Coca-Cola’s Assault on Tap Water

[marmar]

from Civil Eats:


Coca-Cola’s Assault on Tap Water
By Andy Bellatti on November 13, 2013


While public health advocates have sung the praises of tap water for years, Coca-Cola has been focusing on its own covert assault on the affordable, healthful, and refreshing beverage.

Unbeknownst to many in the nutrition and public health world, the soft drink giant launched a “Cap the Tap” program–aimed at restaurants–in 2010, described in the following manner on the Coke Solutions Web site:

Capture Lost Revenue By Turning Off the Tap.

Every time your business fills a cup or glass with tap water, it pours potential profits down the drain. The good news: Cap the Tap™–a program available through your Coca-Cola representative–changes these dynamics by teaching crew members or wait staff suggestive selling techniques to convert requests for tap water into orders for revenue-generating beverages.

Coca-Cola cites a 2006 tap water usage study to point out the obvious–that consumers drink tap water because of habit, health concerns or price sensitivity.

In response to that, Coca-Cola suggests restaurant waitstaff “turn off the tap” and offers to teach servers how to suggest “profitable beverages” to consumers, citing free refills. For those who truly want tap water, Coca-Cola suggests that servers push bottled water (don’t forget that Coke owns the bottled water brand Dasani), diet sodas, iced teas, and smoothies. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2013/11/13/coca-colas-assault-on-tap-water/#sthash.INhhLcHK.dpuf

[Vashta Nerada]

1. I absolutely hate Coca-Cola.

I'll forever refuse to drink their beverages.

Dirty bastards.

[jerkstore90210]

2. That's crazy

I can't believe they're willing to sacrifice our nation's health for the sake of a few extra dollars.

[cleanhippie]

3. Really? You're surprised? That's what corporations do.

Corporations are not people, therefore they cannot care about people. They are designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: make profits.

This is not news, friend.

[Enthusiast]

5. They could give one fuck about the nation's health.

And that goes double for corporations directly engaged in "health care".

[L0oniX]

8. Do you know what a troll is?

[gollygee]

11. Lol

I assume you're being sarcastic.

[JHB]

19. On their balance sheet, what line reads "Nation's Health"?

None of them, so it doesn't enter into corporate decision-making.

[tridim]

4. It's got electrolytes!

[Wait Wut]

6. .

You beat me to it.

[grahamhgreen]

20. ROFL

[L0oniX]

7. Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle are murderers.

[Logical]

9. Wow, ok. Let's start with alcohol and cigs first. nt

[noamnety]

10. That's just silly.

It's good for you!

[img][/img]

[LondonReign2]

13. That is one awesome ad

I mean, holy crap

[noamnety]

14. It's right up there with soda being a diet aid.

[img][/img]

[LondonReign2]

16. While that one is nice too, it just can't match up with

"Make your baby drink cola or they'll be a social misfit!"

[Fawke Em]

21. It also no longer work because they no longer use sugar.

Colas are now sweetened with hi-fructose corn syrup, which, depending on which study you choose to believe, is far worse than sugar.

[closeupready]

12. I don't get what the big deal is here.

Do people who go out to a restaurant to eat really not understand that they can request a glass of tap water? I doubt it.

People in business sell products in order to make money. Man bites dog. The sun is bright.

[Orrex]

18. That was my thought as well

Next, we'll hear that Coke actually runs commercials urging people to buy their products!

Outrageous!

[CFLDem]

23. Ditto

Companies trying to make money... Oh the humanity!

[JHB]

24. I would guess that quite a few people fit that description...

...especially when the restaurant in question is McDonalds or other order&serve-at-the-counter fast food places, not sit-down places where a glass of water is fairly routine.

The only people I've ever heard order a cup of water at a fast-food joint were little old ladies. It's entirely possible that there are people who don't realize that's an option simply because it's not listed on the menu board.

[Curmudgeoness]

25. We seem to have read it differently.

It isn't about people in a restaurant no knowing that they can request tap water, it is about trying to twist the diner's arm into NOT getting just water. That is the point of this report...it is about pushing other products when water is ordered. Or I can see the move to bottled water at restaurants, where you will now be charged a couple bucks for that water.

I will not change my habits by being strong-armed by wait staff. I want coffee and I want tap water, and I do not want to pay more for that second drink that is my "cold drink". I have drank tap water all my life, and if it is going to kill me, I am already a goner.

[closeupready]

26. Okay, but if that's the correct gist of the article, keep in mind

that wait staff in most places in the US work primarily for tips. Thus, no matter how badly management wants wait staff to hard sell beverage products, they are not going to do it in a manner that lines the restaurant's pockets at their own expense, i.e., worse tips.

[Curmudgeoness]

28. That is true. But where I see this campaign going

is to get restaurant management to stop offering free water. At some point in the future, I can see them going to bottled water only, like already happens at McDonalds. This would leave the wait staff without options to please the diner. I hope that I am wrong.

[joeybee12]

15. And restaurant managers/owners push the servers to talk about how great

the appetizers are, what a great soup would go with the entree...it's not just Coke...

[HockeyMom]

17. I ask for water with my meal

or if it includes a drink, I will get unsweetened ice tea. I don't like colas because they fill me up too much and then I cannot eat.

[Initech]

22. To quote Lewis Black:

"If anybody knows water, it's fucking Pepsi and Coke!"

[William769]

27. DON"T KNOCK COCA-COLA!

What would I clean my battery posts with?

[Curmudgeoness]

29. LOL. I remember

when I stopped drinking Coke. I had rust on my chrome bumpers and someone told me to use Coke to clean it up....and it did. That was too creepy to me.

[Faryn Balyncd]

30. Well, Coca-Cola started out as a peddler of cocaine.