Clarence Valley Environment Centre
Winter 2000 Newsletter
Contra Coca Cola

Over the last few years the Environment Centre has been running food stalls at community events such as reconciliation gatherings and concerts. This lets us raise funds for the centre and it helps us spread the C.E.C's messages in the Clarence Valley.

A few months ago we were asked to sell Coca Cola at our stall at a CD launch. The launch organizers said "if the C.E.C stall didn't sell coke they would provide it, as it was an essential drink that all the people at the launch would really need".

This re-ignited the old debate about the integrity of the C.E.C. Should we sell out and sell coke? We tried a sideways solution. We brought coke and Zieth's soft drinks to the stall and displayed a drinks poster that said:

 

If you feel like drinking a mixture of sugar, water and artificial colours and flavours you have choices: Buy a can of coke and support a multi-national company worth $83,645 million per year which: has no relationship to our community, except to extract your money. adds to the greenhouse effect through long-distance transport of cans colonises other cultures through advertising threatens local small business, part of our community. OR Buy a can of Zietsch Bros soft drink and: support a small local business employing local people help your money to stay in our community buy a product that hasn't been transported long distances resist getting sucked in by ads that say you'll be cooler if you drink coke. Resist the global financial order... THINK Before you drink!!

We also put a label with words to the same effect around every can of coke obscuring the coke label.

What happened?

99.9% of people at the launch read the poster... laughed, and bought a can of Zietsch's.

We'll be doing this at all stalls from now on. It gives a stronger message than just not selling Coke.

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Clarence Environment Centre
17 Skinner Street
South Grafton NSW 2460 Australia



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