Hypocrisy, Hyperbole Speak Loudest at Soda Summit

My fellow soda fans, if you felt a disturbance in the Force late last week, that was the first-ever National Soda Summit, where some of the country's leading food cops/soda haters gathered in D.C. to discuss ways to keep you and I from consuming fizzy drinks as we so choose. Or at least to strongly dissuade us from doing so.

We have a lot of nerve clinging to our Mountain Dews and Big Gulps. Don't we know that soda is more harmful to poor people, minorities, and defenseless infants who are exposed to Pepsi ads practically from the moment they emerge from the womb? As CSPI's executive director said at the Summit, sugary drinks are responsible for "a plague." How can we hear that and not feel pangs of societal guilt as we twist the caps off our Mr. Pibb bottles?

By all accounts, the Summiteers heaped praise upon New York's Mayor Bloomberg, aka the 'Wizard of 16 Oz.,'  who made big news recently with his proposed ban of large sodas, despite his public appearances at National Donut Day and competitive-hot-dog-eating events. Apparently, Bloomberg himself was not there, but New York City health commissioner Thomas Farley was; you may recall that the NYC health department produced this hyperbolic propaganda campaign which included an image of a man who was Photoshopped to look like a diabetic amputee.

Another big-city mayor was at the Summit to speak: Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter. He told how his two attempts to tax soda were inspired by the anti-tobacco movement, and he decried the obesity problem in African American neighborhoods of his city, as if we should believe that soda companies are trying to poison that population as part of a racist scheme. One of his justifications for taxing soda is that it has no nutritional value, which is a non-sequitur and an affront to personal choice.

However, what Mayor Nutter did a few days before the summit received more attention than anything he said there. Reportedly, Nutter officiated at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Shake Shack restaurant. (Interestingly, Michelle Obama has been known to order from Shake Shack. That is, when she's not busy telling Disney, the military, and restaurant chains to stop serving and advertising 'junk food'.)

Actually, life's sweeter when the government
doesn't tell you what to drink.

The beverage industry was shut out from the summit, but a repentant ex-Coke marketing executive named Todd Putman was given the podium to denounce his former industry. Putman revealed the deeply guarded industry secret that—egads!—Coke wanted to sell more soda to people. (Insert horror-movie strings here.) Coke saw itself as competing not only against other sodas but against all types of beverages, which is what all smart and forward-thinking businesses do in their respective fields. Putman spins this business outlook into a sinister plot to make sure everyone drank nothing but Coke. Of course, Coke products include waters and diet sodas, and all the marketing in the world can't force anyone to drink a certain beverage. Just sayin'.

It's easy to see why those with opposing viewpoints were barred from the Soda Summit. When you take away the assumptions that sugary drinks in and of themselves are poison, that soda drinkers across the board should be penalized because certain individuals and groups drink more soda than is healthy, that government is more responsible for your and your family's health than you are, that a few private industries should take the blame for the increase in obesity, and that nanny-state politicians are "concerned," brave, and progressive rather than grandstanding, condescending, control-hungry, and eager to divert attention from more difficult and pressing issues, the case for taxing or banning soda quickly goes flat.

(Hat tips to consumerfreedom.com, COPrevent.org, and marcgunther.com)