Selling Soda

Mark Bittman raised some great points in his piece in the Times yesterday, in which he discussed celebrities lending their likenesses to soft drink companies to endorse their products.

Money talks, of course, but at whose expense?

If you’re already a multi-millionaire and you claim to be interested in supporting the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” Campaign, how can endorsing Pepsi a few months later help in the ‘effort that addresses a public health crisis’?  Does Pepsi not actually help contribute to worsening the health crisis?

It’s quite an awful situation if you think about it.  It’s not even as though one could argue that soda has anything remotely healthy to offer, as you might attempt to do with other products endorsed by this actor or that singer, such as some type of ‘energy bar’ that people might perceive as being healthy or that good old ‘got milk’ campaign which told us all about that commonly believed idea that we need dairy for strong bones (sure we do…). 

When are we going to have some A-listers touting the benefits of kale, grass fed meat and avocados?

Much to my dismay, there doesn’t seem to be quite the lucrative offering coming from those industries as compared to big soda conglomerates, but then, if you’re earning far beyond what you need to live on, couldn’t it be done on a volunteer basis?

Just my suggestion, of course…