All Blacks and Fizzy Drink

[seeaxe]

I'm sitting on a Pacific Island the with not enough to do, so am spending too much time reading news articles.

I read about the mighty ABs ditching Coke for Pepsi as sponsors. These sort of drinks (and the highly processed fast food diet that goes with them) are steadily killing off the Pacific peoples. 40% of people in Tonga have diabetes, huge percentages are obese. Several Pacific island nations top the "most obese in the world" list. You can argue that there's always a choice of what you eat, and I would agree if you have enough money to buy better food. But the processed stuff is cheaper and the majority of pacific people are not wealthy by any definition. This plus intergenerational "programming" from times when food was not plentiful (big is good) has combined to mask the problem until it has got out of hand.

With this generation seemingly all but screwed, its going to be up to the kids to change their outlook and eat and drink something better (always assuming they can afford it of course), unless the government bans the stuff and we all know that wont happen. Who do those kids most likely look up to and whose examples will they follow? Their governments or the ABs?

Given that (as much as us NZers like to claim them for our own) the ABs would not be the team they are without the Pacific Island members, wouldn't it set a great example to kids everywhere if the ABs said no to both Coke and Pepsi? Wouldn't it be great if they used their massive media clout to actually make a positive difference? And possibly help their future talent pool in the process? They are a great rugby team, no doubt, but in NZ they are held up to be more than that, they are a proxy for the national psyche. When they win, all is rosy but if they lose the whole country goes into mourning. So do they actually stand for something or are they just another brand like Coke and Pepsi.

The time when I admired NZ the most was when David Lange told the US where they could put their nuclear ships. Here's an opportunity to do something similar - I am hopelessly naïve and idealistic to think that it could happen, but hey, you never know do you?

The irony for me is that the island I'm on is about to run out of water, and what water there is cannot be drunk without further purification. Bottled water costs more than gas, as it does in NZ. In NZ its a choice, here its a necessity. Fizzy drinks are cheap. Somehow I doubt anything much will change.

As I said, too much time on my hands, better go and find something to do.............

Cheers

[Dave M]

Yes - as should other sports people everywhere.

[kiwigeo]

It's not all bad....the list of official sponsors includes Sanitarium and Steinlager. Weetbix and beer......the breakfast of champions!!

[Nick]

It's a sad fact Richard, that because they can churn a 44 gallon barrel of the stuff out cheaper than a pint of milk that they return HUGE profits and as such can talk the numbers when talking sponsorship to the likes of the "AB's". I put AB's between quote marks because these days they aren't really our rugby team, sadly it's a brand name, a business and as such, it all comes down to generating the mighty dollar (I often wonder where the world would be if a system of money had never been thought of!). When large amounts of money are involved many business's or even individual's scruples/principles can go out of the window (look at the cricket corruption and cycling) and they are willing to sell their soul for a handful of gold. I don't include the guys that pull on that wonderful jersey and go out and play for their country in that, they are merely the "product" and as such have no say in what is emblazoned on the jersey or their kit bag/bus or displayed on the hoardings behind them at press conferences.
But I fully agree with you that the people that are targeted with these sugary products are the ones that could do with them the least, I often moan to my wife about the fact that you can buy 5 litres of sugary crap for less than two of milk when milk would be a far healthier drink and it has been shown that pacific islanders are more prone to diabetes & liver diseases than 'westerners'.
They say politics shouldn't come into sport but nobody said anything about money! In a similar 'corporate' vein, if you can get your hands on a copy of "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, it's well worth a read and highlights the underhanded and almost mobster-ish techniques large fast food companies employ to peddle their crap.