Coke fights back!

Connecticut schools want to ban sugary drinks. One little problem, Coke threatened to pull all scholarships and academic and athletic monies.

The principle backer of the ban said today that the lobbyist for Coca-Cola, Patrick Sullivan, had convinced lawmakers to kill the bill in committee by making threats to pull funding for various school programs that the soda giant funds.

"Coke's threatening to rescind it's scholarship programs, it's academic and athletic enrichment programs," said Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

What did you expect them to do?




www.wtnh.com...

my univeristy is debating ripping up our contract with coke as they have a monopoly in our school, were also trying to get the credit cards off the campus.

I got one thing to say to them.....


Cash rules everything around us.....C.R.E.A.M....get the money! dolla dolla bill yallll!!!!!

Makes me wonder why the students can't make decisions for themselves and not buy coke or max their credit cards out.

Does that mean they all are out of control consuming hogs with no will power of their own?

the problem is that youi have 18 year old kids who are in a new city, away from their parents and having master card telling them that hey can basicaly get free money. they soon max out the cards and find themselves in more debt on top of their student loans. these card companies are preying upon the naiveness of the kids. the last thing people need is more debt.

Originally posted by darkside_ofthe_moon
the problem is that youi have 18 year old kids who are in a new city, away from their parents and having master card telling them that hey can basicaly get free money.

Then you're confirming they are idiots with no sense of fiscal responsibility, and their parents failed to teach them that factor also. Guess they deserve to be debt slaves and learn the hard lessons of reality.

Nanny state type tactics won't help them to grow up and be responsible adults either. They must learn to master their own ships or be sunk by another's hands. Predators are always looking for new pigeons to pluck, whether it's companies selling crappy products that eat away their health or banking corps that put them on a interest leash.

Look before you leap, it might be a cliff and there's no free lunch.

[edit on 9-4-2006 by Regenmacher]

Just remember that Coke, Pepsi and the rest of them wouldn't be in a position to have these monopolies if it wasn't for the School Boards and Administration. The original idea behind these advertising and marketing contracts was to generate revenue for extra cirricular activities. This was in a response to complaints by taxpayers. When schools cut some of these activities then the complaints were from the parents. The schools saw the revenue from these companies as a win win situation, they could keep the activities without using taxpayer dollars. It was just recently that soda became targeted by the anti-child obesity crowd and these contracts became unpopular. The soda companies are now being targeted by lawsuits from trial lawyers who see them as the next tobacco companies and ripe for class action lawsuits that can make the lawyers millions of dollars. What really cracks me up it that the lawyers are partially responsible for the child obesity problem. By suing school districts for the minor injuries that are a part of childhood and settling with insurence companies for millions of dollars, they have made liability insurance premiums so high that schools have removed their playground equipment and have cut back on recess. Now you have children just sitting in their classrooms for 6 to 8 hours per day.

This makes me angry..whats the point of a public education system if it cant be free form private influence. Might as well absolve the taxpayers of all responsibility and just start selling adspace in the hallways so these corporate demons can start gathering the next generation of consumer drones. Man Im confused about this world weve built for ourselves.
Personal responsibility really needs to be resurrected..If nobody buys coke then coke may choose to pull the money but will have to admit that its because they aint sellin enough drinks. I hate when business uses philanthropy for personal gain..helping others is a selfless act, not a calculation or business decision. Until human beings learn to sincerly care about other human beings we are trapped in a system whereby self-interest must be appeased in order for any good to be done..and in my opinion thats just animals..Im not saying self-interest is bad but dont claim to be anything more than a successful animal if you cant give freely without calculating a return..

They could do what our school district does and get out there an EARN the money for sports, music, arts programs that the taxpayers are too stingie to foot themselves.

Our boozers, er... Boosters Club (they hold their meetings at the local Legion social club and tend to booze it up some afterwards)... hold 4-5 major fundraisers a year, along with running the concessions at sports functions. They outfit all the sports teams in uniforms and equipment and let's face it, hold a lot of clout with the coaches.

Their benevolence isn't anonymous but it sets an example at a grass roots level--and in the home.

I'm a particular sucker for the spring flower sale and bbq chicken dinners.

Good for them, shows you what kind of people the Coca-Cola company is comprised of, if this is true. Besides, money is not everything.

I hate hearing about how money is the alchemist's gold of public eduaction from various school boardes. I think most of these problems, relating to money, can be traced back to the politics of Washington. In the 1960's there existed an ill-conceived pseudo-threat from the freakishly-smart Soviet children who learned calculus before they learned to walk.

The threat was non-existent, redundant and a political rodomontade, politicians and sociologist began to crap all over the eduacation system. They developed something called new math. Basically, they threw out arithmetic. It didn't work, and since then every generation has been fighting the problem: how to fix this education delima. And money is not, the most intricate, solution.,

Coca-Cola is only a scapegoat. So are the taxpayers for not wanting to be taxed. Now a days, you have far more kids majoring in liberal arts than in engineering or science, as a result. Oh, that'll do good, a nation of history majors, very competitive. I don't, then, see the difference between that and the 'drop out nation'.

That's dispicable. mad: Someone should try to get these corps. outta schools, just leave the meat, furit, dessert, and veggie companies instead. Poor kids.

Schools in Australia have already started to do this.
They have taken sugary drinks(like 390mls coca cola) out of school canteens and replaced it with "healthier drinks" (600ml soft drinks which are sold 50 cents cheaper) great job.
Department of education, i salute you