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Abstract
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Mega sporting events matter. They inspire athletes and the general public, they inspire national pride, and they inspire corporate advertisers. The latter is not surprising, as over one billion people were estimated to have tuned into the Paris Olympics last week—a truly global captive audience.
Olympic spectators will have been subject to a deluge of advertising and promotions, including from top-tier and long-time sponsor Coca-Cola. While the company promises to “refresh” athletes, officials, and spectators at the event, the real prize lies in associating its brand with the world’s most prestigious sporting contest.1 By positioning its suite of sugar sweetened beverage brands alongside sporting achievement—it “sports washes” negative associations with unsustainable water extraction,234 single use plastic,5 and non communicable diseases.
Sugar-sweetened beverages have been linked to a variety of negative health outcomes, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Worldwide, it is estimated that consumption of sugar sweetened beverages contributes to approximately 242 218 deaths from chronic non-communicable diseases in 2019.6 The World Obesity Atlas predicts that by 2035, over four billion people globally will be living with obesity.7 In the coming years, the highest burden of diseases associated with obesity and non-communicable conditions is expected to be observed in low- and middle-income countries. The increase in consumption of sugar sweetened beverages can be partly attributed to aggressive strategies employed by multinational corporations, including targeted marketing to children, lobbying against local initiatives to reduce consumption, and public relations campaigns that undermine regulatory efforts.8
The WHO Acceleration Plan to STOP Obesity identifies significant dietary shifts—specifically the replacement of whole foods with ultra-processed foods, including sugar-sweetened beverages—as major drivers of the obesity epidemic.9 The plan encourages countries to incorporate fiscal measures such as taxes, warning labels, and marketing regulations and—jointly with UNICEF—to protect children from the harmful impact of unhealthy food marketing. The plan calls for efforts to improve the availability and consumption of water. Additionally, it recommends government campaigns aimed at educating the public about the detrimental health effects of sugar sweetened beverages.10
Despite WHO advice, the budgets of governments in low- and middle-income countries to promote healthy diets are negligible compared to the substantial investments made by large soda and food corporations worldwide to promote their products.
Language: en |