Coke, along with Microsoft, Nike and Kraft are just some of the large US multinationals to whom activists seem drawn, like moths to a flame. In years past the threat of boycotts and anti corporate campaigns had little impact on the bottom line, so shareholders and management were able to pay them lip service, if addressing them at all. Recently the ground has shifted because US activists and their campaigns have managed to politically re-engage tertiary students, although this time in corporate global geopolitics rather than traditional domestic or international politics.
One of the most interesting campaigns of late has been the boycott of Coke by ten US colleges including the University of Michigan, whose 50,000 students will now have to make do without ‘the real thing’. The current campaign centres on Coke’s alleged environmental problems in India and with the treatment of workers in their South American bottling plants. While the campaigns by Stop Killer Coke and Corporate Accountability International have taken time to have an impact, they now include well-known colleges such as Michigan, Rutgers, Santa Clara and New York universities. As yet the pain has been restricted to the 10 campuses, however Coke are in a slightly invidious position because they don’t actually own or run the bottling plants and their Indian operations were recently given a clean bill of health after an investigation by US consulting firm CSCC.
In the US many colleges and school districts have contracts with companies like Coke and Pepsi for exclusive pouring rights (for a range of beverages including healthy ones), a concept made famous by Dan deRose, President of Colorado-based DD Marketing. The sums paid can be huge and so colleges are taking a real financial risk by supporting their students in these campaigns.
Are the campaigns really hurting Coke? According to Dan DeRose, ‘We have not felt any impact from the Coke boycott nor have we received any indications from the educational institutions that have contracts with Coke’. Is what is happening in the US likely to happen here? You only have to look at the impact of Jamie’s School Dinners on companies like Compass and Canterbury Foods to see the interest in this issue and the potential for campaigns to have very direct and painful consequences for shareholders and employees.
So with all the hue and cry from parents, lobby groups and government over the ‘obesity crisis’, it is inevitable that similar consumer boycotts led from tertiary institutions will occur in the UK. It’s not a pleasant prospect for UK institutions who are already worried about falling student numbers, tight funding, top-up-fees and a host of other issues. In schools, Coke have won themselves considerable goodwill by their support of youth football but whether this will be enough to head off a concerted campaign driven from universities will be interesting to see.
The bottom line is that target companies like Coke, McDonald’s and Microsoft will always be the lightening rod for consumer activists. The difference is, if those activists are part of their core target audience within education and their campaigns become embedded, it may be very expensive to try and overcome the impact.
