A global consumer movement has named Kellogg’s and Coca-Cola among the top brands guilty of abusing consumer rights.

Consumers International has announced its International Bad Products Awards as part of the CI’s World Congress in Sydney this week.

The awards aim to highlight failings of corporate responsibility and the abuse of consumer trust by internationally recognised brands.

Coca-Cola picked up its award for continuing to market the bottled water Dasani, which it has admitted comes from the same sources as local tap water.

Coca-Cola was forced to remove Dasani off the shelves in the UK in 2004 after a public outcry over it containing nothing but tap water; however, sales of the water are rising in the US and it continues to be strongly promoted in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and several other Latin American countries.

While Coca-Cola has said itself that Dasani is not spring water and is from tap water supplies, promotional material for the product reads: “filtered for purity using state of the art processes” and “enhanced with a special blend of minerals for a pure, crisp, fresh taste”

While Coca-Cola is not doing anything illegal, the advertising for its product is misleading.

CI said, “Sustainable access to essential services, such as water, is a basic consumer right. By bottling up this universal resource to sell back to us, corporations such as Coca-Cola have created a $US100 billion industry when one billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water. Making profits out of increasingly fragile water supplies is unsustainable, irresponsible and against the basic rights of consumers everywhere.”

Breakfast cereal maker Kellogg’s has been named and shamed for the worldwide use of cartoon-type characters and product tie-ins aimed at children, despite high levels of sugar and sale in their food products.

Kellogg’s has net global sales of $US10.9 billion in 2006 and spent $916 million on advertising, with 12% of that budget reportedly aimed at under 12s.

They recently promoted Coco Pops and Rice Bubbles with a Shrek promotion and produced boxes of green Fruit Loops and added green candy pieces, ‘ogre bits’ to their Coco Pops LCM Bars.

In New Zealand, Kellogg’s Crispix have come with Star Wars stickers and Ice Age 2 DVD giveaways in recent years. As well, there are Coco Pops competitions children can enter as often as they like, providing they keep buying the product, with prizes such as quad bikes and Apple iPods as prizes.

The issue here is not only how they market, but what they market, says CI, as Kellogg’s sells products high in fat, sugar and/ or salt.

Threatened with litigation in the US, Kellogg’s has agreed to change some of their marketing practices, however CI believes they are doing too little, too slowly.

CI members have campaigned against the marketing of Kellogg’s high sugar content products with successes in Australia, the UK and Mexico.

“These multi-billion dollar companies are global brands with a responsibility to be honest, accountable and responsible,” said Richard Lloyd, director general of CI. “In highlighting their short-comings, CI and its 220 member organisations are holding corporations to account and demanding businesses take social responsibility seriously.

Toy manufacturer Mattel also won an award, for the recall of over 21 million toys for high levels of lead in paint, over a five week period; and Takeda Pharmaceuticals took out the ‘overall winner’, for advertising sleeping pills to children.

CI is the only independent global campaigning voice for consumers, with 220 member organisations in 115 countries. The International Bad Products nominations were submitted by CI member organisations and CI expert staff. The final four, including the overall winner, were chosen by the CI Secretariat based on criteria including the size of the company, the global scale of sales and marketing, the direct impact on consumers and the potential actionable change by the corporation.

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