Coke Aspartame New Ads: Coca-Cola Looking to Boost Lagging Sales
Coca-Cola will introduce new ads on Wednesday that promote the safety of artificially sweetened beverages as demand for such drinks hits an all-time low.
The company hopes to expand on efforts that began in January to promote diet beverages as an alternative to drinking too much sugar. The new push is in response to a decrease in sales of diet drinks following multiple studies that have reported on the negative effects of artificial sweeteners- specifically aspartame, also known as NutraSweet.
"Coke is trying to get out front and proactively defend these diet sweeteners," John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, which tracks the industry, told USA Today.
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Coke is not the only soda manufacturer suffering from the drop of soda sales across the U.S. as the government pushes a focus on healthier lifestyles. But the lag in sales of diet sodas has been particularly bad. According to a Beverage Digest study conducted last year, sales volume for Coke fell 1 percent, while Diet Coke fell 3 percent. Pepsi fell 3.4 percent while Diet Pepsi fell 6.2 percent.
The new ads will be placed in a select market starting in the Coke's hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The first ads will appear in USA Today on Wednesday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday and the Chicago Tribune next week. The first ad begins with the head: "Quality products you can always feel good about." The text beneath reads: "Time and again, these low- and no-calorie sweeteners have shown to be safe, high-quality alternatives to sugar."
Other initiatives, which began earlier this year, include encouraging health related issues to reduce obesity by focusing on increasing activity levels. Coke also released a "Skinny on Aspartame" fact sheet to it's bottlers, explaining the relative safety of artificial sweeteners and detailing the many products that rely on them.
"This is a beginning and it's a learning process, but we do have plans to do more," Caren Pasquale Seckler, vice-president of social commitment at Coca-Cola, told CBC.
