Pushing Soft Drinks "Pouring Rights"

It seems that there is nowhere anymore that advertising is not infiltrating. Even school, which seems like it should be an unbiased place where students can explore many topics and learn many sides of issues is rampant with ads. My HS and middle school had soft drink machines, specifically Pepsi ones right outside the cafeteria. They locked the machines all day except during the lunch periods but I don't really know what that accomplished. I think it was just to prevent kids from leaving class to get soft drinks. Hearing about Channel One in the previous chapter and pouring rights in this chapter solidified this idea for me. Her discussion of "guerrilla marketing tactics" was interesting. It is upsetting that soft drink companies are heavily marketing in poorer, urban areas, especially because these areas often have less access to health care and have a large chronic disease burden, many of which may be related to diet.

Another thing that was appalling to me is the fact that Coca-Cola and Pepsi put their logos on infant bottles. It's upsetting because of the studies that show that people who buy these bottles are more likely to feed soft drinks to their children, which makes sense.

It's bothersome that schools may be in such need of funds that they take pouring rights contracts in order to get lump sums of money. It's sad that they can't get this money some other way so that they can buy nice things for the school, etc.... Poor schools seem like they would be especially likely to take these contracts.