Soft drinks are often related to obesity, diabetes and a series of health issues. As the society is getting more critical of products that are high in sugar, calories or artificial ingredients, beverage companies like Pepsi and Coke have responded to the health trend by introducing new products that are marketed as relatively healthier choices.

Pepsi True contains 30% fewer calories than its regular version while Coca-Cola Life has 40 calories less than the traditional Coke. And both new products will contain stevia, a natural sweetener extracted from plants.

Personally I think the reduced-calorie drinks may still not appeal to the very health-conscious consumers, since soda drinks are in nature still unhealthy drinks that contain far more sugar than our daily sugar needs. Therefore it is really ironic and misleading to pitch them as healthy choices. However, the marketing endeavours are effective in making consumers feel less guilty about drinking sugared soda.

From another news article, Coca-Cola also signed up for the UK government’s controversial responsibility deal to help improve public eating habits. It is obviously a win-win situation for Coca-Cola from a business perspective, as it not only demonstrated that the company is concerned with social welfare but also presented a good platform to promote the newly launched products. Nevertheless, whether public health could actually be improved from it remains a question.

Sources:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/pepsi-s-natural-sweetener-version-to-be-launched-on-amazon-1.2785555

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/pepsi-next-aims-to-attract-consumers-wary-of-sugar-1.2587588

Image sources:

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/141002092042-pepsi-coke-natural-620xa.jpg