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Coke really is part of the solution! And not just for obesity…

Outsourcing our foreign aid to the Coca Cola corporation sounds like something The Chaser would come up with but in fact it’s a proposal being seriously floated by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.  In the following piece Dr Melissa Stoneham discusses this idea and explains why Coca Cola’s impact on health in developing countries is no joke.

Dr Melissa Stoneham writes:

Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told the Liberal Federal Council last Saturday night that there is too much waste in aid spending, and partnering with the private sector will achieve better results. Ms Bishop said she was not satisfied with the way Australia had distributed aid in the past, saying there was, “too much duplication, too much waste, not enough of a focus, spending money, doing what we’ve always done and not coming up with a better result”.

She mooted that the Government would move toward private sector networks as part of a focus on the “economic security for the recipients of our aid.” With the foreign aid budget set to lose $4 billion a year over the next four years, this all seems to be a reasonable solution until you uncover which private enterprise she specifically named in her presentation. Ms Bishop used Coca-Cola as an example of the type of industry that could “do a better job at distributing foreign aid”.

The argument for using an industry that sells and promotes sugary drinks with no nutritional value as a distributor of the tax payer funded aid budget revolved around the fact that Coca-Cola is available everywhere throughout the Pacific including remote villages, any hill top and major centres. It is the distribution networks and their supply chains that the Government wants to take advantage of.  But really, who is taking advantage of who here?

Let’s look at the industry first. Coca-Cola has positioned itself as wanting to be “part of the solution” to the obesity epidemic by increasing the availability of smaller portion sizes, offering more low-kilojoule products and supporting physical activity programs.

This approach has been slammed as a “smoke screen” by many public health advocates including Professor Rob Moodie who commented that if Coca-Cola was serious about fighting obesity, “they would be doing things that really do work. They would be restricting advertising to young children and they’d be encouraging other companies to do the same, and they wouldn’t put 10 teaspoons of sugar in a can of Coke”.  

In a nutshell, Coke contributes to chronic disease and its core business is to make money and sell their product. They are not public health experts. They focus on physical activity and lower kilojoule drinks to draw attention away from the contribution of their products to overweight and obesity.

They have been very successful at ensuring their corporate social responsibility (CSR), which “accepts 10 principles of the UN Global Compact, outlining business principles for companies in social, economic and environmental areas” encourages the general public to view them as well meaning and indeed being part of the solution. Put simply, Coca-Cola is endeavoring to show that they have a positive impact on the environment, consumers, employees and society, in addition to making money for their shareholders.

When you look at how Coca-Cola has been distributing medicines through Africa, you can see how politicians may be influenced by this opportunity. The network of their local bottlers has been cited as being critical to reach consumers. The Colalife program started in Zambia way back in 1988. It was noticed that while hospitals ran short of basic medicines, stores in remote locations were always full of fizzy drinks. In an effort to curb diarrhea, the AidPod was developed. This device contains hydration salts, which mothers mix into a drink to give to children to rehydrate them. The AidPod fits into the unused space in Coke crates.

There are other examples, ColaLife is not the only project using Coke’s 20-million-point global distribution network. In 2009, the Global Fund asked Coca-Cola for support to distribute Anti-AIDS drugs and vaccines. The result was the development of the basics of supply-chain management which mapped out health facilities, used software to organise distribution and implemented a new stock-management system.

So it seems Australia is following suit. The business model of private-public partnership seems sounds and appears to foster collaborative action to improve people’s health and wellbeing. I am a public health advocate and I understand the need to provide lifesaving medicines to the vulnerable and ill. However, my concern is that these companies’ are investing in CSR activities such as distributing medicine and aid, to shift responsibility for overconsumption from corporations to individuals, to promote self-regulation, anticipate any Government regulation and promote brand loyalty and sales.

It is important to always remember that industries such as Coca-Cola have been at the forefront of long-term food industry trends that have contributed substantially to poor health and, increasingly, have drawn comparisons to the behaviour of cigarette companies.

