Coca-cola and Obesity

In the attempt to retain their 'family-friendly' image, Coca-cola released 'Coming Together', an ad campaign focused around Coke products being part of a healthy lifestyle.

However, this ad campaign is deceptive and manipulative for the following reasons: 1) The low- and no-calorie options they tout are sweetened with artificial sweeteners. These have not proven themselves to be a better option in long-term independent studies.  Reference: Artificial Sweeteners and Weight 2) "All calories count, no matter where they come from, including Coca-cola and everything else with calories. If you eat and drink more calories than you burn off, you'll gain weight." This is a gross-oversimplification of weight gain and weight loss and it doesn't take into account that nutrient-dense foods are always a better option than pop. They don't point out that their products are treats and not actually a part of a healthy diet.  I'm not saying that an indulgence now and then would hurt most people, but the idea of cutting healthy food from your diet in order to reduce your calories so that you can have coke really irritates me and that is an unspoken implication of this ad. 3) Encouraging children to drink more juice is a better option than pop, but a much poorer option than water. Juice is simply so sugar-dense and lacks the fibre that is found in a whole fruit. Also, bottled water is an unnecessary waste of food-grade plastic 3) It is yet another ad that implies that a major corporation like Coke has any goals other than ever-increasing profit. A corporation's only goal is to make money, so if they tell you they've got your best interests at heart, unless you're a major investor, probably not.
In short, this ad campaign is misleading and manipulative to a degree that is not often seen in one short advertisement. If I wasn't so angry, I'd give them kudos for it.