Coke Changes Marketing Strategy in Schools

(HealthScout) -- Hoping take some of the fizz out of its controversial plan to push soda in schools, Coca-Cola Co. says it will scale back its marketing efforts and offer children a wider choice of beverages, including juices and calcium-rich drinks.

Coke has been running an aggressive campaign to promote soft drinks on campus. But the effort has led to an outcry by educators and public health advocates, who cited studies linking soda consumption to childhood obesity and weak bones.

"One of our guiding principles has always been to listen to educators, and we want teachers, parents and everyone concerned about commercialism and nutrition issues in our schools to know that we're committed to responding effectively to their wishes and needs," Coke president Jeffrey Dunn says in a statement.

Under the new initiative, the company says it will do away with exclusive contracts and make room in its school vending machines for juices, water, sugar- and caffeine-free drinks, and beverages rich in vitamins and calcium.

The company also says its local bottlers won't interfere with schools that want to limit the sale of soft drinks to certain times of day or specific areas of campus, and it will leave the choice of drinks available to the discretion of local schools and school districts.

Child nutrition advocates welcomed the move, and said Coke had begun to seen the chalk on the wall.

"I think that it's time for Coca-Cola and other soft drink companies to take responsibility for really encouraging young people to drink non-nutritious beverages when there are alternatives and they sell them," says Marilyn Hurt, president of the American School Food Service Association.

School districts bear blame

But Hurt, who is also supervisor of school nutrition programs for the La Crosse, Wisc. school district, adds that school officials also bear much of the blame since they agreed to the lucrative contracts that let soda distributors place machines on their campuses.

"The schools didn't consider that this might have a health impact. But now that we know that it does, I think that they have to respond by limiting the sale of these items," Hurt says.

Hundreds of schools have contracts with bottlers to sell Coke and other soft drinks, though soda makers won't disclose exact figures.

A recent Harvard University study found that each added serving of full-calorie soft drinks a day raised the risk of obesity among teens by 50 percent. The typical 12-ounce can of cola contains about 120 calories, all from sugar.

Studies have also linked soft drinks to fractures and osteoporosis in girls, largely because they displace milk -- a valuable source of bone-building calcium -- in the diet.

Dave DeCecco, a spokesman for Pepsi, says his company's bottlers already stock a wide variety of drinks in its school-based vending machines. In some schools, its water product, Aquafina, outsells Pepsi cola by 3 to 1.

Although the soda maker has no plans to cut back its school marketing, DeCecco says Pepsi will likely agree to change the way it presents its machines, such as replacing the company's logo with student artwork. Coke has proposed a similar arrangement.

Andrew Hagelshaw, executive director of the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education in Oakland, Calif., says it remains to be seen whether Coca-Cola will enforce its new policy at the local level. But, he says, "at least Coke is for the first time acknowledging that there are problems with commercialism in schools. And it's the first time they've admitted that cola might not be healthy for students. That in itself is somewhat of a victory."

For a look at how too much soda can wreak havoc on your or your child's waistline, check out the Center for Science in the Public Interest. For the industry's perspective, visit the National Soft Drink Association.

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