My last and final blog! ((tear))

This article is about the war between Coca-Cola and their rival, PepsiCo. There has been a major conflict between the two beverage companies sports drinks. Apparently, PepsiCo is claiming that Coke has been promoting its Powerade drink by making false statements against PepsiCo’s Gatorade. Coke’s advertisements have been stating that their beverage, Powerade ION4, is superior to Gatorades composition. “Coke's tagline says that Gatorade is "incomplete" compared to this Powerade concoction. PepsiCo thinks this is so egregiously deceptive that it has filed a lawsuit to protect the equity of Gatorade's name and reputation.”

The writer of this source goes on to talk about what he thinks saying how, even though he may be biased towards Coke since he owns shares in it, he does not think that PepsiCo has a case. He thinks this because he believes Coke has the right to their own opinion so they should be able to say whatever they like about their product compared to a competitor’s.

The writer informs the reader of other information pertaining to the sales of both Gatorade and Powerade. He states that “Gatorade is without a doubt the big name in the arena of sports beverages. It owns 77% of that market, while Coke's Powerade has 22%. Coke wants Powerade to grow; PepsiCo wants to make sure it doesn't.”

I can’t agree against him. If I had to choose a sports drink, I have more favorites when it comes to Gatorade. Powerade is good, don’t get me wrong, but they both just have different tastes so its all based on one’s preference. However, I will say, now that I know Coke owns Powerade I am even more prone to purchasing Gatorade over Powerade.

This article will help my argument against Coke because they obviously know that PepsiCo has the better product and that is the only reason they would react to their product the way they did.

Cokes water bomb

This article talks about Coke's big and embarrassing mistake in the UK. In March of 2004, after only being on the market for 5 weeks, Coke's Disani water was taken away because of some embarrassing facts that were found out and then written about in one of UK's magazines.

Coke's Disani water had been a fraud. Unlike most of the other bottled water companys in Europe, Disani's water did not come from mountain water or from glaciers. It was actually taken from UK's own tap and than went through a purification process and than had minerals added to it. Anyone could basically make their own Disani water by just buying any kind of water filter.

An article came out in The Grocer magazine but the author thought no one would really pay any attention to it. But when the day came when Disani's secret reached another reporter, the tabloids and news was filled with talk of Coke's lie. Headlines reading "The Real Sting" and "Coke Sells tap water for 95p" did not help Coke out in any way. Adding to the papers and magazines, an online video was made making Coke the butt of the joke once again and playing with them even more.

Adding to the embarrassment of their secret getting out, a factory malfunction was the last straw for Coke. Something went wrong in Coke's bottling plant when "a bad batch of minerals had contaminated the water production with a potentially carcinogenic bromate."

Needless to say, Coke soon pulled Disani from the UK market.

Coke definitely payed the price for their mistake. They lost millions and have continued to lose popularity. In my opinion Coke deserved everything that happened to them. I am glad to hear that they were caught and faced with their mistake and they were punished for it. Now if only all of their mistakes were shown to the world. This site will definitely help with my argument against Coke.

Coca-Cola, Others Charged With Greenwash at Protest

In San Francisco on December 2nd and 3rd, protests occurred against The Coca-Cola Company along with Pepsi Co. and Nestle. These companies were challenged by a large amount of groups charging the companies with green washing and abusing water resources. These water companies were attending a conference titled "Corporate Water Footprinting: Towards a Sustainable Water Strategy" in San Francisco when the public felt that their voices needed to be heard. Information is given throughout this article that informs the public of what Coke, along with the other companies, are really doing.

"More than a billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and climate change is further depleting freshwater resources," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "Given the absence of perspectives from those without access to water, the corporate conference appears aimed more at polishing the images of some of the world's biggest water abusers rather than addressing the very real global water crisis."
The public needs to know and realize what is going on and that their beloved Coke is a bad and unethical company. Until more people start realizing this nothing will be done to stop them. Coke is the kind of company who will continue to do these awful acts until they are caught red handed and are punished for their actions.

The Coca-Cola Company has even had the nerve to formally state that they will soon be a water neutral company. The crazy part is, they have also stated to the public that they know that it is impossible to really becoming 100% water neutral yet they are still planning on going through with their statement and still plan on using it for advertisement.
This is a flat out lie that Coke has even admitted to yet they are still going to broadcast it? I will never be able to understand what goes through the minds of the people in charge at Coca-Cola.
I will definitely be able to use this article to prove my argument against Coke.

Coke drinks India dry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/mar/19/business.india1

I used this article for my last paper and I thought it was very interesting. It helped my argument so much and made it very easy to make Coke look bad. Well it really isn't that hard to make them look bad, but when an article like this is out there, I can't understand why it would not be clear to everyone.

Coke has been blamed for draining India dry of all of their scarce water. In a town called Rajasthan, researchers have seen a tremendous loss of water and it is to the point where when the farmers try to irrigate their farms, nothing is there to give them water. Even two years ago, The Coca-Cola Company was forced to shut down one of their plants in India because they had been causing water pollution. Now they are not only polluting the water but taking it from the locals in all of the towns.

"Coca-Cola is the largest beverage company in the world, and used 283 billion litres of water in 2004. For every 2.7 litres of water it takes, it produces one litre of product. Its profits last year were just under $15bn and it has a market capitalisation of over $100bn."

