Coca Cola's questionable ad campaign

Now it will really look like I'm obsessed with Coca Cola. I'm not. But this ad campaign really struck my mind for the message it sends. The campaign I'm talking about is centered around the slogan "New twin pack. Enough for your meal". Obesity has been a big issue in the US for a while and sugared soft drink consumption has been proven to contribute to it. Diabetes goes hand in hand with it. Don't get me wrong, I drink coke every once in a while and there's nothing wrong with that. Reality is that the main drink to have with your meal should be water. The claim made in the ad is plain irresponsible. The average household size in the US is just above 2.5 people (OECD data from July 2009). Does Coca Cola really expect 2 or 3 people to consume 100oz of coke every meal? The Coke Classic's serving size is set at 8oz, according to the corporate website. 100oz of coke then is enough for 12 people. The right amount for your party, not for your meal.

Coca Cola 2008 Annual Review - A qualitative analysis

• It's clear from the first page that the company's performance was very stable as the report announces growth in cases sold, operating income, net operating revenues and operating cash flow.

• The Chairman Isdell Neville opens the report. After some due economical considerations he expresses his wish to bring sustainability into Coca Cola, mentioning water stewardship, sustainable packaging, energy use and climate protection (pg 5)

• It is then the turn of the CEO Muhtar Kent, who reassures the shareholders about the company's goals:

"The true power and resilience of our business was reflected in our ability to meet or exceed our long‑term growth targets for the third year in a row and add a billion incremental unit cases in volume—the equivalent to adding a market the size of Japan" (pg 6)

Kent underlines the minimization of the printing of the report which saved the company about $1 million.

• The 2008 company's highlights include the Diet Coke Red Dress program, which put "messaging about heart health on 2.5 billion packages of Diet Coke and Caffeine-Free Diet Coke® products throughout the United States".

The section includes the following commitment:

"Set new global targets to improve water efficiency and reduce carbon emissions within our systemwide operations. Our goals are to improve our systemwide water efficiency 20 percent by 2012 and to grow our business but not our systemwide carbon footprint, reducing our emissions in developed countries by 5 percent by 2015. Both goals will be compared to a 2004 baseline"

• The report continues offering a view of the future strategies

"Estimates show that over the next 12 years the worldwide population will grow by more than 800 million people. In addition, 1 billion new people will have entered the middle class, and nearly 900 million people will have migrated to urban centers. That means more consumers with more money, who have the ability to purchase more ready‑to‑drink beverages"

• The report includes a section titled "Live Positive" (pg.27-28).

The Coca-Cola Company states its commitment to adopt sustainable business practices regarding the safeguarding of the environment and support to communities. The report mentions that since the adoption of the "Workplace Rights Policy" launched in 2007, more than 175 assessments and training sessions worldwide have been conducted.

Most of the sustainability claims are related to the environment but there is no mention, for example, of which standards the Coca-Cola Company will adopt in selecting new partners.

Despite the fact that I'm pleased to see a growing concern for communicating sustainability practices to the shareholders, I have to say that I'm concerned about the lack of homogeneity between growth considerations and sustainability claims. The latter seem to be relegated to merely accessory sticky notes. This disembodiment contradicts the vision of CSR as a philosophy that needs to guide every aspect of a company's operations.

Where profit meets responsibility

Browsing the internet I found News Spectrum. This online tool

"is a visualization of the words used for two topics in the latest results from Google News. One topic is coloured blue, the other red, and the associated words are coloured and positioned based on how highly they are associated with the two topics".

The two topics I selected were profit and social responsibility and here are the results:



Now, a few interesting considerations:
1. No specific companies stand out
2. Some expected words frequently associated with profit: company, bank, finance, business
3. Some expected words frequently associated with social responsibility: environment, society, health, security
4. Some unexpected words frequently associated with profit: church, art
5. Some unexpected words frequently associated with social responsibility: election, president

Let's now analyze the central area that should give us interesting insights on the common ground between the two topics:

community,
information,
green,
education, children,
state, government, public, country,
corporate, economic, law, investment, fund, innovation
rural,
charity

The outcome is interesting even though it is difficult to make a qualitative analysis of the result of a basic automated operation of word counting. We can use this result as the starting point for a couple of interesting considerations.

1. As suggested from the picture, the key to a constructive conjugation of profit and social responsibility involves the younger generations and is to be achieved through their education.
2. Governments still have a key role in regulating the operations and the information disclosed by companies operating on their territories
3. Innovation of processes and of business models can contribute in bringing the two worlds of profit and resonsibility closer than they have ever been.

