by Marion Nestle
Oct 10 2012

CSPI launches “Real Bears” Video. Hint: soda companies won’t like it.

Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has just launched its new drink-less-soda initiative, “The Real Bears” video, just in time for Food Day on October 24.

According to USA Today, CSPI teamed up with

Alex Bogusky, the culturally influential ad legend whose former agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, has created ads for such hot-button clients as Burger King, Domino’s and, yes, Coca-Cola.

Bogusky left the agency world in disgust two years ago. Now, he’s back in a new role: taking on the cola industry….

The video is, to say the least, hard hitting.  I’m waiting for soda industry responses and will post them here.  Stay tuned.

 

14 comments
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  • Wow, this is incredible. As you say, I can only wait to see the beverage industry’s response to this. Its amazing how far the discourse of sugary drinks has come!

  • I know that we “love to hate soda”, but this observation from Dr. Nortin Hadler might be more telling:

    If you want to do good: Don’t take the Coca-Cola machines out of the school. Take the school out of the neighborhood.

    I recommend watching this interview with him … http://bit.ly/Pj9291

  • Nice. But why they have to pollute the ocean at the end?

    (kidding)

  • Very cool and very important video. Hopefully this spreads.

  • Alexandra

    Love the bears. Is fruit juice as bad as soda?

  • stuart

    @Alexandra: usually not *as* bad. But still pretty sugary. The best drink is, of course, water.

  • KE

    I have literally never been so happy.

  • Not a fan of sugary sodas and don’t mean to be negative but the first stat in the movie is wrong. Soda and sugary drinks comprise 16% of the diet of all Americans based on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines (page 27). There is no reason to exaggerate because 16% is bad enough.

  • KE

    I don’t think they were trying to exaggerate; I think they were trying to say the largest source of added sugar comes from soda and sugary drinks, which they should definitely fix, if that is the case. Either way, phenomenal video.

  • KE

    I stand corrected. I just read their website and it says,

    “Sugary drinks are the single-largest source of calories
    in the American diet, providing an average of about 7 percent of total calories per person, and that average includes all the people who rarely drink them. The percentage of calories from sugary drinks is much higher for people who consume them often—such as several times a day.”

    So they are saying that as a collective diet, this is where most of our calories come from. I think?

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  • ETaddison

    But soda is low fat! What’s the problem?

  • Steven Jacobs

    Let’s see. CSPI makes a video critical of Coca-Cola (and rightfully so), and CSPI routinely works with the American Dietetic Association…..which is funded by Coca-Cola.

    Nope, no conflict of interest there. 😉

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