CSPI/ The MilliGrammy Awards

Posted September 22, 2017 / CSPI/ The MilliGrammy Awards

Dietary sodium is a tricky thing to talk about. Getting the right amount of sodium is essential to life, but the average American diet contains dangerous amounts.

A high-sodium diet is a major contributor to high blood pressure, heart disease, and in turn, death. The culprits are everywhere –processed foods, soups, cereal, cheese – did you know BREAD is the single biggest contributor of sodium in the American diet?

With the Milligrammy Awards, the Center for Science in the Public Interest wanted to shine a light on the absurd amounts of sodium in fast and fast-casual menu items. In many cases, the dishes that might seem most innocuous are packed with more than twice the daily recommended sodium intake. Just ONE meal could have more sodium than you should eat in 2 days.

The FDA has proposed safe sodium limits, the food industry and restaurant associations are currently fighting those restrictions. So for now, it’s up to consumers to educate themselves.

CSPI / The Happiness Stand

Posted October 25, 2015 / CSPI / The Happiness Stand

Imagine you’re standing in Starbucks at that little counter where you add cream and sweetener (what do they call that counter?) and the person in front of you has a Grande. Not a Venti, just a little 12-ouncer. The person proceeds to tear open sugar packets – first 1, then 4, then 10 packets – and dumps them each into the coffee.

Extreme? Well, that’s how much sugar in a 12-ounce can of soda. It increases your risk of obesity and type-2 diabetes and more. And yet soda companies spend BILLIONS of dollars a year marketing their products as “happiness.” We’re not buying that load of sugar.

CSPI / #sharehonesty

Posted September 06, 2015 / CSPI / #sharehonesty

My friend and I were messing around with shareacoke.com one day, trying to see what words Coke would allow on their labels and which ones they wouldn’t. There were some surprises. You can share a coke with “Chubby” and “Lardo” which seems just plain mean. You can share a Coke with “Nobody.” You can even share a Coke with “Caution.”

You could not, however, share a Coke with “Obesity,” “Diabetes,” or “Tooth Decay.” No big surprise. So we thought we’d make a video about that – about how shareacoke.com won’t allow labels to bear the names of some of the problems associated with the overconsumption of sugary beverages. But the site also allows users to submit names or words that might be missing from their database. So to keep things on the up-and-up, we submitted the word “Obesity” just to see what would happen.

What happened next meant we had to start over and rewrite the video a few times, but each time it kept making the story more fun.

Interesting epilogue: about a week after we released this video, the word “Honesty” was also removed from the list of approved words on shareacoke.com.

See story from The Drum on Today.com on Digiday and on Mashable.

#changethetune / Center for Science in the Public Interest

Posted June 25, 2015 / #changethetune / Center for Science in the Public Interest

Coca-Cola created their iconic “Hilltop,” ad in 1971, and in 2015, it was given a cultural shot in the arm when it was featured on the series finale of Mad Men. But in the 44 years since the original ad aired, sugary beverages have home from being a sometimes treat to being the #1 SOURCE OF CALORIES in the American diet. Think about that.

This film for the Center for Science in the Public Interest was created to spread that truth and #changethetune

Since the launch, “Change The Tune” has been featured on Time, Inc. CBS This Morning, The Huffington Post, Good, Boston.com, Buzzfeed, and AdAge, among others.