New York For years, New York City has campaigned to reduce sugary soft drink consumption. Its latest ads, plastered all over New York's subways, compare sugary drinks with globs of fat and packets of sugar.
Now, beverage makers, including Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc., are squaring off against city health officials with the industry's first-ever subway ad campaign. Industry-sponsored placards inside train cars tout lower-calorie options and package sizes as progress against obesity.
The city's anti-soft drink campaign is "discriminatory and singles out one product out of an array of foods and beverages, all of which contribute equally to this very complex issue," said Chris Gindlesperger, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association. The ABA, the industry's chief lobby group, placed the pro-soft drink ads.
Beverage makers are trying to reverse seven years of sales declines in the $74 billion US soft drink industry, which still generates a bulk of profits. The decline came as some consumers shunned sugar and artificial sweeteners. The industry has spent tens of millions of dollars to beat back proposed sugary beverage taxes in New York state and elsewhere.
Concerted effort
The ad campaign is part of a concerted effort by soda makers to win the public relations struggle against local and state governments. PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association have spent as much as $70 million on lobbying and issue ads since the beginning of 2009, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. In that time, at least 30 states proposed aggressive excise taxes on soft drinks, all of which failed amid industry push back.
Coca-Cola Co. has an advertising budget equal to eight per cent of its annual global sales of about $95 billion, Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent said. Coca-Cola will produce as much water as it consumes by 2020, Kent said at a conference in Istanbul yesterday.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has advocated for state taxes on sugary beverages. His office referred questions to the health department. Bloomberg is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
Irresponsible marketing
"Americans are literally drinking themselves fat," Department Commissioner Thomas Farley said in an e-mailed statement. "To counter the industry's irresponsible marketing, we are committed to providing New Yorkers with the facts about the dangers of this overconsumption."
The drink makers' ads show workers for Coke, Pepsi, Dr Pepper and SunnyD side-by-side pushing hand trucks full of sodas, juices, sports drinks and waters. It reads: "More Choices. Smaller Portions. Fewer Calories. America's beverage companies are delivering."
Another ad is headlined, "More Choices," and says, "We're dedicated to helping you choose what's right for you."
The ads are part of a nationwide public relations campaign started in February, and an offshoot of similar ABA programmes in recent years.
"We need to do our part to address obesity and that's what we are doing," said Gindlesperger, citing clearer calorie counts on labels and the pulling of full-calorie soft drinks from schools in 2006.
The ABA's subway ads weren't a direct counter to the health department's transit blitz, Gindlesperger said. He declined to disclose the cost of the campaign or how many trains will be included. The placards cover all interior ad spots on one full side of a rail car.
Pouring on the pounds?
Since placing its first subway ads almost three years ago, New York's health department has had the system to itself. The city's new campaign, funded with a $100,000 federal grant, includes 1,000 placards inside about 20 per cent of the system's rail cars, said Sam Miller, a department spokesman.
The city's ads, some in Spanish, depict a cloud of sugar packets spilling its contents, which transform into globs of fat oozing on beverage containers below the tagline, "Are you Pouring on the Pounds?" One says drinking three 20-ounce sports drinks or sodas, or three 16-ounce energy drinks, is like consuming 40 packets of sugar.
