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Students boycott Coca-Cola over labour rights
(BrandRepublic, 6 Jan 2006)
Coca-Cola is fighting to maintain its reputation as a feel-good brand amid student boycotts, accusations of polluting water in India and ongoing concerns about obesity levels. . . . At the end of last year, the University of Michigan became one at least a dozen universities in the US and Canada to ban Coke from its campus, because of concerns over labour rights in Colombia. Others to do so include New York University, Rutgers University in New Jersey, Santa Clara University in California and Salem State College in Massachusetts. . . . Several European universities have also cancelled contracts with Coke, including St Hilda and Balliol, Oxford, and Trinity College in Dublin. . . . The Columbian issue dates back 16 years, when a union leader was murdered at a bottling plant -- one of eight murders of union leaders that took place between 1989 and 2002. Campaigners argue that Coke has failed to investigate the murders or deal with wider issues over the abuse of its workforce. . . . The problems come as Coca-Cola plans a global ad campaign using the strapline "welcome to the Coke side of life". It recently appointed Wieden & Kennedy/Amsterdam to handle the brand globally. . . . Tom Pirko, president of beverage industry consultancy BevMark, told the FT: "One of the things at the heart of the Coke brand is that it embodies goodness, fun and play. If consumers start to associate the brand with more negative messages, that is a very big problem for Coke. It is impossible to over-estimate the damage caused when a brand goes from being seen as something good to something bad."

[ALSO SEE: Univ. of Michigan Drops Coca-Cola Contract]

posted by LoZo 10:59 AM