded it and guided it since its inception but wanted it to appear independent.
Coca-Cola did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
But it was far from the only misleading messaging Coke had spread.
Coke alone had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Hudson Institute and $5 million to HWCF.
If it tries to reduce sales of its products, it would be violating its obligations to its shareholders.
One front group ended up taking the pro-sugar stance a bit too far.
Two years later, Coke quietly left the group as well.
With signatures in hand, the soda alliance went to Sacramento and swung a deal.
This strategy, known as preemption, has also proven effective for gun rights groups.
And that DC lawsuit?
It dragged on for years, as Coke’s top-notch legal team successfully whittled it down.
The plaintiffs finally withdrew the suit in 2019.
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