Coca-Cola
There have been many arguments over the
years about how Coca-Cola is manufactured and the consequences of the
ignorance. In Atlanta, USA, 1.4 billion drinks were produced a day. There use
to be cocaine in Coca-Cola, which was knows as ‘dope’, to give it the sweeter
taste. Nowadays, there are 8 sugars per 300ml. Coca-Cola was advertised during
the war between Britain and Germany as it went along side the Nazis.
2 and a half liters of water is needed to
make 1 bottle of coke, this adds up to a total consumption of 290 billion
liters of water a year. In India, local farmers protested outside the Coca-Cola
factory claiming it sucks the water dry whilst police were beating them to stop
the protesting. Many people are also blaming Coca-Cola for the cause of
people’s death and being ill, a gravestone read ‘RIP. Killed by Coca-Cola’.
In Colombia, during 2004 workers were
receiving death threats and had to get themselves bodyguards to keep them safe,
although their families have also been targeted and harmed. For example, a
worker in Colombia had a bodyguard and a driver to keep him safe after a gun
was aimed at his head and heard the words “Your time has come”. There were arguments due to the ignorance of
the managers of Coca-Cola because they didn’t support the workers or keep them
safe in any way. Also, 30,000 children were working in sugar cane farms in El
Salvador, which provided the sugar for Coca-Cola, although the legal age to be
working in plantations is 18+ because of the dangerous working conditions.
Another condition that had raised many
concerns was pollution. The water that leaked from the factory and polluted the
river, which not only killed the fish but also, spread diseases and rashes to
the community because the community relies on the river for their water. After
all of these complaints, water was shipped in and paid for to keep the
community safe and care for their well-being. Due to all the bad publicity of
Coca-Cola, a lot more money was spent on advertisements to convince people to
buy it. Around 2 billion was spent.
Lauren Hamblen