Sustainability Review VS Annual Review

Most of the biggest companies out there have decided to compile (and print) a sustainability report. While I'm against printing thousands of copies of a report that is easily accessible as an electronic document I am still glad these companies have decided to talk their walk. There's something I've been asking myself - if these companies are concerned about the impact of their operations at the point that they find vital to write a sustainability report, a strong trace of this attitude could be surely retrieved in their annual review. That's why I decided to make a little quantitative analysis (it's really not scientifically reliable, but i thought it could help me understanding) of the words used in both the reports. This analysis will be followed shortly by a qualitative one.

COCA COLA COMPANY Reviews

A quantitative analysis

Sustainability Review (65 pages, 49 pictures)

water 189

business 149

community 160

sustainability 159

environment + environmental 113

bottling 104

partners 87

packaging 81

health 58

recycling 57

education 53

Annual Review (50 pages, 53 pictures)

markets 111

growth 91

business 87

bottling 55

sustainability 50

partners 35

water 23

EU Ban of 100W Incandescent Bulbs

From today, the 1st of September, the EU will start the phase-out process of 100W incandescent bulbs. The journey will continue in 2011 when 60W bulbs will be phased out and in 2012, when it will be the turn of 40W and 25W bulbs.

This is very good news considering that the efficiency of the new generations of bulbs has progressively increased. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) use between 65% and 80% less energy for the same light output compared to incandescent bulbs.

The main concern that has been raised is the presence of small amounts of mercury in the more efficient and promoted CFLs. Now, who really knows how to dispose of mercury? Where did you put your old broken thermometer?

I've done some quick internet research and found out that in the UK for example the lamps should be taken to the closest

Civic Amenity site (Household Waste Recycling Centre). These sites are provided for householders [...] Access is limited and controlled by the relevant Local Government body and if you are a business you should contact their Waste Management Unit to check if it would be possible to use their CA site facility.

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, the disposal of such commonly used items (including batteries) should be easy and convenient, otherwise people will just throw the occasional lightbulb in their general waste.

Some also raised the question of affordability; the new fluorescent bulbs are priced at significantly higher rates, but the increase in efficiency and durability should easily cover the price gap.

Patiently waiting for LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to get cheaper...

Transparency International - Global Corruption Barometer

On the 3rd of June 2009 Transparency International launched their "Global Corruption Barometer". It exposes the findings of a public opinion survey which involved 73,132 people in 69 countries. The study focuses on the general public's perception of corruption and gathers opinions on institutions and public services.

The findings of this study show how during the last two years this perception progressively worsened. In particular the private sector is perceived as corrupt by half of those interviewed. Bribery is thought to be used mainly to shape policies and regulations in companies' favor. Corruption matters to consumers, half of them in fact, are willing to pay a premium to buy from corrupt-free companies.

An entire section of the study is dedicated to petty bribery. Although it was experienced by more than the 10% of the interviewees in the 12 months before the gathering of the interviews, reporting and exposing bribery is not a very diffused practice, as only about 20% of the people involved presented a formal complaint.

The study traces a profile of the "ideal victim" of petty bribery:

WHERE:
The regions in which petty bribery seem to be more diffused are the Middle East and North Africa (40% of the interviewees reported paying a bribe in the previous 12 months).

WHO:
Under 30 (16%)
Male
Lower income quintile

THE BRIBE WAS PAID TO:
Police (24%)
Judiciary (16%)
Land Services (15%)

AMOUNTS:

Between 1% & 10% of the annual household income (40%)

One to charge them all

Mobile phones are overwhelmingly spread in Europe. Data retrieved with Wolfram Alpha show 659.9 million mobile phones for a total population of 591 million; more than one mobile phone each. The biggest mobile phonemakers (Apple, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, NEC, Research In Motion, Samsung and LG) have just reached an agreement to introduce a universal phone charger, adopting micro USB technology.The first phones compatible with the new battery chargers should be launched in 2010.

While this agreement is obviously useful in reducing e-waste I would like to share a few things to consider:

1) To remain consistent with this decision, phone chargers should be sold separately from the phone

2) The same decision should be extended to every other electronic device (at least to the ones that could be easily made compatible with the new standard)

3) A conclusive report on examining mobile phones and health risks should be released

4) Mobile phones should all be equipped with multi sim capabilities, allowing the use of two lines on the same phone (a few phones are already using this, it means it is do-able and not too expensive either). This would contrast the emerging trend of having more than one mobile phone - (work phone + personal phone).