Article Response - Pass the low fat, reduced sodium, lower sugar Tostitos please

After reading the Economist's March 27th article entitled "Pepsi gets a Makeover," you may be tempted into thinking Pepsi is leading an evangelical crusade against added trans fats and sugars in their products. You would be wrong. In fact Pepsi has been scared to shaking like a sailor clinging to the mast of a sinking ship, only in Pepsi's case, their ship is sinking into a sea of government regulation.

Pepsi, ever fearful that they will go the way of the big tobacco companies, who are blamed for every case of lung cancer or premature respiratory related death since the inception of cigarettes, desperately desires to avoid a similar overly scrutinized path. Pepsi has become nervous enough to remove every high sugar cola vending unit from k-12 schools by 2012. Pepsi also aims to reduce the salt, sugar and fat content in their numerous brands by 25% before 2020. The last thing Pepsi needs or wants is to become the governments whipping boy example in the war against obesity. As the trend towards healthy nutritional choices gains social appeal, Pepsi is attempting to quietly distance itself from its rationalizing and deflecting public relations policies of the 90s when it referred to its products as "fun for you."

You can't help but feel a little bad for Pepsi. Stuck between looming government and social pressures to provide healthier options and the hard reality that when consumers are provided with healthier options, many of them prefer to remain fatty boom booms than adopt an entirely new lifestyles. Several years ago Pepsi launched "Tropicana Juice," a product aimed towards health conscious consumers. It was a financial disaster often compared to the unsuccessful launch of "New Coke". Other ventures into health snacks have met a similar fate. The hip consumers targeted in Pepsi's "healthy" new launches may have already found niche brands which they are loyal to and may be unaffected by the often times transparent, too little, too late conglomerate attempts at sparking their interest.

The side effects of our favorite foods and beverages may not be in our best interest, yet often we choose to consume them anyway. As a consumer would you rather have the choice as to what you put in your mouth? Inevitably you may have to investigate every product you choose for its quality and its companies ethics. Would you rather have these issues left to your government and the lobbies which persuade them?