Study: 'Big Soda' Heavily Influenced Media and Debate in Failed Soda Tax Efforts in California

Share On Social!

In this KQED photo from a story about the Richmond soda tax campaign, a customer at La Raza market in Richmond talks with a paid organizer for the community coalition against beverage taxes.

Sugary drink tax proposals, which studies show could help Latino children consume fewer sugary drinks, have been popping up around the country in recent years.

For example, San Francisco, Berkeley, and the state of Illinois are among those currently weighing such taxes.

In 2012, two California cities with large Latino populations, Richmond and El Monte, failed in their attempts to pass a tax on sugary drinks.

A new study by Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) found that the soda industry influenced news coverage of the two ballot measures, but did in a behind-the-scenes way.

The industry used a broad range of community spokespeople, from pastors to politicians, many of whom received industry funding but were not identified as connected to industry, according to the study. This allowed soda companies to distance themselves from the political debate and create the appearance that opposition to the taxes came from within the community, rather than from a well-funded PR campaign, according to the study’s authors.

The study also found that the soda industry, which spent over $4 million to defeat the proposals, capitalized on existing class-based and race-based tensions to depict the tax as hurtful to vulnerable populations, like Latinos and Latino business owners.

“The soda industry tried to position itself as a friend to low-income communities and communities of color—the very groups it has historically targeted with its marketing—as a distraction from the harms it has caused them,” said Andrew Cheyne, a co-author of the study. “The soda industry knows that word is getting out about the role sugary drinks play in diabetes and other diseases. It sees the writing on the wall. That’s why it fought these taxes so hard and will continue to do so in other cities.”

The study includes recommendations for journalists on ways to improve coverage of soda taxes, as well as lessons from Richmond and El Monte for those considering pricing disincentives for sugary drinks in other cities.

The study was supported by the Healthy Eating Research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and by The California Endowment.