Naughty Innocent

Today Innocent announced that it was getting a new investor - Coca Cola. The following is a copy of the email I sent (in a similar style to the banter Innocent use)...


Naughty Innocent‏

From:	Roz Lyn (rozpost@hotmail.com)
Sent:	07 April 2009 11:45:42
To:	richardr@innocentdrinks.co.uk

Hi there,

Hope you are having a lovely day and that this doesn’t spoil it too much. You are, all in all, pretty good people and have some really great ideas and a truly ‘innocent’ ethos and I thought we were all going on a journey of discovery together to see how far we could go with such dreams of building a better world from the inside out…and then the big bad wolf showed up at the door... and you let him in.

Seriously…what happened? Don’t you know that Coca-Cola sell carbonated sugary drinks that aren’t really good for you? I realise you are innocent but surely not naïve enough to think that this won’t have a detrimental effect on your reputation…people might start thinking that you’re not really nice people after all and that you don’t want the world to be a better place and that you are really only interested in money.

I really, really, really, really like Innocent and so many others do too and because of this I was really really, really, really upset to see what looks like just another one of those businesses starting off with high ideals and dreams that ends up, as usual, just selling out. I know you say you hope to influence Coca-Cola…but sadly they obviously have already influenced you too much. I’m not big on Bible literature but 30 pieces of silver do come to mind when I see 30 million.

So just in case you don’t know - here is some info that might help you see why I am so upset with you and why you now have to sit on the naughty step…

In 2001, a lawsuit was filed in the US against Coca-Cola by the International Labor Rights Fund (www.laborrights.org) and the United Steelworkers union on behalf of SINALTRAINAL — the major union representing Coca-Cola workers in Colombia — several of its members and the survivors of Isidro Gil, one of its murdered officers (www.sinaltrainal.org/). The lawsuit charges that Coca-Cola’s bottlers in Colombia “contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders.” The seriousness of the situation is best summed up by a SINALTRAINAL officer, who stated: “If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives.” (http://www.killercoke.org)

Other naughtiness by Coke include:

• Overexploitation and Pollution of Water Sources in India (www.indiaresource.org),

Mexico (www.ciepac.org), Ghana and elsewhere (www.polarisinstitute.org) and in general (http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0307-30.htm)

• Benefiting from Hazardous Child Labour in Sugar Cane Fields in El Salvador as

documented by Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org)

• Aggressive Marketing to Children of Nutritionally Worthless and Damaging Products

(www.commercialexploitation.org and www.schoolpouringrights.com/)

• Anti-worker Policies in Turkey, Indonesia and Latin America

(www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org and www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/)

• Giving executives hundreds of millions of dollars in stock options and bonuses

while laying off thousands of employees

• History of Racial Discrimination

• Fraudulent Business Practices

• Tax avoidance and corporate welfare scheme

And because of all this I and many others like me boycott Coca Cola and their products…and now because you are their new friend I have to be a good parent and tell you that this new friend is not good for you and I am worried about what trouble they will get you into. So until I work it out or you do – you will have to remain on the naughty step until I decide whether you will end up like Coca-Cola – grounded.

Other than that – hope you have a lovely day and remember that although we are disappointed in you – we still love you and the naughty step and grounding is for your own good.

Love and goodness

Roz x