“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.)
5 replies on “Where "choice" means "my God-given right to direct access to the most impressionable and gullible marketing demographic"”
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.
Poor Coke. Instead of selling sugar water at a massive markup, now they’ll be selling tap water at an even more massive markup.
um… isn’t aspartame metabolized into formaldehyde?
Look here or just search Google.
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.