Where "choice" means "my God-given right to direct access to the most impressionable and gullible marketing demographic"

“We’re restricting choice,” said Calla Farn, a spokeswoman for the industry group, Refreshments Canada, after Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. announced that they will stock Toronto school cafeterias and vending

machines with water and fruit juice, rather than with high-calorie

carbonated drinks.

Interesting way to say “we’re capitulating to demands by parents,

teachers and nutritionists” while getting a backhand “Dammit, I have a

right to make my money” shot in.

There are those who say that the vending machines are a form of

advertising and that advertising has no place in schools. I agree with

the principle — especially when the advertiser starts affecting school policy

— but I also have to be pragmatic. In an economic atmosphere where

people think they’re already overtaxed, how does a public school get

the money it needs?

(Full disclosure: I work in software, and they will take my Diet Coke from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.)

Joey deVilla

View Comments

  • an easier solution: just stock school vending machines w/ diet colas and nothing else...mmm, aspartame-alicious...

  • Gah, aspartame is horrible stuff. Not only does it aggravate my digestive condition, but it makes my mom have to pee about thirty seconds after consuming whatever contains it - including yogurt, which really shouldn't make one pee. Evil poison. No better than the sugary stuff in its way. Not that I am a big proponent of the sugary stuff either, though I have been known to drink it when there isn't much choice.

  • Pretty much. It has also been known to cause blindness in laboratory animals and alters fat storage in the body in such a way as to interfere with fat loss somewhat.

    Yummy effective diet drink. phbbt.

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