After reading our post two days ago about the “sugar wars,” you might guess that you’d be better off drinking diet soda.
Guess again.
Last week, a group called the Northern Manhattan Study (with the unfortunate acronym NOMAS), released the results of a longitudinal study, declaring that people who drink diet soda every day have a 61% higher risk of stroke than those who avoid the stuff.
The researchers claim to have accounted for every variable under the sun. Even if they were complete buffoons and were off by 50%, the result is astounding. Yet, as we've seen in a billion prior health studies, there is no cause and effect relationship. No matter – the beverage and artificial sweetener industry associations have gone code red (not to be confused with the Mountain Dew flavor of the same name.)
The spokesnozzles at the likes of the American Beverage Association and the Calorie Control Council are churning out press statements, debunking the NOMAS findings. Consumers would give groups like these an authority rating of, um, zero. They want to hear from the cola giants, Coke or Pepsi. And neither has anything to say. Not even on Twitter (!!!).
As it should be. This is not, as we saw Tuesday, a “my sugar is better than yours” debate. This is life or death mystery, a discussion that any food company is wise to stay out of.
But Coke and Pepsi need to push, and support, two distinct allies to get hold of things before they spin out of control (and with the late-breaking news that caramel coloring is now a suspect ingredient, we are on the fringes of “control.”)
First are the sweetener manufacturers, who make those little packets of God-knows-what chemicals with the weird names. They need to publicly confirm their products are safe over an ingested period of several decades.
Second is the medical community. If there are other studies or opinions out there, Pepsi and Coke need to find them ASAP.
As we saw Tuesday: marketing doesn’t always mean communicating to the consumer. There are other key stakeholders to talk to, as each situation dictates.
Irony of all ironies, though. If you go to Diet Coke’s website, you’ll come across the brand’s sponsorship of a program to raise awareness for women’s health. Which launched just two weeks ago. The name of the program? “Heart Truth.”
Proving once again that timing is everything. And nothing.
