Killer Coca-Cola vs Pouring on the pounds: Comparing the brand damage potential between negative health messaging and counterbranding strategies

Forget the war on drugs and the fight against tobacco. American public health advocates have a new foe – the soda and beverage industry. Why are sights set on soda consumption? Americans consume a massive amount of high-sugar/fructose corn syrup drinks each year. In fact, half of the U.S. population consumes more than one 12 ounce can of soda each day with some estimates as high as 2.6 glasses consumed each day (Anonymous, 2012a; Ogden, Kit, Carroll, & Park, 2011). Soda consumption is regularly linked with a litany of negative health effects including obesity, type 2 Diabetes, fatty liver disease, insulin resistance, cardiovascular problems, increased risk of stroke, malnutrition, and even cancer (Anonymous, 2012a; Jampolis, 2012; MacVean, 2012). Though the soda industry has agreed to place nutrition information on soda machines (Anonymous, 2012c) and while soda consumption fell by 1% in 2011 (though the price rose by 3% in the same year) (Geller, 2012), the reality is that Americans know it is bad for them yet that knowledge does not quench their thirst (Anonymous, 2012a). A coordinated multi-faceted approach is exactly what organizations like the American Medical Association argue (MacVean, 2012) are necessary if we are to positively affect growing obesity rates in the United States as well as those emerging in many countries around the world (Al-Rethaiaa, Fahmy, & Al-Shwaiyat, 2010; Borgmeier & Westenhofer, 2009; Lawrence et al., 2007). As a result, in recent years arguments for using counterbranding approaches in health campaigns have been growing – lead by research on anti-smoking campaigns – with research demonstrating that negative advertising (i.e., attacks on organizations or industries plus attacks on the behavior) is an effective public health tool in order to promote behavioral change (Apollonio & Malone, 2009; Eisenberg, Ringwalt, Driscoll, Vallee, & Gullette, 2004; Evans, Price, & Blahut, 2005; Farrelly, Davis, Haviland, Messeri, & Healton, 2005; Pralea, 2011; Terblanche-Smit & Terblanch, 2011). In short, a central question emerging among many health advocates is whether manufacturing a crisis for an organization or industry can help to change consumer behaviors. Thus the present study compares the effectiveness of two different approaches – a traditional health belief approach with an emergent counterbranding approach.