Sodaptability
Ask any advertising guru or marketing wonk, and they’ll tell you that the key to selling or pitching any product is adaptability. The public is constantly sending out signals as to what sells and what doesn’t, and for a product to stand the test of time, it must be in tune with those signals so that it can remain relevant in the public sphere.
The examples are legion. For instance, Kellogg’s used to sell a cereal called Sugar Pops, but when the country got a better whiff – or better taste – of just how much sugar these pops contained (15 grams in one cup), Kellogg’s changed their product name to the more healthful sounding “Corn Pops.”
IThe ingredients didn’t change; the labeling did. And that was enough for the public to continue buying.
No company has been more brilliant in marketing and adapting to public sentiment than the soda industry. For years, soda has been the most popular grocery item sold in stores, moving more bottles than milk cartons or bread loaves. And they’ve remained at the top of the food chain despite the litany of reports and studies that show how bad soda is for your health, from weight gain to wasting of muscles, to stripping away of tooth enamel.
To stem this terrible tide, the soda industry has tried to bill their products as “healthy,” infusing their sodas with vitamins and minerals.
Remember Diet Coke Plus? That “plus” they put on their product was done to promote how vivacious a drink it was, seeing as how it was now infused with B vitamins, zinc and magnesium. But the FDA issued a letter to Coca-Cola about a year ago, telling them they must re-brand their product because – you guessed it – they failed to list the amount of each vitamin was in the average serving.
Gee, I wonder why?
The Coca-Cola Company remains obstinate, claiming their health claims are in no way misleading. The FDA could take the Coca-Cola Co. to court if they don’t re-brand, but nothing has developed since 2008.
Another way the soda industry has adapted to the country’s attempts to move away from soda is with antioxidants. And this time, it’s the Pepsi Co. adapting with their lemon-lime line.
Remember All-Natural 7-UP? It claimed to be the first “all-natural” soda, boasting how their ingredients were from 100 percent natural sources. But a cursory glance of their ingredients lists “High Fructose Corn Syrup.”
If high fructose corn syrup is natural, then nothing is!
Outcry from consumer advocacy groups pressured 7-UP to drop the all-natural listings on their bottles.
But 7-UP hasn’t given up. Oh, no. They’ve developed a new twist on their sodas, this time with Diet Cherry 7-UP Antioxidant. And despite the fact that it contains less than two percent of all-natural flavors, they still say their product has “100 percent Natural Flavors.”
The product is fairly new to the market, so 7-UP hasn’t received any real blowback from consumer advocacy groups. But I fully expect them.
Infusing sodas with antioxidants is sort of like deep frying a turkey: the turkey is good, but its nutrition is diminished significantly by its fried outside. Similarly, whatever level of antioxidants is truly in a glass of 7-UP is diminished by the aspartame and other negative health effects that come from drinking soda.
Don’t fall victim to soda’s health claims. There’s nothing natural about them other than how naturally misleading they are.
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