Look, we get it: it’s gotta be a tough gig flogging a soft drink business to a society that’s raging a war against sugar but hey, Coca-Cola are gonna have a good ol’ caffeinated crack at it, anyway…
In news reported by The Guardian, the Coca-Cola Company is set to produce its first-ever alcohol-infused alcohol drink, with plans to launch the boozy beverage, named Ch-Hi, in Japan. Because, according to market research reps (who may or may not be impartial to a glass or two of the sickly-syrupy stuff, let’s be honest…) “it makes sense to give this a try in our market”.
^Our thoughts exactly.
Indeed, the aim of Coke’s (capitalist?) game here is to combine their soft drink with a popular local spirit called shochu and leverage off the nation’s love of Chu-Hi alcopops already on the market.
And while it’s yet to be confirmed if Coke’s branding will appear on this new alcopop’s packaging or not, the fact that this drink has been marked as the brand’s first alcoholic beverage in its 132-year history is outwardly problematic – something Michael Thorn, chief executive of Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) can strongly attest to.
“Any effort by Coca-Cola to market this product by leveraging its brand, whether by association or explicitly, by the inclusion of the Coke logo on product packaging, would be entirely inappropriate and dangerous,” Thorn explains, adding that this is specifically worrying because Coca-Cola is a global brand heavily marketed, promoted and consumed by children.
“It’s also of concern to see Coca-Cola pushing this product to a young female market, when we are already witnessing an increasing level of misuse across this demographic.”
“More generally, moves by Coca-Cola -a global marketing juggernaut – to sell alcohol will only lead to an increase in the aggressive and predatory alcohol marketing and promotion that is a primary driver of the alcohol harm experienced in Australia.”
“On those grounds, FARE would vehemently oppose any move by Coke to introduce any alcohol products into the Australian market.”
This isn’t the first time Coca-Cola has attempted to tap into a ‘new’ market; in 2015, the soft-drink giant released their new “green” drink in the hope of jumping on the all-things-health bandwagon.
Don’t you remember when Coca Life, packaged in green tin foil, was marketed as a mid-calorie drink, having less kilojoules 35 per cent less sugar than it’s original counterpart, and was later accused of ‘green-washing’ consumers into think their product was, in fact, healthy?
Coke Life was dropped from Aussie last August.
Considering as many as 63.4 per cent of the Australian population are clinically ‘obese’, you can probably understand why health campaigners came out swinging at the Stevia-laced concoction.
“Coca-Cola Life still contains colouring, caffeine, phosphoric acid and 19 per cent of our recommended daily sugar intake,” Professor Sandra Jones, director of the Centre for Health and Social Research at Australian Catholic University told The Conversation at the time of Coke Life’s launch in Oz.
“In fact, a cola drink with a few less calories may be part of the problem rather than the answer to reducing our waistlines. People tend to consume greater quantities of foods they believe to be healthy, and seeing a food promoted as healthy can lead people to eat more calories.”
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