Coca-Cola is easily one of the most globalized and easily recognizable brands today, so perhaps you would expect them to go to great lengths to preserve their good name by advertising “ethically”. Unfortunately (for consumers mostly), Coca-Cola is now being sued by a non-profit organization known as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, for making “deceptive and unsubstantiated” claims. As it turns out, Vitaminwater, heavily marketed as a healthy beverage, is found to contain water with nearly as much sugar (33g) as a soft drink with only a penny’s worth of vitamins added in.  Needless to say, Coca-Cola’s Vitaminwater product line is further aggravating the obesity problem found mostly in America. While profit is generally a main concern for most corporations, fooling consumers is hardly a suitable method, and as Coca-Cola will find out.. there will eventually be consequences.

Coca-Cola has spent billions of dollars on making Vitaminwater a successful and profitable product line. By paying NBA stars like Kobe Byrant and Lebron James to appear in ads, Coca-Cola is suggesting that Vitaminwater is a nutritional drink, as approved by professional athletes. The absurdity of this debacle comes from the Coca-Cola’s defense to these allegations. The defendants claim to not have partaken in false advertising because ” no could possibly believe such a ridiculous claim.” They are likely to draw examples from Red Bull, stating that its obvious Red Bull does not give you wings, just as how it is “obvious” Vitaminwater doesn’t contain vitamins. If Coca-Cola manages to win this case, it would mean that it is unreasonable to think that Vitaminwater contains a healthy dose of vitamins. If Vitaminwater had less sugar and more vitamins, perhaps this entire PR mess would have been avoided in the first place.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/the-dark-side-of-vitaminw_b_669716.html?ref=twitter