When Wendy’s decided it January to remove soft drinks from its kids meals, it meant that Burger King was the only one of the big three burger chains to still include soda with their youth-targeted menu. But in the last month, BK has quietly pulled the sugary beverages from its kids meals and menu boards. [More]
soda
Coca-Cola Pulls Fanta Ad Suggesting Nazi Germany Was “Good Old Times”
By 3.3.15
In a recent video recounting the birth of Fanta soft drinks, Coca-Cola explains that its German operation had trouble getting cola-making ingredients to the country’s bottling plants 75 years ago, leading the bottlers to dream up a beverage they could make without Coca-Cola syrup. Perhaps Coke was hoping people wouldn’t do the math and realize that the reason for the syrup scarcity had a little something to do with the Nazis. [More]
Sierra Mist Sweetener Switcharoo Leaves Soda Drinkers Bitter
By 2.16.15
If you’re not a frequent soda drinker and only occasionally pick up a bottle of Sierra Mist, you might get a strange-tasting surprise the next time. PepsiCo has replaced some of the sugar in the beverage with stevia-based sweetener, which reduces the calories but alienates customers who don’t care for the taste of stevia. [More]
Do We Choose Which Products We Like Based On How Easy They Are To Pick Up?
By 2.13.15
How hard do you look at products before you grab them? While we’re usually not thinking, “oooh that looks nice and grabbable, I’m going to buy it,” one researchers says that how easy objects are to pick up and use might have some effect on us when it comes time to choose what we want. [More]
Wendy’s Dropping Soda From Kids’ Meals
By 1.15.15
More than a year after McDonald’s announced plans to remove sodas from Happy Meals, the folks at Wendy’s have reportedly decided that they should also stop including the sugary drinks in their kids’ meals. [More]
Shrinking Soda Cans Mean Fewer Calories For You, More Profits For Beverage Companies
By 1.13.15
If you’ve taken a trip down the soda (pop, Coke, soft drink) aisle at your local supermarket in the last year you’ve probably noticed an increase of miniature cans being shilled by beverage makers. Although the diminutive cans might look like a novelty, they’re actually Pepsi and Coke’s revenue-producing answer to American’s latest health kick. [More]
California City Votes In The Nation’s First Soda Tax
By 11.5.14
Soda will now come with the nation’s first-ever tax on sugary drinks in Berkeley, CA, after the city became our nation’s first to pass such a law last night. More than three-quarters of voters cast their ballots in favor of the measure, which will put a tax of $0.01 per ounce on sugary drinks. [More]
Washington Stores Pull Exploding Marijuana Soda Bottles From Shelves
By 10.9.14
Now that marijuana is legal for recreational use in Washington, stores have probably not been surprised to see pot-infused products flying off the shelves. But when there’s soda literally exploding on the shelves, well, that’s not the best way to clear out the inventory. At least three marijuana product purveyors in the state have had to pull a sparkling pomegranate soda made with pot after bottles started exploding mysteriously. [More]
Pepsi To Start Selling Naturally Sweetened Soda — But Only On Amazon
By 10.1.14
Latching onto a double dose consumer trends, Pepsi will start selling naturally sweetened sodas, free of the artificial kind many people are eschewing these days, but the only way to buy the drinks is going to be online in an exclusive deal with Amazon. [More]
Coca-Cola, Pepsi And Dr Pepper Create Unholy Alliance To Cut Consumers’ Sugary Drink Calories
By 9.23.14
The crusade to end – or at the very least reduce – consumers’ love affair with sugary soft drinks received a huge boost Tuesday from the very companies that make the libations. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group pledged today to substantially cut their contributions to the calories Americans consume. [More]
Two California Cities Trying To Pass Laws That Would Tax Sugary Drinks By The Ounce
By 7.8.14
Now that the crusade against soda and other sugary drinks has been effectively quashed in New York City, two West Coast municipalities are trying to take up the torch. San Francisco and Berkeley are trying to become the first cities in the U.S. to pass per-ounce taxes on sugary drinks, and the industry is paying attention. [More]
Appeals Court Shuts Down New York City’s Attack On Big Soda
By 6.26.14
Though Michael Bloomberg may no longer be Mayor of New York City, his legacy continues to linger like the taste of a sugary drink in the back of your mouth. More than a year after a judge threw out Bloomie’s proposed ban on large sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages, an appeals court has told the city’s new mayor that cap on colas is just too much for the people of NYC to swallow. [More]
Faygo Founder’s Grandson Claims Soda Company Fired Him Because Of His Age
By 6.24.14
It’s not all in the family anymore at Detroit’s Faygo soda company, which has been in business for more than 100 years: One of the founders’ grandsons says he was fired from his job as director of marketing at the bottling plant, because at 68 he was over the hill. He’s claiming in a lawsuit that Fagyo discriminated against him because of his age. [More]
Starbucks Expands Made-To-Order Sodas To Southern United States
By 6.23.14
Does waiting in line at Starbucks seem never-ending? Well, it might be getting worse now that the coffee shop is expanding its made-to-order soda options – essentially giving indecisive customers hundreds more choices to make. [More]
California Lawmakers Kill Bill That Would’ve Been First To Require Warnings On Sugary Drinks
By 6.18.14
While health advocates and other opponents of sugary drinks like soda had high hopes for a California bill that would’ve become the first law requiring warning labels on such beverages, lawmakers in the State Assembly effectively killed that measure yesterday. [More]
Stevia-Sweetened “Coca-Cola Life” Will Bring Its Silly Name To U.S. Shelves This Fall
By 6.13.14
The race to launch a mid-calorie soda that appeals to a wide audience continues, as does the trend of giving these new drinks stupid, stupid names. Following in the footsteps of Pepsi Next and Dr. Pepper TEN, the Coke folks are reportedly bring Stevia-sweetened Coca-Cola Life stateside in the coming months. [More]
Coke Ad Suggests Maybe You Should Pay For That 140-Calorie Soda With Some Exercise
By 6.6.14
Either Coca-Cola is crazy like a fox or just the kind of crazy that means showing people exactly how long they’ll have to exercise in order to work off the calories in a 16-ounce can of Coke. Speficically, its new campaign points out that it takes the average person 23 minutes of cycling to “pay” for those 140 calories, at which point a Rube Goldeberg-esque device will deliver the goods. [More]
New York City Back In Court Trying To Reinstate Ban On Big Sodas
By 6.5.14
It seems like only yesterday that New Yorkers were living under the unsweetened thumb of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, because although there’s a new mayor in town, the old fight over restricting the sizes of soda and other sugary drinks continues onward. [More]
