Dive Brief:
- PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Dr Pepper Snapple pledged to take steps to reduce the amount of calories Americans consume in drinks by 20% over the next decade.
- The three companies, backed by the American Beverage Association, issued the promise yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative, a meeting of political and business leaders aimed at solving the world's major problems.
- Among the steps outlined by the soda makers: promoting smaller serving sizes, publishing calorie counts on vending machines, and promoting low-calorie and zero-calorie drinks.
Dive Insight:
An average one out of every three American kids and teens is overweight. So anything that might help address the crisis is worth applauding.
But the pledge comes as full-calorie soda sales are already plummeting, and as regulators pursue legal actions like New York City's proposed limits on soda sizes or Mexico's soda tax to address the obesity crisis. Under those circumstances, some industry critics say the pledge seems less like an effort to cut calories as it does an effort to ward off regulators and politicians.