You are here: Fairness.com > Resources > Coca-Cola Company, The ("Coke")

Coca-Cola Company, The ("Coke")


Self Description

July 2002: "Founded in 1886, our Company is the world's leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, used to produce nearly 300 beverage brands.  Our corporate headquarters are in Atlanta, with local operations in nearly 200 countries around the world." http://www2.coca-cola.com/ourcompany/index.html

Third-Party Descriptions

May 2007: ATLANTA, Ga., May 30 — Under pressure from animal rights activists, two soft drink giants, Coca-Cola and Pepsico, have agreed to stop directly financing research that uses animals to test or develop their products, except where such testing is required by law.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/business/31testing-web.html

April 2007: At least three multinationals operating in Colombia – coal mining giant Drummond, Nestle, and Coca-Cola – have been targeted in civil lawsuits in the US that claimed these companies paid paramilitaries to kill or intimidate union workers. The Chiquita case could pave the way for investigations into other companies, as well. 'Corporations are on notice that they cannot make protection payments to terrorists,' said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein on announcing the plea agreement. A Justice Department spokesman declined to say whether probes into those firms are under way.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0411/p01s03-woam.html

December 2001: Enron, whose earnings per share nearly doubled between 1998 and last year after hardly budging between 1994 and 1998, is just one example. In the late 1990's, Coca-Cola (news/quote) was a classic trust-me story. The company's earnings almost tripled from 1992 to 1997, even though its sales grew much more slowly. Much of that growth came from one-time gains as Coke restructured and sold local bottlers to Coca-Cola Enterprises (news/quote), a supposedly independent bottling company that is 38 percent owned by Coke.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/09/business/yourmoney/09TRUS.html

April 2005: The settlement amount is less than the $192.5 million that Coca-Cola Co., a much larger company, agreed to pay in 2000 to settle a race-discrimination suit. But experts said the Sodexho case is part of a larger shift in the use of civil rights laws, enacted to combat discrimination in hiring, to tackle more subtle forms of racial exclusion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/27/AR2005042701153.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Warren E. Buffett Person Feb 15, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Douglas Daft Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Gov. Deval Patrick Esq. Person Jun 9, 2007

Articles and Resources

26 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 6]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Apr 29, 2011 Soft Drink Industry Fights Proposed Food Stamp Ban

QUOTE: They also fear that restrictions on soft drinks would set a precedent for the government to distinguish between good and bad foods and to ban the use of food stamps for other products… The plan is unfair to food stamp recipients because it treats them differently from other customers.

 New York Times
Apr 11, 2011 A Scorecard for Companies With a Conscience

QUOTE: The typical pattern for a new, successful, triple-bottom-line company is that it quickly gets gobbled up by a major corporation — usually the leader in its field… The clash of corporate culture can be overwhelming, and the worry is that gradually the mission will erode — at least the parts of it less visible to consumers — in favor of a focus purely on profit.

 New York Times
Jul 03, 2009 Purity of Federal 'Organic' Label Is Questioned

QUOTE: the USDA [organic food] program's shortcomings mean that consumers, who at times must pay twice as much for organic products, are not always getting what they expect: foods without pesticides and other chemicals, produced in a way that is gentle to the environment.

 Washington Post
May 11, 2009 Tax Dodge Myths: Are multinationals not paying their fair share? ( Judgment Calls)

QUOTE: But the reality is murkier; the president's accusatory rhetoric [against multinational corporations] perpetuates many myths [of them not being fair].

 Newsweek
Jul 11, 2008 Olympic Sponsors to Benefit Under a Tougher Stance in China (Advertising)

QUOTE: The restrictions are meant to clamp down on so-called ambush marketers, which are companies that are not official sponsors but hope to gain some halo effect from the Games. One advertiser that is likely to suffer the most is Nike, which has broad marketing ambitions in China but no qualifying sponsorship deal. Ambush marketing has long been a flashpoint at the Olympics. Sponsors pay upward of $65 million for the right to affiliate their brand with the Olympics, and they do not want their advertisements eclipsed by nonpaying competitors. The job of policing the marketing landscape is generally left to the host country, the International Olympic Committee and national organizing committees.

 New York Times
May 31, 2007 Pepsi and Coke Agree to Stop Financing Research That Uses Animals

QUOTE: The two soft-drink giants are the latest companies to respond to scrutiny by PETA, which has mounted a campaign to expose animal testing practices in the beverage industry, an industry which unlike cosmetics or pharmaceuticals, had largely been a stealth operator in the animal testing arena.

