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Cola Deals Go Flat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Four years ago, Coke and Pepsi began offering financial payments to school districts in exchange for exclusive advertising and beverage sale rights. These deals foster brandloyalty amongst schoolchildren, who can only drink one brand of soda and see that brands advertising every school day. Many school districts had decided that the money was more valuable than keeping advertising out of the schools. But now the tide is turning. School districts have begun to weigh the cash against the effects of selling out their students and theyre realizing that its just not worth it, said Dylan Bernstein, Senior Program Director of the Center. People are waking up to the fact that soda deals wont solve a districts financial problems, they only seek to take advantage of them. Big Rejections in PA and MI Within the first half of 2000, the two largest-ever proposed deals were denied: Philadelphias 10-year, $43 million Coke contract and a Southwestern Michigan consortium contract which would have involved 110 school districts. Together these two deals would have captured nearly 500,000 students and saturated them with advertising for soda pop. Those half million students now will enjoy a less commercial education due to the work of involved citizens. Parents Jill Saull and Pat Albright proved powerful enough to ward off Coca-Cola by raising public awareness and communicating with the Board of Education. The local Philadelphia organizers were quoted in the newspaper and featured on TV news. It proves that the squeaky wheel gets heard, said Saull. I had never rallied behind a cause before but this one struck a chord with me. Saulls foray into involvement with the schools has led her to not only become president of the Home and School Council, she now also sits on a districtwide committee which is evaluating nutrition policies. Kids won on all different levels, Albright was pleased to report. In Southwest Michigan, community members expressed their concerns at a Kalamazoo School Board meeting. Our schools will be turned into peddlers of sugar water, warned retired teacher and School Watch Team member Robert Hagelshaw. However, the Board didnt heed his advice. Kalamazoo joined the consortium, believing that a less commercial deal could be negotiated. Luckily, the greed of the soda companies made it clear that a deal was not in the schools best interests. The bids encouraged increased sales volume and marketing efforts directed at students, the consortium noted in its public statement of rejection. Because the soda companies wouldnt drop the ads, the consortium dropped the deal. There is a growing backlash against commercialism in schools, explained the Centers Executive Director Andrew Hagelshaw. These examples show how peoples thinking has changed. Madison Escapes The first school district to sign an exclusive deal has become the first to free itself of one. When Madison (WI) signed in 1997, the district didnt realize the enormous amount of advertising mandated by the contract. <Coke was> smarter than we were, admitted one School Board member. Three members who originally approved the deal voted to let it expire this fall. Though Coke continued to woo the Board, including taking out a full-page newspaper ad, citizens vocally opposed the contracts renewal. The people of Madison have said, Enough!. We are sick of corporations lobbying to cut funding for education and then trying to take advantage of our schools with their poorly disguised bribes, said Matt D. Nelson, a local organizer who had warned the Board not to sign in 1997. Sacramento and Oakland Step Up When Sacramento (CA) entertained an offer from Pepsi in June, the community was informed that it was a done deal. That deal was quickly undone by Parents and Advocates for Healthy Schools, a local coalition formed to fizzle out the contract. What started as almost unanimous Board approval for the contract turned into unanimous opposition once the public stepped forward to decry the deal as manipulative, misleading and unwise. After community members repeatedly addressed the Board and put together a press release, the Board began to see the deeper issues, as parent Rick Feher noted. Now the Board is in the process of drafting a policy to provide healthier and less commercial vending options. Like Sacramento, Oakland has now not only rejected a contract but is in the process of looking for a way to limit unhealthy beverages and their advertising. Both of these examples show that the impending threat of a cola deal can turn into an opportunity to improve a districts policies and prevent against future commercialization. |
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