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Emily @plastic.free.emi | UK
The “BoyCocaCola” project is an awareness and boycott campaign led by young and old people from all over the world from the “Coca-Cola Company” in the broad sense of the “Coca Cola” brand but also all the brands associated with and linked to the “Coca Cola company” throughout December 2020.
Although I knew that Coca Cola owned many brands, I was shocked to find out just how many they do own – including some of my favourites (Costa Coffee being one such brand).
As one of the largest producers of beverages in the world, Coca Cola has massive influence over the consumer market; meaning that they also hold massive sway over the biggest environmental and political matters, such as plastic pollution, human health and rights and water pollution and privatisation.
Every December leading up to Christmas, Coca Cola Company spends millions to portray themselves as a brand that unites people and families. With slogans like ‘Taste the feeling’ and ‘Open Happiness’ you might expect that their products are making the world a better place. In reality, the “Coca-Cola Company” is the world’s largest producer of plastic bottles and uses nearly 300,000,000 litres of water per year (excluding raw material production). And it’s not just their water waste that’s harmful: from their plastic impact to the way they treat their workers, Coca Cola Company should be held accountable for their negative impacts.
Our goal, by boycotting the company throughout December is to raise awareness of the environmental and human costs of the company, as well as forcing them to make changes in the way that their company operates, making sure that they:
1. Stop the Privatisation of the Water Supplies.
2. Implement a Deposit on its Plastic Products (as well as reducing the amount of plastic used).
3. Improve their Recipes to make their Drinks Healthier.
Each week of the month will have a different focus (water, plastic and health), in order to share the company’s dirty secrets and raise awareness of the difficulties that people and the planet face due to the direct effects of the Coca Cola Company. In the first week (Dec 1 – Dec 6), we will be focussing on water, educating people to Coca Cola’s privatisation of the water supplies, which force people to buy and drink their bottled water. This high demand for bottled water (created by the privatisation of the water supplies) then results in a huge increase in the demand for plastic bottled water, leading into the second week’s (Dec 7 -Dec 14) focus of plastic. Coca Cola has consistently (for two years running) been the “most polluting brand” – in a brand audit conducted by Break Free From Plastic – showing that whatever environmental actions that the company has already taken clearly are not working. Our final week’s focus is health, as the marketing of coca, particularly in developing countries, is intrusive into people's lives and triggers global public health concerns.
Our biggest and central action of the campaign will happen on the 24th December (Christmas Eve), when we will ask everyone who has joined the boycott (or who is interested in what we have done and wants to contribute) to email a ‘Christmas Wish List’ of demands to their local Coca Cola Company headquarters and Officials to make them aware (in case they haven’t seen our online activity, and haven’t felt the effects of our boycott) of the change we are calling for, and how we want them to change.
Through this massive mobilization, we hope to raise awareness among the citizens who will eventually be able to demand change from Coca Cola Company and push the company to produce in a less harmful way. By changing the public perception, we want to take the first step towards political change.
We really hope that you are interested in joining our campaign, and if you are, you can sign up to be part of the boycott here: https://www.jointhegreenwave.org/food/crowdaction/Boycott-Coca-Cola-in-December, as well as following us on Instagram @boycoca_company and Facebook @boycocacompany.
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