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Walk into the lone Chicago Wal-Mart to stock up on pop in the summer heat and there, rising like a palm tree in an oasis, is a stack of Coke cases at a special price: 24 cans for $5. A brand-name beverage like Coca-Cola for about 20 cents a can is more than a great deal. It's a sign of Wal-Mart's purchasing might, a warning shot to competitors and less than good news for the beverage industry. Experts call that kind of intimidating power "disruption," and it will come to the Chicago area in a bigger way now that Wal-Mart...

Summer of 1985: Fidel Castro sits behind a transmitter and broadcasts a national radio address of monumental proportions: Cuba’s great American enemy to the north is in a state of decay. Though this statement came during the paranoid final years of the Cold War, Castro’s claim was not based on some clandestine CIA document smuggled by a double-agent. No, the proof of America’s decay, was that Coca-Cola tasted kind-of different. A few months earlier, before an audience of 700 reporters seated in New York’s Lincoln Center, Roberto C. Goizueta, Coke’s president and CEO (and, fittingly enough, a Cuban ex-patriot) made...

ATLANTA - A white Arkansas team’s win in a national “stepping” contest has sparked a fierce controversy over whether the integration of a once exclusively black college tradition constitutes a form of cultural theft. “What has happened is black youth culture, what people would call hip-hop, sort of made black culture . . . appealing to all kinds of people,” said Walter Kimbrough of historically black Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., an expert on black Greek life. The uproar began when the University of Arkansas’ all-white Zeta Tau Alpha team beat out five teams in last weekend’s Sprite...

China's giant sovereign wealth fund revealed it has accumulated stakes totalling $US9.6 billion ($A11.1 billion) in major US companies including Coca-Cola, Apple and Goodyear following a buying spree last year. Most of the stakes are small, reflecting China Investment Corp's strategy of avoiding politically sensitive acquisitions. But they highlight its growing presence in global markets as it invests a portion of Beijing's $US2.4 trillion ($A2.78 trillion) in foreign reserves. The holdings were disclosed Friday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that listed shares traded in the United States. CIC, one of the world's biggest investment funds,...

Brace yourselves for the really big news coming out of the Copenhagen conference. It’ll be your corporate customers that force you to address climate change, not EPA or Congress. Yes, EPA will regulate the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, mostly coal-fired power plants and large industrial facilities that release more than 25,000 metric tons a year of those global warming bad guys. But that doesn’t mean smaller companies are off the hook, not at all. The challenge ahead for small businesses will come from your big corporate customers — from auto makers, food and beverage companies, electronics manufacturers, and giant...

Coca-Cola Warns Green Taxes Could Cut Its Profits By 50% Coca-Cola and Unilever have warned that their profits could halve over the next decade unless they reduce their emissions, as business leaders in Copenhagen called for a global fixed price on carbon dioxide. By Rowena Mason Published: 7:09PM GMT 11 Dec 2009 Coca-Cola announced that it would reduce the carbon footprint of its supply chains Photo: Reuters The two companies acknowledged that green taxes and regulation would cause profits to fall 47pc by 2018 in the consumer goods sector if no effective action was taken. Unilever and Coca-Cola both announced...

Climate Change: Major U.S. corporations have set up a Web site calling for a global climate treaty to be signed in Copenhagen. Considering recent evidence of massive climate fraud, perhaps they should reconsider. Many will remember the classic soft drink ad campaign where young people from many nations gather on a mountaintop and sing that they'd like to buy the world a Coke, the theory being that sharing a soda was the key to world peace. That sort of naivete has led peoples and governments around the world to accept at face value the outright fraud perpetrated by the Milli...

Coca-Cola is spearheading a coalition of more than 100 companies pushing a United Nations climate treaty to bind the U.S. to cap-and-trade

Coca-Cola is spearheading a coalition of more than 100 companies pushing a United Nations climate treaty to bind the U.S. to cap-and-trade emissions regulation, commit the world's wealthiest nations to a potential $10 trillion in foreign aid and, possibly, form a proposed international "super-grid" for regulating and distributing electric power worldwide. Together with the SAP and Siemens corporations, Coca-Cola launched a website called Hopenhagen, leading up to the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, which opens on Dec. 7. The website invites the citizens of the world to sign a petition demanding world leaders draft binding agreements on climate...

