Sugar Water Is The American Way

I like to see a client-side press person bite back when their employer is accused of wrongdoing, and today’s business news provides that ring-side opportunity.
According to The Wall Street Journal, The Center for Science in the Public Interest is bringing a class action lawsuit to a California court, claiming that Coca-Cola makes deceptive claims about its VitaminWater brand.
CSPI nutritionists believe the 33 grams of sugar in each bottle of VitaminWater do more to promote obesity, diabetes, and other health problems than the vitamins in the drinks do to perform the advertised benefits listed on the bottles.
Here’s the PR person’s bite that I like:

A Coke spokeswoman, Diana Garza Ciarlante, called the suit “ridiculous.”
“Glaceau Vitaminwater is clearly and properly labeled and shows the amount of vitamins and calories in the product,” she said. “This is not about protecting the public interest. This is about increasing the readership of CSPI’s increasingly irrelevant newsletter.”

I know it’s twisted to enjoy spectacle of this nature. What I like is the raw emotion. Frankly, Garza fails to perform at the top of her game by getting nasty and belittling a smaller opponent, but sometimes it works in one’s favor to act naturally and say what needs to be said.