Target: James Quincey, CEO of Coca-Cola Company
Goal: Lower prices across the board and commit to making healthier beverages.
The soft drink industry has grabbed headlines lately for all the wrong reasons. The World Health Organization just labeled the artificial sweetener used in many popular diet sodas as a potential cancer-causing agent. Other studies have linked the synthetic substance to metabolic imbalance and additional harmful health effects. Legislators continue to mull a soda tax that would place a greater burden onto consumers in exchange for potential public health benefits. And prices on soft drinks have nearly doubled in recent years.
Despite these challenges, industry leaders seem in no hurry to change their approach and actually benefit consumers. Leading manufacturer Coca-Cola, for instance, will only apparently alter its formula for its Diet Coke and Coke Zero products to change the taste, not the possible risks to consumers. And despite widespread calls from retailers for a scaling back of price hikes, Coke announced that it had “earned the right” to once again raise prices this year. During a call to investors, the company CEO reportedly said that in regions where inflation is “well over 50 percent,” prices would be raised “multiple times a year.” In contrast, regions experiencing low inflation would get “standard cycles of pricing.”
Sign the petition below to remind this corporate behemoth that the consumers who made it billions still matter.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Quincey,
In conference calls, you have justified Coca Cola’s continued price increases by stating a mission of “delivering for the consumers …such that they can see value in our brands.” But the only real commodity Coke has delivered for consumers of late is sticker shock. And these skyrocketing prices, by your own admission, are targeted to regions where the pain and strain of inflation is highest. Meanwhile, the innovation of which you speak seems to have stalled out when it comes to reducing potential health threats like aspartame sweetener.
Recent announcements and proposals from agencies ranging from the Food and Drug Administration to the World Health Organization could hurt your sales, as could a proposed soda tax. Now is not the time to be doubling down on relentless price hikes and ignoring calls from retailers and consumers alike for a cooling-off period. If you truly want to deliver for and benefit consumers, stop the price gouging and ramp up the health-related innovation.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Olena Bohovyk
We, the public, are being gouged by corporations. U
unless we stop buying their products they will continue. It is sad these greedy corporations would take advantage of customers. If we don’t buy, they go broke. It is a well deserved punishment!!! The same is true for other corporations. Laundry soap, cleaners for the home, everything we can make ourselves, we should make in order to make an issue that we consumers are not going to be gouged by these companies.