100 companies push '16 days left to seal deal' on $10 trillion treaty Coca-Cola is spearheading a coalition of more than 100 companies pushing a United Nations climate treaty to bind the U.S. to cap-and-trade emissions regulation, commit the world's wealthiest nations[. . .] Other "friends" of Hopenhagen include media outlets Newsweek, Discovery Channel, Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, The Wall Street Journal and Clear Channel, among others, Internet giants Yahoo, Google and AOL and dozens of other companies and organizations. WND:link

Americans need more exercise, not another tax. Obesity is a complex issue, and addressing it is important for all Americans. We at the Coca-Cola company are committed to working with government and health organizations to implement effective solutions to address this problem. But a number of public-health advocates have already come up with what they think is the solution: heavy taxes on some routine foods and beverages that they have decided are high in calories. The taxes, the advocates acknowledge, are intended to limit consumption of targeted foods and help you to accept the diet that they have determined is...

Coke, bottler launching campaign against soda tax Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:27pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co and its largest independent bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, are mounting a campaign against a possible U.S. tax on soft drinks. In addition to a print and digital ad campaign in seven key U.S. markets including Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles, the effort will include public relations, speaking engagements and education designed to emphasize to consumers the benefits of a balanced diet and lifestyle that includes exercise. "Clearly, the threat of a soft drink tax demonstrates the need to better...

FAST food giant McDonald's has been named as Britain's most-hated brand in a new survey by marketing experts. The American burger chain – unpopular with 46 per cent of consumers – topped a list of the least-liked brands which featured some of the country's biggest names. Tesco was second most hated in the poll for Marketing magazine, followed by Coca-Cola and the discount fashion chain Primark. However, the research showed some of the most well-known brands also attracted consumers in equal measure. Tesco and Coca-Cola were also voted Britain's sixth and seventh most loved brands respectively. Both were more loved...

A local church switched from Pepsi products to Coca-Cola, but it's not because they don't like the taste of the product. The Bell Shoals Baptist church in Brandon got rid of the products as part of the American Family Association's boycott.

The Venezuelan government of U.S.-critic President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered Coca-Cola Co to withdraw its Coke Zero beverage from the South American nation, citing unspecified dangers to health. The decision follows a wave of nationalizations and increased scrutiny of businesses in South America's top oil exporter. Health Minister Jesus Mantilla said the zero-calorie Coke Zero should no longer be sold and stocks of the drink removed from store shelves. "The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans," the minister said in comments reported by the government's news agency. Despite Chavez's anti-capitalist policies and rhetoric...

Drinking large amounts of cola every day can cause muscle problems, an irregular heartbeat and even paralysis, doctors have warned. Chronic consumption of the drink can cause a condition called hypokalaemia, in which levels of potassium in the blood fall, in some patients. Symptoms can range from mild weakness and constipation to paralysis. Researchers said that family doctors should look out for muscle problems in people who drink large amounts of cola, after finding that patients who drank between two and 10 litres a day developed the condition.

Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health-care system. The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to hear proposals from about a dozen experts about how to pay for the comprehensive health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama...

COCA-Cola has been forced to can a TV ad that authorities say suggested women should be available for sex whenever men want it. The Advertising Standards Bureau found the ad, though light-hearted, was inappropriate to be on TV when children were watching. It was the second embarrassment in a month for the soft drink giant, after it had to admit incorrect health claims in print ads featuring actor Kerry Armstrong. The latest controversy erupted over a Coke Zero ad, titled "Break-up as it should be".

NEW YORK (AP) -- Neither "New" nor "Classic," Coke is simply itself again. Two decades after adding the designation, the Coca-Cola Co. is removing the word "Classic" from its prominent location on the flagship cola sold in the U.S., a company spokesman said Friday. "The reason for being, for classic as a descriptor, has all but disappeared," spokesman Scott Williamson said. The "Classic" tagline -- right under the script Coca-Cola logo -- was added in 1985, when the company introduced a formula that consumers called "New Coke." New Coke never caught on and was sold sparingly until it was dropped...

Vitaminwater, which is marketed as a healthy drink, is nothing more than soda without the bubbles, according to a consumer group that has filed a lawsuit against maker Coca-Cola, claiming deceptive advertising practices. The Center for Science in the Public Interest said that Coke's claims that the drinks can improve health are unsubstantiated. CPSI said that the 33 grams of sugar in each bottle of Vitaminwater do more to promote obesity than any health benefits other ingredients might provide. It also said that the claims of help for the joints and bones cross the line into fraud. Coca-Cola responded with...