investigation by The Times has outlined how Coca-Cola spends millions
of dollars every year trying to disprove the undisprovable.
Frankly, anyone gullible enough to believe any 'research' suggesting
cans of fizzy sugar don't make you fat is an idiot, but that's not the
real problem here. The real problem is what Coca-Cola do day in day
out, and nobody bats an eyelid.
When I was offered my first 'proper job' in 2009 it was, for my sins,
with Coca-Cola Enterprises (the then UK arm of the Coca-Cola company).
I was a territory sales rep. With a van full of all the drinks I used
to guzzle as a kid (Fanta, Sprite, Capri Sun, and, of course, the
rainbow of Coke varieties) I set off with joy to my 'patch' to sell,
sell, sell.
It took all of two days for my enthusiasm to be completely annihilated.
In my branded transit I approached my third store of day two. My
objective was clear: get to know my customer, get to know their
customers, sell them everything they need and then sell them
everything they don't. On arrival at the petrol station forecourt, to
my utter dismay, I spotted a young boy, probably no older than
fourteen. Fourteen years old, and about fourteen stone. Dressed in
his repulsive fluorescent school uniform, his face was flushed red
from the almost impossible task of standing upright. In his hand? A
two litre bottle of Sprite. The sugar content of which is 136 grams.
That's 144 per cent of his daily recommended amount - and there were
numerous 4 packs of those on my 'for sale' list.
I had become the conduit for obesity, and it felt awful.
So this went on – day after day, month after month. Each month a new
target, new product or new initiative to 'sell in' to my 144
customers. Each individual drink noted, tallied and scored by the
great Coke computer back at base. Any drink went off sale and there
were investigations to be made. Any none-Coke products in a Coke
fridge and the company could send threatening letters to a struggling
corner shop owner. It doesn't matter that a product may not be
selling; they are contractually obliged to fill their fridge with,
basically, whatever Coke tells them to.
Then came the new golden boy of pop: the energy drink. Since the
advent of Red Bull, the sector was growing by hundredsof percentage
points year on year and showed no signs of slowing down.
In meeting after meeting we were told of all the new varieties of
caffeine-filled sugar bombs we were to peddle: four Relentless
flavours, three Monster, three Powerade and, for a brief time, the
energy shot. Our targets had to be met, so our targets were kids.
"Find out where the big schools are in your area," we were told.
"Show the shops these graphs, charts, figures... Kids love these
products."
A 500ml can of Monster Ripper not only contains 47 per cent of our
recommended sugar intake, it also has 160mg of caffeine. That's the
equivalent of having a cup and a half of coffee, with ten sugars. Try
giving that to your teenage daughter.
Teachers started complaining about their pupils being high on energy
drinks during class, only to crash later in the day. So lots of
schools banned fizzy drinks from their premises. Coke had to start
removing vending machines up and down the land. Their reaction was
simple: sell it to them off-site instead. And lo and behold! In came
the era of the 'meal deal'.
This was the new baby of the bosses. In every newsagent, sandwich shop
and cafe, we were told to link our products with everything from
newspapers to crisps. We offered our branding in return for discounted
rates or for product placement within the stores. Coke will tell you a
500ml bottle only contains two servings. Confusing, then, that we
should link them with a single serving of sandwich.
During the Olympics our brand 'activation' was scary. As an official
sponsor, we completely hijacked the Olympic torch relay. Internally it
became less about the torch, but more about how much product was
available on the route it took through the UK. I was working in
supermarkets by then, and was told I should have been 'embarrassed' by
the paltry offering I made in my Tesco Extra store. We were supposed
to be celebrating an Olympic flame passing through, but all Coke
wanted to do was piss their product all over those in attendance.
The Independent UK
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