Across the Country, Coke Locked Out

In the past few years, many school districts have turned down seemingly lucrative contracts with Coke and Pepsi to keep their schools commercial-free. Last year in Philadelphia, community opposition smashed a pending $43 million deal with Coke. After recently refusing deals with Pepsi, Oakland and San Francisco schools are currently deciding if vending machines belong in their halls at all.

A couple of years back, Pittsburgh parent Tom Pandaleon contacted the Center to find out more about Channel One. Last May, Tom helped to keep Pepsi out of his children’s school district. “They really took us by surprise,” Tom said. “The Center let us know that Pepsi was about to cut a deal with the Pittsburgh School District. We got a group of parents, teachers and dentists together and got the contract tabled indefinitely.”

In what many view as a public relations move, Coke’s new position includes encouraging non-exclusive contracts, producing special logo-free vending machines for schools, and offering students the option of nutritious “vitamin-enriched” beverages.

Andrew Hagelshaw, the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education’s Executive Director doesn’t put much faith in Coke’s new strategy. “Everywhere that Coke has been pushed out, they have left kicking and screaming,” said Hagelshaw. “They want us to think that this is an educational-based decision, but we know that this is a business move forced by the bottom line.”

Four years ago, Coke and Pepsi started brokering exclusive contracts with cash-strapped school districts across the country. Since then, 240 school districts in 31 states have entered into these agreements. Exclusive marketing contracts guarantee the companies a captive audience in a competition-free environment, with an implied product endorsement from the school administration.

Meanwhile, schools are finding that the multimillion-dollar promises are falling short of balancing ailing budgets. Last year in Seattle, the district’s Coke deal yielded less than $14 per student. “Coke deals just are not worth it,” said Seattle educator and anti-commercialism activist Brita Butler-Wall “One result of advertising in our schools is growing student cynicism. Teachers and schools lose the community’s respect and self-confidence.”

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