It is equally important to remember that the product they market which is readily available to vulnerable communities including “every remote village and every hilltop in the Pacific” has no nutritional value at all. In this case where Australia’s Foreign Minister is considering using Coca-Cola to distribute aid, it is a clear example of how the industry has accessed and will indeed influence our policymakers.

Research conducted in the tobacco field showed how CSR activities such as the one suggested here, is a form of corporate political activity that potentially has important implications for public health. It found that tobacco companies have been influential in delaying and blocking health-related tobacco control policies and that the impact of the political use of CSR can affect senior policymakers if they are considered a reliable source of information.

As a colleague of mine asked, when she saw the media release suggesting that the Australian government would use Coca-Cola to distribute aid: ‘I would love to know who approached who with this deal, and how much money is exchanging hands’. So would I!

Comments 3

  1. Reg Olives says:

    I would caution against putting too much stock in the CSR intentions of large corporations like Coca-Cola as being a ‘coke screen’ to choke off regulatory intervention although I certainly agree it is a mechanism to enhance brand reputation and sales.

    I understand that CSR works on a number of levels, including but not limited to:

    1) Gives employees a feel-good belief that they are working for an organisation that shares with them a social consciousness, perhaps counterbalancing feeling they are working for an organisation that really doesn’t practice what it preaches.

    2) Used as part of a broader business governance strategy to educate employees in behaviours to reduce (or preferably remove) the likelihood of employees engaging in unethical behaviour (signing up to the UN Global Compact is an example of basic standards). This is organisational self-protection against being sanctioned.

    3) Convenient catch-all to capture under one term various activities that often make good business sense (like developing local employee or supplier capabilities) but can be used in marketing the credentials of the organisation to both its internal and external audience. Granted some activities captured under CSR are bizarre and suggest a broadening of the concept to make up for a lack of ‘traditional’ CSR activities. However ‘CSR’ is a nice little self-contained and easily understood concept so it keeps several perhaps unrelated activities unified under one banner.

    In regards to the third point, I can see in the research you linked to on the tobacco company BAT in the UK that CSR was a good excuse to get in front of policy makers. The only rational reason to do this is to influence policy, of course. However, there is also the irrational reason to inflate the egos of organisational operatives who probably enjoy being seen to be circulating in supposedly influential circles (I do think we need to recognise this being more of a motivation). It is also bemusing to the point of demonstrating collective cognitive dissonance that CSR awards can be given to organisations like BAT who, fundamentally, sell bad things as the research report points out.

    I think through we need to separate the CSR motivations (as dubious as they may be, or not) and the use of organisations with logistics/supply chain expertise to distribute aid. To an extent, although it is difficult, we perhaps also need to separate the product(s) these organisations with expertise flog off as well. The Coke product does taste nice (yummy sugar), is safe to drink (as in no bugs) and can offer the intangible benefit of making one look a little bit sophisticated in front of peers. But yes, it also can contribute to poor health outcomes compared to local or alternative products.

    If there is a middle ground in this, then perhaps the Foreign Minister can consider engaging Coca-Cola supply chain experts as consultants to improve the Department’s own capabilities?

    In closing, we still need to make sure we have policies and reporting processes in place for transparency of interactions between companies (and other organisation types), policymakers and politicians, whether they are premised on CSR or anything else. Your colleague’s call to find out who approach who is spot on. Alas, I am not confident in this country that we have the transparency we would like so it’s something your article is prompting me to have a look into, thank you.

  2. jon smith says:

    Julie Bishop is not telling the truth when she says that Coca Cola delivers essential medicines. In Tanzania, where the “Project Last Mile” ran, Coke only shared supply chain expertise with the government supply department. They ddidn’t actually deliver any meds themselves. This is spin – corporates like Coke are not getting into the business of delivering of medicines.

  3. Rosemary Stanton says:

    This is appalling. Cola drinks are worse than simply having no nutritional value – they have negative effects. Dental health is one area where all cola drinks (whether sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners) are a disaster. Their acidity damages tooth enamel. I do not think ‘every hilltop and every remote village’ has a dentist!

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