Coca-Cola Co. is currently under fire after reports emerged that the beverage company was involved in the controversial funding of a non-profit anti-obesity group, Global Energy Balance Network. Due to the criticisms, the company's Chief Science Officer Rhona Applebaum announced her retirement and a transition is reportedly underway.
Applebaum, whose retirement was announced on Tuesday, was reportedly helping manage Coca-Cola's relationship with Global Energy Balance Network, a nonprofit working to fight obesity. According to Bloomberg Business, the close ties of the company to the anti-obesity group, who has reportedly received $1.5 million from Coca-Cola, sparked concerns that the company would use the group to divert criticism about its role in the obesity epidemic in the United States.
While Global Energy Balance Network, which is led by a University of Colorado School of Medicine professor, claimed that Coca-Cola has no influence on its work. However, the emails obtained by the Associated Press showed that the company has been instrumental in shaping the group's message. The company even helped choose the group's leaders, edited its mission statement and suggested articles and videos for its website.
"I want to help your company avoid the image of being a problem in peoples' lives and back to being a company that brings important and fun things to them," the group's president told a top Coca-Cola executive in an email last November, as per New York Post.
Coca-Cola's controversial relationship with Global Energy Balance Network is just an example that the company is collaborating with outside experts to promote messages that benefit them. As a matter of fact, they have long upheld that the academics and other experts they're working with advocate their own visions. Unfortunately, these collaborations can sometimes be fraught and blur the lines between advertisements and genuine advice.
Moreover, several health and fitness experts paid by Coca-Cola wrote online tips on healthy habits in February. Each of them suggested that a mini-soda can be a snack idea. While one dietician wrote five such posts in less than a year.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent vowed on Tuesday that the company would increase its transparency about its research collaborations.
"Our support for scientific research was based on the desire to identify a more holistic, workable approach based on the best evidence," Kent said in a statement, as quoted by Business Insider. "It has become clear to us that there was not a sufficient level of transparency with regard to the company's involvement with the Global Energy Balance Network. Clearly, we have more work to do to reflect the values of this great company in all that we do."
In other news, Chester officials plan to cancel one of two annual Winter Watch parades in the city in favor of a festive Coca-Cola truck appearance as large crowds are expected to gather on Dec. 3, BBC News noted. The company's vehicle is reportedly making 46 stops on its Christmas tour.
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