School Districts Face a Soda Pop Backlash - Brief Article

Instructor, August, 2000 by Ingrid Ducmanis

That school districts around the country are facing painful budget crunches is not news to anyone. So when, in 1997, the school district of Madison, Wisconsin, was offered half a million dollars in school funding if it agreed to grant to Coca-Cola exclusive rights to supply all the district's soda vending machines for a three-year period, the district signed on. And many more followed suit. In the last three years, an estimated 175 school districts have struck similar deals with Coke or Pepsi. The companies are up-front about what they get out of the arrangement: the opportunity to imprint brand loyalty on young minds.

"This turns schools into a vehicle for promoting a brand-name product," asserts Dylan Bernstein, program director for the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education. He points out that these deals take advantage of a school's financial problems.

Madison's contract with Coke expires in August. According to The New York Times, the community is conflicted about whether or not to sign another such deal. Some think the benefits of the funding far outweigh other concerns; some are out-raged at the promotion of junk food to children. Thirty other school districts have recently decided against similar deals. Though the outcome is still uncertain, one thing is clear: Madison's school district has realized there's no such thing as a free lunch.