Have a Coke and a Greenwash

Printer-friendly versionSend by email

Coca-Cola wants you to think of it as green. That's why its public relations firm, Manning, Selvage & Lee, promoted the premiere of the soft drink company's film "Environmental Champions" at the Beijing Olympics complex. The film profiles the "environmental achievements" of seven participants in the Olympic Torch Relay, including "the first American male to ski to the South Pole." Coke "plans to leverage the ... film beyond the Olympics by making it available to field communications teams throughout the world." Coke also "presented each Olympian [with] a Coca-Cola t-shirt made with blended cotton and PET [an easily-recycled material] plastic bottles," and each Paralympian with "visors made with recycled PET." Manning, Selvage & Lee's other "ECO Network" clients include such green companies as General Motors, Chevron and Marathon Pipeline.