‘Woke Coke’ Facing Rejection from Professional Sports Stars in Effort to Ditch Junk Sponsors

‘Woke Coke’ Facing Rejection from Professional Sports Stars in Effort to Ditch Junk Sponsors


On Coca-Cola’s website the brand brags about how “Sport & Entertainment partnerships are part of the DNA of The Coca-Cola Company” but that might not be for much longer. In the days of “wokeness” it may just take more than money to achieve astronomical sales. Portuguese Football star Cristiano Ronaldo publicly rejected Coca-Cola at a press conference this week and instead, supported drinking water.

His actions excited the health world; “Coke is massively unhealthy, and its presence as a sponsor of the Euro 2020 tournament is akin to a tobacco company plastering its logos all over the Olympics” writes Summit News. The London Telegraph reports Ronaldo’s actions, “along with other players such as Italy’s Manual Locatelli has shone a spotlight on those who are still endorsing Coke and other junk products.”

Two of England’s most popular Football players Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford are “ambassadors” for Coke, making millions off the brand, which has the public enraged. “Harry why promote this? The sugar is so bad for kids!” one Twitter user replied to Kane’s Coca-Cola ad on his personal Twitter account.

Another wrote “Typical of junk food brands: @MarcusRashford is the poster-boy of UK’s free school meals, so Coke pounced & now used him to peddle sugary drinks, undermining the nourishing premise of his child food poverty campaign.” Rashford’s sponsorship choices appear hypocritical as he is also supporting the Food Foundation’s program offering nutritious meals for children in England over the summer.

The Telegraph reports:

Caroline Cerny of the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of more than 40 major health organisations, said: “Ronaldo’s defiant stance against being associated with a sugary drink could mark a turning point and we hope other sports stars will similarly refuse to be used as walking adverts for junk food and other unhealthy products. It’s time to break the link between unhealthy brands and sports sponsorship so children are not exposed to a flood of marketing when they watch or play their favourite sports.”

Dr James Davies MP, a member of the Health and Social Care select committee and a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity, said: “It’s refreshing to see key figures in sport highlighting the need for healthier lifestyles.”

Summit News writes:

After the Coke snub, maybe some sports stars could address Nike and other sports brands who make millions from sponsorship exposure yet still use forced labor to manufacture their products.

Like parasites, these massive multinational companies will latch onto anything successful to push their junk on the world. They also do it particularly insidiously by promoting a fictional world, falsely suggesting the cream of sports talent love their products, while the reality behind it all is that they’re being bought off or even duped into selling pure shit to young people who idolise them in exchange for cold hard corporate cash.


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