Has Peterborough seen the last of the Coca-Cola Christmas truck? Campaigners call for tour to be banned

The bright red truck - which made 44 stops across the UK including Peterborough as part of a nationwide tour over Christmas - promotes the consumption of unhealthy sugary drinks, particularly to children, they argued.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Robin Ireland, director of Food Active, a campaign to tackle rising obesity levels, and John Ashton, a public health consultant, said Coca-Cola was intent on shaping public opinion through its marketing techniques.

It said the company wants to “frame the debate around healthy weight” by sponsoring events, funding community sports activities and raising funds to distribute food for people in need.

Yet a single can of Coca-Cola contains seven teaspoons of sugar, according to information on the Coca-Cola website.

The experts wrote: “At Christmas, Coca-Cola’s marketing goes into overdrive as newspapers across the country regurgitate press releases for its Christmas truck tour, with advertorials promoting the truck as a Christmas tradition. And of course the truck is just the latest of Coca-Cola’s campaigns to become a holiday brand and, indeed, to help brand Santa Claus himself.

“With figures showing that 33.8% of 10 to 11-year-olds are overweight or obese and that 33.4% of five-years-olds have tooth decay, many public health departments have used their ever-squeezed budgets to launch campaigns about sugary drinks to try to help their communities reduce their consumption.

“So Coca-Cola’s campaign was scarcely welcomed by local directors of public health, medical professionals, educationalists, or indeed members of the public.”

Five public health directors and members of the Faculty of Public Health, among others, signed a letter saying: “We can celebrate without allowing Coca-Cola to hijack Christmas by bringing false gifts of bad teeth and weight problems to our children.”

However, the experts said their letter received no coverage in the media it was sent to.

“Apparently Coca-Cola’s voice counts more than those of directors of public health,” they said, adding cans of regular Coca-Cola had been handed out as part of the tour.

They added: “Should this form of advertising and marketing be banned, given the growing evidence of the effect that marketing of unhealthy food and drink has on children? We believe it should and will continue to push for national action from organisations such as Public Health England to stop similar campaigns next Christmas.”