COMM 296 Marketing Blog 1: Coca-Cola “Coming Together”

A recent article from ABC News highlights Coca-Cola’s new defense commercial regarding health concerns and obesity. This 2-minute long commercial titled “Coming Together” addresses the company’s efforts to increase health awareness when consuming soft drinks. Upon reading this article, it seems that Coca-Cola is trying to change people’s views of the company, originally from a producer of the junk-foods category to a health conscious firm that cares about the physical well-being of it’s consumers. This is well depicted through their new commercial which features families consuming green salads at dinner and active children playing sports and other healthy activities that come to mind.

But isn’t it still ethically wrong to paint something that is still unhealthy in a light that makes it seem to be what all the most health conscious people are consuming? I think it is. As discussed in the article, sugary soft drinks are “empty nutrition and don’t tell the body that it is full” so technically a person can drink a lot of soft drinks, still be hungry, but has already exceeded their suggested daily sugar intake. This can lead to serious health concerns such as diabetes and obesity. Since the product is not a healthy product, the company shouldn’t be promoting it as if it were! Children, teens, and even adults may get the misconception that just because this version of the pop is less unhealthy than the one before so therefore it must be healthy. I think the way Coca-Cola is trying to market themselves is morally wrong because it is trying to get people to perceive its products as something it is not. Their commercial is very misleading and may actually accentuate the dietary concerns in North America and across the world.