The "Real"? Thing

Coca-Cola has launched a new advertising campaign that attempts to rebrand themselves as part of the solution to the obesity epidemic. This follows their earlier campaign where they attempted to present themselves as a “green” company by focusing on their use of recyclable plastic in their beverage bottles. Of course they failed to mention that the vast , and I do mean vast, majority of those bottles end up in the landfill and are never recycled. Nor do they highlight the amount of water they waste by producing their Dasanai bottled water and the subsequent water crisis their industry has brought to countries like India.

Coca-Cola is not unique. As long as stockholders remove themselves from accepting responsibility for unethical advertising and business practices by the companies they are invested in, the dollar will continue to reign supreme over public health and the environment.

In the end, the ultimate power resides in the hands of the general public - the consumers. Our spending habits reflect our values and affect corporate policy and in turn government policy.

“Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.” - David Suzuki (b. 1936)