Coca-Cola in advert drive to offset link with obesity Coca-Cola is to begin an advertising onslaught in the United States to argue against the increasing body of opinion linking soft drinks with obesity. The company announced yesterday it would begin airing a two-minute ad during the highest-rated shows on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC in the hope of becoming a stronger voice in the debate over soft drinks and their impact on public health. The advert lays out Coca- Cola's record of providing drinks with fewer calories over the years and notes that weight gain is the result of consuming too many calories of any kind - not just those in soft drinks. Coca-Cola says the campaign will kick off a variety of moves that help address obesity in the year ahead, such as providing more diet options at drinks dispensers in eating places. For the world's biggest beverage company, the adverts reflect the mounting pressures on the broader industry. Later this year, New York City is set to put into effect a first-in-the-nation cap on the size of soft drinks sold at restaurants, cinemas, sports arenas and other venues. When rival company PepsiCo recently signed a wide-ranging endorsement deal with pop singer Beyonce, critics called for the singer to drop the contract or donate the funds to groups that fund health initiatives. Diana Garza Ciarlante, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola, said the new adverts aren't a reaction to any negative public sentiment but that the company felt it needed to address "the issue of the times." Recent studies have suggested that sugary drinks cause people to gain weight, independent of other unhealthy behaviour. A decades-long study involving more than 33,000 Americans suggested that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, amplifying a person's risk of obesity beyond what they would be from heredity factors alone. Mike Jacobson, executive director for the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, was sceptical about the intent behind Coca-Cola's adverts and said that if it was serious about helping reduce obesity, then it would stop fighting taxes on soft drinks. "It looks like a page out of damage control 101," he said. They're trying to disarm the public. In the Coca-Cola advert, a narrator notes that obesity is an issue that "concerns all of us," but that people can make a difference when they "come together." Another advert, which will run later this week during American Idol and before the Super Bowl football championship, is more reminiscent of catchy, upbeat advertising people have come to expect from Coca-Cola. It features a montage of activities that add up to burning off the "140 happy calories" in a can of Coke: walking a dog, dancing, laughing with friends and doing a victory dance after bowling a strike. Ms Garza Ciarlante said the 30-second advert is intended to address confusion about the number of calories in soft drinks. She said the company's consumer research showed people thought there were as many as 900 calories in one can. Coca-Cola notes it has made several moves to help customers make smarter choices, such as putting calorie counts on the front of its cans and bottles in the US. Last year, it also started posting calorie information on its vending machines ahead of a regulation that will require soft drinks firms to do so by 2014. Public concern over calories counts is apparent in Coca- Cola's business. In North America, all the growth in its soft drinks business over the past 15 years has come from low- and no-calorie drinks, such as Coke Zero. Diet soft drinks now account for nearly a third of its sales in the US and Canada.