Taking on corporate giants

30 January 2009

WSF 2009

We all had better luck in the afternoon. A meeting on Coca-Cola was one of the most inspiring and motivating of events at the forum. Lots of people turned out and packed a very hot room to hear about the crimes of Coca-Cola in Colombia and India. One of the most impressive achievements of the WSF is its ability to internationalise a campaign. When fighting the crimes of one of the most globalised companies in the world, the ability to link up and build a global campaign to match the reach of Coca-Cola is vital.

Coca-Cola doesn't listen to the people in India whose water they are polluting (it takes 4 litres of water to make 1 litre of Coca-Cola!) but they start to take notice when their reputation is tarnished in important markets in the West. Brazil represents one of Coca-Cola's most important emerging markets so it's really important that the campaign to expose the companies' actions takes root.