Atlanta loves Coca-Cola. The iconic soft drink has been around for over a century and is often considered a staple of American culture. However, their marketing seems to focus on specific groups within America. Coca-Cola seems to have been targeting Black and Hispanic youth for decades in a war with PepsiCo for the minority market.
According to The Washington Post, nearly 70% of African Americans and Hispanic Americans say they regularly drink sugar-sweetened soda. From hiring influential minority celebrities and athletes to appeal to the younger generation to targeting their ads toward minority and low-income communities, there seems to be something behind the scenes at Coca-Cola.
A key way Coca-Cola sells products is through advertisements. According to a 2017 Center for Science in the Public Interest report, “African-American children and teens saw more than twice as many television ads for sugar drinks than their white peers in 2013. African-American teens also saw four times as many Sprite ads and three times as many Coca-Cola ads as white teens saw.”
The report also adds, “Coca-Cola placed 38 million ads for products or promotions on children’s websites in 2013, despite promises they would not advertise those products to children.”
A 2016 blog from Genna Reed for the Union of Concerned Scientists reported that, in 2010, Coca-Cola’s chief marketing officer predicted at a Nielsen marketing conference that nearly nine out of 10 new customers in its youth demographic by 2020 would be from diverse cultural backgrounds, especially among Hispanic consumers.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been battling for decades over the minority market. American Academy of Pediatrics spokesperson Dr. Natalie Muth told CNN, “The fact that so much money is spent to get minority teens hooked on these drinks is reprehensible and more needs to be done to stop it.”
When asked about the number of Coca-Cola ads he typically sees, Erian Stokely, 16, said, “I see them often. It seems like you can’t go anywhere without seeing one.”
A crucial marketing campaign from Coca-Cola was Sprite’s “Obey Your Thirst” campaign. The campaign was launched in 1994 and continues today. In the words of Tyler Muse’s article, “The Untold Story of Sprite’s ‘Obey Your Thirst’ Slogan,” on historyoasis.com, “Sprite’s ‘Obey Your Thirst’ campaign did a great job targeting the hip-hop community and Black culture by featuring African American celebrities.” The campaign has featured all Black music artists and basketball players, including Grant Hill, LL Cool J, and Kobe Bryant.
In the early 2000s, Sprite introduced the world to Miles Thirst, an animated Black character who embodied pop culture. He was funny and relatable, making the campaign a massive success for Sprite. In one commercial, Miles modifies his friend’s car so the inside is Sprite-themed, complete with a Sprite dispenser and a green-and-yellow interior. At the end, he says, “Show ‘em my motto,” and the words “Obey Your Thirst” appear on the screen. The Obey Your Thirst campaign was brought back briefly in 2015 with Lebron James, and again in 2024, with Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves and track star Sha’Carri Richardson.
Most people know that consuming too much soda comes with a health risk, and unfortunately, this can be a big problem in the Black community. A long history of racism in America has led to Black people not having as much access to quality healthcare as other racial groups.
A 2020 study published by the National Library of Medicine titled “Racial Discrimination, Inflammation, and Chronic Illness among African American Women at Midlife: Support for the Weathering Perspective” shows that Black people are twice as likely to develop diabetes or to die of sudden cardiac arrest, compared to white Americans. According to the American Heart Association, 65.5% of Black children and adults consume sugary drinks daily. They also acknowledge that the beverage industry targets African Americans through “Investment into these communities and predatory marketing.” Sugary drinks are associated with weight gain and chronic diseases, and unfortunately, communities of color have a higher rate of these diseases.
An official 2020 Coca-Cola statement says, “At The Coca-Cola Company, we agree that too much sugar isn’t good for anyone, and we are taking steps
throughout the world to help people reduce the amount of sugar they consume from our products.”
Coca-Cola has since promoted sugar-free and reduced-sugar variants of Coca-Cola.
According to Miles Boykin, 14, “My friend Ethen is addicted to soda and other sugary drinks. He usually gets two at lunch.”
