For years, the famous Coca-Cola lorry has signaled Christmas is upon us, although there is a call to outlaw it from Liverpool amid fears that the drink contributes to an obesity epidemic there.
The demand for a ban has come from the Liberal Democrat party in the city who want the brakes slammed on any proposed visit by the festive truck to Merseyside during its annual tour of the UK.
Childhood obesity is a huge problem in Liverpool. A major cause of this is fizzy, sugary drinks. BAN THE COKE VAN https://t.co/q4y9UsS965
— Richard Kemp CBE (@cllrkemp) September 24, 2017
Councilor Richard Kemp, the Lib Dem leader, who has previously called for the ban in 2016, believes it promotes a product which is "grossly unhealthy" especially to a city already "in the grip of an obesity epidemic."
He has now written to bosses at the Liverpool One shopping district arguing that any visit should not be allowed to take place this year while insisting it is simply a "cynical event."
"I believe that the visit by Coca-Cola should not take place. You only have to look around you to see that Liverpool is in the grip of an obesity epidemic — 30 percent of our 11-year-old are obese with about five percent being clinically obese. The biggest single cause of this is the consumption of fizzy drinks," Mr. Kemp said in the letter.
"Up to 60 percent of our adults are obese and many of them are clinically obese — we must take action to deal with this because the consequences are alarming.
"It is not designed to welcome Christmas, but to increase the consumption of a product that is grossly unhealthy," Mr. Kemp added.
The political leader insisted figures showed that 10 percent of all hospital beds are occupied by people with type 2 diabetes — all of which was avoidable if they were to eat and drink properly and take enough exercise.
Ban the Van call to tackle Childhood Obesity in Liverpool https://t.co/7b9yMDUtjW pic.twitter.com/sOSOnZyYV2
— Richard Kemp CBE (@cllrkemp) August 18, 2016
His colleague Mirna Juarez argued the shopping complex already made plenty of profit during the Christmas and New Year period without the visit of the Coca-Cola truck.
To Ban or Not to Ban?
The ban proposal has already attracted strong views on social media with many supporting the case.
Let's just ban the thing from the UK. Unnecessary polluting monster promoting sugar laden obesity causing drinks https://t.co/ixk4KcqT5v
— Real Gaz of Trumpton (@gazza_d) October 30, 2017
Agreed. But let’s start with the coco cola truck because that’s tangible.
— Harrogate Shame (@HGShame) October 31, 2017
@cllrkemp ban the Coke truck from Lpool??Are you having a laugh???That won’t stop obesity u moron try concentrating on feeding pple first!
— ALAN MCALEES (@ALANMCALEES) October 30, 2017
A spokesman for Coca-Cola Great Britain claimed, however, the truck also promotes sugar-free drinks.
"The Coca-Cola Christmas truck tour provides a moment of fun for everyone in the build-up to Christmas and we have had a positive response from many people in Liverpool whenever we have visited. The tour is now in its seventh year and each year we have receive hundreds of requests for the truck to visit towns and cities and we take these into account when creating a route which has a good geographical spread," the spokesman explained.