 New York Times
Apr 11, 2007 Chiquita case puts big firms on notice: The company's admission that it paid Colombian paramilitaries $1.7 million has sparked outrage in Colombia.

QUOTE: Chiquita Brands International admitted in US court last month that it paid $1.7 million to Colombia's brutal right-wing militias over the course of eight years. The company said it did so to protect its employees and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. The case is sparking outrage in the capital, Bogotá, where officials want to see company executives on trial.

 Christian Science Monitor
Apr 05, 2007 Why the Hype Just Keeps on Coming: Increased scrutiny of advertisers' claims for their products is unlikely to do much to temper their overheated pitches

QUOTE: Why so much product hype? Companies typically face scant public censure when it comes to outrageous product claims. Even if a government agency, plaintiff, or activist cries foul, there's often little penalty to be paid. The few weeks or months that most companies' ad campaigns run are usually over before anyone gets exercised over their claims. By then the companies have already achieved their objective of goosing sales and the public is often unaware of any court rulings or government orders against the ads.

 BusinessWeek
Jan 31, 2007 Failing Report Card: Survey finds largest U.S. companies doing “poor job” disclosing climate change risks.

QUOTE: ...the environmental network group Ceres and the socially responsible mutual fund company Calvert released a report harshly critical of climate change disclosure at most top-tier companies.

 CRO Magazine
Jan 09, 2007 Drink Up to Slim Down?

QUOTE: "the federal government imposed stiff fines on some well-known marketers of weight loss pill for deceptive marketing....A new green tea beverage is drawing sharp criticism from scientists and from a consumer group that says the drink's promotional material implies that it could help with weight loss."

 Washington Post
Aug 29, 2006 Indian State to Bypass Microsoft ‘Monopoly’

QUOTE: In a new attack on multinational corporations, the Communist government in India’s southern state of Kerala is campaigning to eliminate Microsoft from use in public institutions, just weeks after it imposed a ban on Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

 New York Times
Aug 23, 2006 Market Place: For 2 Giants of Soft Drinks, a Crisis in a Crucial Market

QUOTE: The Center for Science and the Environment announced in August that drinks manufactured by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in India contained on average more than 24 times the safe limits of pesticides...did not respond swiftly to quell the anxieties of their customers...Partial bans on their products remain

 New York Times
Aug 27, 2005 Big Soda's Publicity Stunt

QUOTE: What possible purpose could an ad campaign serve, other than to promote soda companies as caring, responsible corporate citizens? If this sounds eerily familiar, it should. The ABA is taking a page right out of the tobacco industry's playbook: Spending more money to market its new responsible image than on actually being responsible.

 Common Dreams
Apr 28, 2005 $80 Million Settles Race-Bias Case: Black Managers Said Sodexho Wouldn't Promote Them

QUOTE: Sodexho Inc., the Gaithersburg-based food and facilities-management company, agreed Wednesday to pay $80 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed it systematically denied promotions to 3,400 black mid-level managers.

 Washington Post
Aug 29, 2004 Is the Food Industry the Problem or the Solution?

QUOTE: A new obsession of America's food, beverage and restaurant companies is thwarting childhood obesity.

 New York Times
Jun 23, 2004 Wal-Mart Bias Case Moves Forward: 1.6 Million Women May Join Class-Action Suit

QUOTE: ...evidence the nation's largest employer paid female workers less and gave them fewer promotions than men. The suit could include as many as 1.6 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees...

 Washington Post
Apr 06, 2003 Product Protesters Face Tough Going: Confusion Over Corporate Identities

QUOTE: With passions inflamed, and customers holding widely disparate opinions, multinationals are downplaying disagreeable associations in the markets they serve while emphasizing the depth of their local roots.

 Washington Post
Mar 04, 2003 Dental Group Is Under Fire for Coke Deal

QUOTE: Generally, pediatric dentists in private practice who were willing to talk appeared to be torn by conflict about the arrangement (Coke giving money to promote health education and research). They say they can see the value in having the money to educate parents and children about oral hygiene, but they worry about appearances.

 New York Times
Mar 01, 2003 Which Price is Right?

QUOTE: How can we increase profits if we can't raise prices? The answer demands revolutionary thinking -- new insights about strategy and human behavior, turbocharged with software, mathematics, and rapid-fire experimentation.

 Fast Company
Feb 01, 2003 BRANDED: Corporations and our schools

QUOTE: Are corporations, with priorities of profit and shareholder return, proper partners for public education?

 Reclaimdemocracy.org

26 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 6]