Coca-Cola acknowledges unhealthy drink facts with ‘140 happy calories’ advert

Coca-Cola has entered the obesity debate in the US with TV commercials that are seen as an admission that too much of its iconic drink is bad for you.

One prime-time ad features activities that can burn off the ‘140 happy calories’ in a can of Coke, such as walking the dog, sharing a laugh with friends and doing a victory dance after bowling a strike.

Another ad features Coca-Cola’s record of providing drinks with fewer calories and points out that weight gain results from consuming too many calories from any food.

But Center for Science in the Public Interest executive director Michael Jacobson was sceptical Coca-Cola would stop fighting soda taxes if it was serious about obesity.

A hopeful sign in the anti-obesity campaign is that, in North America all the growth in Coca-Cola’s soda sales has been in its low-calorie and no-calorie drinks. Diet sodas now make up nearly a third of Coca-Cola’s North American sales.

Meanwhile, in Britain, Coca-Cola took the silver position in the Food & Drink Foundation Community Partnership Awards for its StreetGames initiative, which encourages sport among teenagers in deprived areas. The project followed Coca-Cola’s commitment as a Worldwide Olympic Partner.

In the same contest, Coca-Cola Enterprises won gold in the environmental leadership category for its efforts to ‘reduce the carbon footprint of the drink in your hand’ by a third by 2020, and was commended for its sustainable packaging, carbon reduction, leadership in achieving change throughout the value chain, and support for recycling.