Tooth Fairies Disrupt The Coke Truck's O2 Arena Event

Healthy food advocates from the SUGAR SMART and Children's Food Campaigns are heading to the O2 armed with tooth brushes for children and letters to Coca-Cola bosses, denouncing the irresponsible Christmas marketing campaign. The group will also deliver a letter to AEG, the company behind the O2 Arena, asking them to set limits to how the brand promotes its sugary drinks in the future.

One promotional mini can of Coke contains 4 teaspoons of sugar, which is almost the full maximum daily amount for a small child, and more than half for an adult. Sugar overconsumption contributes to diet-related ill health, including obesity, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay. The NHS spends up to £9 billion a year treating obesity and related complications such as Type 2 Diabetes.  

In November 2017, Sustain, the charity behind the SUGAR SMART and Children's Food Campaigns, sent an open letter to Coca-Cola signed by health advocates and public leaders from 28 cities asking the company to clean up its act and cease handing out its signature sugary cola for free to the public, especially children and young people. 

The letter generated so much interest that Public Health England issued a directive to local authorities to resist proposals to host the Coke Truck tour and similar corporate promotions of unhealthy food and drink on public land in the future. The Coke Truck started its tour in Glasgow this year, which has some of the highest childhood tooth decay rates in the UK. It was met there by protests, that have also been seen in Bournemouth and Leyton.  

The O2 Arena in Greenwich is one of the last stops on the Coke Truck Tour, but it is also one of its most strategic. The stop coincides with the Jingle Bell Ball at the venue, which features some of the biggest pop stars and will attract thousands of young people from around the country. While the company claims that its policy is to ask parents' permission before handing free drinks to young children, no such policy exists for young people 12 and older. Worryingly, teenagers consume 3 times the official recommendation for sugar, and adults over twice as much.

SUGAR SMART is a campaign of Sustain and Jamie Oliver. It is the feature campaign of the Sustainable Food Cities network until mid-2018.