Pepsi Announces Plan To Pretend To Care About Your Health

Story by Christina Mayer 

| Published Apr 13, 2010

Announcing the latest in a long string of populist marketing strategies, PepsiCo Inc. released a statement earlier this week saying it would soon pretend to actually care about its consumers’ health.

Indra Nooyi, president of PepsiCo since 2006, explained the company’s new initiative in more specific terms. “We’ve known for a long time that we would eventually have to address the growing issue of obesity in America. As a result, our marketing geniuses have come up with several ways to look like we care without the hassle of having Americans eat healthy foods for a change. These suggestions include cutting salt in some brands by 25 percent, reducing saturated fats by 15 percent and a healthy, ten-year digestion period before the designated time that we’re actually going to do anything. I think consumers will be very pleased.”

Critics of the new marketing strategy, however, are quick to point out that the plan actually does very little to convince consumers that PepsiCo, as the official campaign slogan says, “endorses their awful eating habits, but would like to look nutritionally progressive, so maybe they could lose a few pounds here and there? Not that Pepsi thinks they’re fat or anything.”

Richard Farst, a member of the Consumer Advocacy Group of America, has been among the most vocal opponents of PepsiCo’s initiative. “This campaign is a devious one,” he said, secreting handfuls of Doritos Cool Ranch corn chips in his pockets. “Pepsi is saying that the company is going to start doing little things to make people feel good about eating their weight in Funyuns at every meal — reduce sugars and trans-fats and all that, you know? But that sort of thing cuts a little too close to actual reform for me to be comfortable with it.

“The green revolution is here,” Farst continued, “and Pepsi knows it can boost stock after a poor showing last year, by implementing reforms in its business model and recipes. I’m just not convinced that Pepsi is as uncaring as they project.”

Nooyi defended the strategy from naysayers such as Farst. “Pepsi’s main brands will still be ‘fun for you,’” she said, referencing PepsiCo’s rich tradition of couching health risks in exciting, kid-friendly terms. “We’re not planning to take real action to help people out, like reducing wasteful packaging or marketing our healthier brands [Quaker Oats and Tropicana] as better alternatives to diabetes-in-a-bottle."

She concluded, “this new initiative is purely a PR scheme with no real backing. I’m frankly offended that people might suggest otherwise.”