Coke has also received some embarrassing PR after one of their bottled waters had to be taken off the market because people found out that it was really only processed tap water. I was so glad to read that students just like me will be able to vote on whether they think Coke vending machines should be banned from student unions. Coke has created many environment problems and the company needs to know that students and so many other people mean business. This would be an amazing movement if and when it really happens.

This article definitely helped my argument and it was a good addition to my paper.

The Coca-Cola Killings

http://www.counterpunch.org/coke0906.html

This article is old but has a lot of important information that people need to know about.
There have been numerous Coca-Cola killings in Colombian bottling plants. In 2002, a union activist named Adolfo de Jesus Munera was murdered right after a lawsuit that he filed against Coca-Cola had been accepted by the Colombia's Constitutional Court."Adolfo de Jesus Munera was a regional leader of the Sinaltrainal food industry workers' union and a former employee of the Coca-Cola plant Embotelladora Roman in the town of Barranquilla." Munera was not the first Colombian union leader to have been murdered though. Seven others came before him and many others have been abducted and tortured. These attacks happen to the people who have been connected with threats to Coca-Cola employees to quit their union.
Five years before Munera's murder, in April 1997, Emilio Hernandez, the plant chief, accused Munera of beign a rebel sympithizer and so Hernandez secretly ordered the Colombian authorities to take care of him. After his home had been raided, Munera fled out of town. The Coca-Cola Company than sent him a letter telling thim he was dismissed because he had not shown up for work that day. Because he was supported by his union, Munera filed a law suit against the company demanding that he be given his job back. He won the first time but during the second level, he was not supported by the judge. On August 22, after he had appealed, he recieved a letter from the Colombian Constitutional Court informing him that his case had been accepted once again. A little over a week later, Munera was shot and killed outside his mothers home by unknown gunmen waiting outside from him.
I do not understand how things like this can happen to people like Munera. How can Coca-Cola get away with this? How can they be such a powerful company? They sell beverages, but instead they are acting like their own government. This article will without a doubt help with my argument against Coke. How can articles like this come out and people read about them and do nothing to stop this company?

History of Coca-Cola and Their Advertising Campaign

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/56875/history_of_cocacola_and_their_advertising_pg3.html?cat=22

This is just an article about the history of Coca-Cola's ad campaigns but I think it is important to see where they have come from to be able to talk about their present day campaigns. It starts out with the history of who first invented Coke and than who it was passed on to since than. Basically it was first created by a man nmed John Styth Pemberton and than passed on to Asa Candler who made its popularity into what it is today. Candler used short little blips to get the audience to think about Coke. He used "Coke is it" and "Always" to remind the consumers that Coke is the original. The famous logo that is known all around the world was actually designed by Pemberton's book keeper, Frank Robinson.

The next man in charge of Coke was Robert Woodruff. His time of control over the company, WWII, wasn't the happiest time but his dedication to making it available to soldiers made it loved by everyone in the end. Coke advertisements have been known to always remind people about peace and how the world would be a better place if everyone loved one another. The 1971 commercial "I'd like to buy the world a coke" was a big hit. It showed young people of different races coming together and enjoying a coke together. This commercial came out when the Cold War and the Vietnam war was at its height but it was used to promote world peace and also promoted the company as an international one.

The most popular games in the whole world, The Olympics, have always been supported by Coke and this just makes the company even more well known and adored. The colors of the company have always been red and white and will continue to use these two prominent colors because it reminds the viewer that it is the original coca-cola that they are watching and what they will want. More commercials that have been used by the company have the original coke bottle either in the middle of the frame or at the top so that it is always the central focus of the whole commercial.

The article goes on to state more facts about how the colors are used and how some models are seen in everyday settings and others are seen glamorous. Either way, people are going to want to be like the people on these commercials and there for think they need a coke to be like them.

This article doesn't necessarily help my argument but again, I can take things away from what this article teaches me about Coke and use my own spin on it. It's not that hard to make Coke look bad when they have done so many things wrong.

Buy the world a Coke or a glass of water?

http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/buy-the-world-a.php

This article is about Coke bottling plants in India draining the country's water. This source will help me with my argument against Coke and give me good details to prove that Coke is doing bad things.

The article goes on to talk about how when any company's image gets tarnished because of bad economic times or a new fad in people's diets, the company's usual next step is to make them seem like they are changing. When it became more well known that The Coca-Cola Company was taking more water out of India's scare wells than they were giving back, the company started "reinventing themselves and addressing the very issue that caused them the bad press". The manager for economic affairs for Coke has said “water is to Coca-Cola as clean energy is to BP”. The only thing that is different between Coke and BP is that BP actually changed from an oil company into an energy company while Coke is attempting to address their water complaint issues by releasing an environmental report which discusses and explains their new global water strategy.

I think this article is important for people to read so that they know the truth about Coke's wrong doings. I know i say that all the time but this article shows a comparison between Coke and BP that makes it more clear that coke is all talk and no action. The BP company actually addressed their problems and changed 100% from a harmful oil company to a helpful energy company. If coke were to try to change, they would probably end up doing something else even worse causing more harm than they have done already. I dont see how Coke can turn a new leaf unless they start admitting their faults and doing something about them. How many more articles need to written? How many more lawsuits need to be filed? How many more droughts need to occur before Coke gets the picture and changes?!