Soda Turns to Fat, Yuck
There’s nothing as sobering as a reality check.
The latest public awareness campaign to remind New Yorkers that drinking soda is thickening our bellies shows a soda being poured into a glass. But the glass is not filling with frothy, delectable, ice-cold pop. It’s filling with globs of fat with oozing white gelatinous mounds overflowing down the side. The message? “Don’t Drink Yourself Fat.”
The three-month campaign from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene includes posters in the subway system and a multilingual health bulletin. Three versions of the poster show what appear to be a caramel-colored soda, a green sports drink and an iced tea. It’s an eye-opener.
The American Beverage Association called the campaign, which began Aug. 31, “so over the top that they are counterproductive to serious efforts to address a complex issue such as obesity … Balancing calories consumed with calories burned, regardless of the source, is the only generally proven approach to maintaining a healthy diet.
Soda marketers are in a tight spot, continually linked to the dramatic rise in obesity, particularly among children. The volume of the U.S. carbonated soft drink market, which includes energy drinks, tells the tale. Volume declined 3% last year, marking the fourth straight year of declines and wiping out years of growth from 1997 to 2004, according to Beverage Digest. Another interesting indicator of where things are headed is that a diet beverage, Diet Mountain Dew, was the strongest-performing Top 10 brand, Beverage Digest reported.
Even though beverage brands have beefed up marketing for healthier products like water the attacks that continue to pound away at sugary drinks seem to be working. New York City spent $277 on the campaign. A private donor added another $90,000 through the Fund for Public Health to have the ads placed on the subways.
The ads are startling. I’m not much of a soda drinker, but I really do enjoy a bottle now and again. But after seeing the posters, I can’t help but think that the images will likely be recalled every time I open a cola and start to pour. Yuck.
September 18th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Good (but disgusting) idea - would love to see them take this farther into a more integrated campaign strategy that takes them beyond subway posters. Media might be willing to donate space if presented correctly. But more importantly, don’t you wonder what they spent $277 on for this campaign??? Pound of fat?
September 18th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Actually, it is possible to find fat in soda. Back in college the vending machines carried 6-oz cokes for 10 cents; one time one came out of the machine with a huge glob of fat floating in it and the picture wound up in the college newspaper. The bottler lined the pipes the concentrate ran through with cooking grease for lubrication; a glob formed, broke loose, and got poured into a bottle w/o anyone noticing. He said it wasn’t that uncommon for a tiny bit of grease to wind up in the bottled product; this was the worst “oops” they’d ever had.
December 8th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Soda doesn’t make us fat, excess calories makes us fat. And as long as you are reasonable with your soda intake it’s a non issue.
September 25th, 2011 at 11:51 am
Full of salient points. Don’t stop beeliving or writing!