Every year, Coca-Cola “shares happiness” with its Christmas caravans: lights, polar bears and gifts in floats that circulate through the main cities of Mexico. These events, which are often perceived as a tradition, actually hide unregulated advertising campaigns that promote the consumption of the brand’s products. Behind that “magic” are millions of liters of water extracted from the country and drinks associated with diseases that, last year alone, claimed the lives of almost half a million people.
Puebla, November 16 (However).- “The holidays are here! Have a Coca-Cola and share the happiness.” The would refresh started its Christmas advertising campaign with a video which is just the beginning: in the coming weeks, the company will start with its famous “caravans”, which are the parade of trucks decorated with polar bears, pine trees and of course, bottles of Coca-colawhich tour the main cities of Mexico and the world.
To these caravans Families come, including girls, boys and adolescents, who soon associate the “magic of Christmas” with the brand that sponsored that parade: Coca-Cola. Thus, the minors They are exposed to a type of advertising, until now, not regulated in Mexico.
“Advertising aimed at children and young people has direct effects on the positive perception of the product from which they are receiving these impacts,” says Ana Larrañaga, food health researcher at the organization. The Power of the Consumerwhich in October of this year published the study “The other side of happiness: Analysis of the Coca-Cola Christmas Caravans and their harmful impacts on children and adolescents.”
According to El Poder del Consumidor, these events organized by Coca-Cola display a “community party” façade, behind which there is an advertising act carefully designed, financed and controlled by the company, whose central purpose is to install the Coca-Cola brand and the consumption of its products in the emotional memory and cultural life of the communities.
Larrañaga explains that Coca-Cola is a brand “associated with the development of different chronic diseases,” and that although it has committed to not advertising its products to children and adolescents, strategies such as Christmas Caravans are extremely attractive to these population groups.
Santa Claus takes the water from Mexico to distribute the water of Mexico
In the promotional video that marks the beginning of Coca-Cola’s Christmas campaign, Santa Claus uncovers a bottle of the soft drink and immediately begins sending trucks of the brand around the world. When they arrive at one of their destinations, the inhabitants are gathered around a large pine tree waiting for the gifts. But the vehicles do not carry dolls and strollers for the girls and boys who behaved well, but rather bottles of the product.
Beyond the video, when the company deploys its Christmas caravans in the real world, neither the lights nor the adorable characters are enough to hide the effects of these products. Not only are they the beginning of the diseases that are killing Mexicans, their production costs the country millions of cubic meters of water per year.
The objective of campaigns such as the Christmas caravans is threefold: to position the march culturally, “whiten” its reputation and build long-term consumer loyalty. According to El Poder del Consumidor, “this strategy of greenwashing y healthwashing “It seeks to hide – both from the community and decision makers – the true environmental and health impact of its products.”
The environmental impact begins with the 18 million cubic meters of water that this company has permission to extract in Mexico. Until 2022Coca-Cola had 43 water concessions throughout the country and most are registered in the name of allied bottling companies (such as FEMSA, Arca Continental and Bepensa) or representatives of the brand, making it difficult to directly identify the real magnitude of their extraction.
However, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has promoted the “National Agreement for the Human Right to Water and Sustainability“, through which Coca-Cola voluntarily returned more than four million cubic meters of water. According to the company, this corresponds to unused or partially used concessions.
In addition, Coca-Cola committed to investing more than 150 million pesos in a comprehensive water development program, which includes projects to reinject water into aquifers, soil restoration to improve natural water infiltration, and the installation of rainwater collection systems in more than 700 schools in the country.
“We already return more water than we drink. Our commitment is to be neutral in water terms,” said Patricio Caso, director of Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability of Coca-Cola Mexico, in an interview with The Day.
Larrañaga insists that despite the company’s speech, the damage caused by its products is demonstrable. And advertising strategies such as Christmas caravans must be regulated to prevent corporate advertising from being disguised as a community celebration and using public spaces to promote the consumption of beverages that are harmful to health and the environment.
“First, explicit recognition is needed by the authorities that what constitutes an advertising effort is much broader than a contract for a period of time on a television channel (…) Local authorities, who usually grant permits for these caravans to begin, must understand that it is an advertising act by a private company, not a tradition or a popular celebration, even if it is disguised that way.
In November 2024, El Poder del Consumidor filed complaints against the Coca-Cola Christmas caravans before the Commission for the Prevention of Health Risks (Cofepris). A month later, the organization also did so before the Federal Consumer Prosecutor’s Office (Profeco). As a result, the caravan that would be presented on December 15 in Mexico City was canceled for not having authorization, as reported by the capital authorities at the time.
But the parade was held in other cities in the country, such as Puebla. At that time, minors who attended with their families said they were “excited” by the event and some assured that it was not the first time they had attended.
If the caravans continue, “the authority itself allows a brand to be positioned, it does not register it as an advertising act, but it does have the impact of promoting the consumption of the product.” Because while Coca-Cola distributes “bottled happiness,” deaths from preventable diseases continue to increase and communities in Mexico continue to face problems with access to water. Fake snow and red lights do not bring magic to every corner of the world: they hide advertising for a brand that exists thanks to water and the health of millions of people.
The “magic of Christmas” increases the risk of suffering a heart attack, diabetes or cancer
But what relationship exists between this company that promotes “Christmas magic” and the chronic diseases that most affect the Mexican population?
Las causes of death The most common in Mexico are heart diseases, diabetes mellitus and malignant tumors, according to Statistics of Registered Deaths (EDR) of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
Last year, 400,441 people died from these conditions: 192,563 from cardiovascular diseases, 112,641 from diabetes and 95,237 from malignant tumors. All of them are related to risk factors such as poor eating habits, overweight, obesity and smoking.
At least since 2017, the majority of deaths in the country have been caused by these three non-communicable diseases, according to INEGI data. During 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 disease ranked second and first on this list respectively, but after that year the triad has remained the same.
INEGI data also show that the percentage of deaths caused by heart disease has increased in recent years. While in 2017 20 percent of deaths nationwide were caused by these conditions, in 2024 the proportion was 24 percent. On the other hand, diabetes went from 15 percent to 14 percent in the same period and malignant tumors have remained at 11 percent of total deaths in this period.
These non-communicable diseases are considered by experts as “a pandemia invisible“For example, between 2019 and 2020, myocardial infarctions were the most lethal cardiovascular events, with an increase of 49.44 percent. Doctor Luis Daniel Sánchez Arreola, president of the Mexican Society of Emergency Medicine, explains that “unlike COVID-19, there is no vaccine for this pandemic.”
So, “on the one hand we are seeing (that) health centers do not have sufficient capacity to receive this number of patients and give them adequate treatment, and on the other, the same authorities are allowing and promoting these parades that promote and position the product that is in part generating that burden of disease,” says Larrañaga.
The researcher insists that it is necessary to strengthen the health system, but eating habits in the country are also a fundamental part. Without effective prevention and control policies, cardiovascular diseases, closely linked to poor eating habits and high consumption of sugary drinks, will continue to be the main cause of death in Mexico for the next 30 or 40 years, agrees Sánchez Arreola.
The same happens with diabetes and some malignant tumors (such as breast and colon). According to a study from the National Institute of Public Health (INSP), the sugar contained in soft drinks can cause weight gain and insulin resistance, a condition related to type two diabetes. Additionally, when the body produces too much insulin, it can stimulate cell growth and prevent damaged cells from dying as they should, leading to cancer.
On the other hand, cola soft drinks contain a caramel coloring that is made with ammonium compounds. In this process, a substance called 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI) is generated, which scientific studies have identified as possibly carcinogenic.