Introduction: In July 2013, Coca-Cola launched
an advertising campaign in Australia designed to
market themselves as part of the solution to
reducing obesity. The campaign focuses solely on
personal responsibility for consumption of their
product. This clever marketing strategy shifts focus
away from discussion for effective public health
strategies and in turn, from reducing the prevalence
of obesity. The campaign follows the launch of
two public health education campaigns focussed on
the link between consumption of sugar sweetened
beverages and obesity.
This paper will explore the industry strategies
used in the Coca-Cola Campaign which aim to
undermine effective public health policies and programmes
aimed at addressing obesity in Australia.
Method: All publicly available media assets of
the Coca-Cola Campaign were compared against
the list of common strategies used by transnational
industries to undermine effective public health
policies and programmes as published in the Non-
Communicable Diseases Series 2013.
Findings: Based on the NCD series, the campaign
is designed to encourage voters to oppose public
health regulation and is part of the same public
relations message that has been used to lobby
stakeholder markets in the United States.
Both hard power (i.e. building, financial and
institutional relations) and soft power (i.e. influence
of culture, ideas and cognitions of people,
advocates and scientists) have been used to encourage
ineffective approaches to obesity: promotion
of the company’s artificially sweetened beverages
as a normal part of the Australian diet; deflection
of criticism of the company by funding and marketing
physical activity programs; and promotion
of individual responsibility through the Australian
Beverage Council.
Conclusion: The Coca-Cola Campaign promotes
ineffective approaches to undermine public health
strategies for controlling obesity in Australia in