A Coca-Cola truck travels on a national tour of England in the lead up to December 25, giving free soft drink to children. Photo / Getty
A Coca-Cola truck travels on a national tour of England in the lead up to December 25, giving free soft drink to children. Photo / Getty
Mid-afternoon on a bitter November day in Gateshead and a queue hundreds of people long is snaking around the bleak car park of the Asda supermarket on the outskirts of town. There are children of all ages, some in school uniform, and babies in pushchairs.
The queue moves forward at a snail's pace, everyone transfixed by a monstrous lorry parked in the corner of the car park.
The Coca-Cola truck has come to town!
It may have passed you by, but to millions of people this vehicle has become an iconic juggernaut of Christmas cheer. It featured in Coca-Cola's Christmas TV ad in 1995 and was such a smash that it has been re-used in its TV adverts ever since.
Gateshead, which was named Britain's fattest town in 2011, is the eighth stop on the truck's 46-town tour of Britain, which began in Inverness ten days ago and ends in London on December 23.
Today, it's handing out free, child-sized 150ml cans of Coke (some of which contain four teaspoons of sugar) and blasting festive songs to the gathered masses.
This year's tour marks the 20th anniversary of its branded red lorries appearing on TV. The 'Holidays are coming' ad still airs today - and clearly there are plenty of children keen to see the famous truck.
Parked outside a supermarket on a grey Thursday, the 18-wheel garish red vehicle - with its crew of fur-clad elves and faux U.S. cheer - is an incongruous sight. There's a jolly Father Christmas emblazoned on its side, the registration plate reads 'Santa 1' and after dark there will be a snow machine.
But the youngsters here aren't meeting Santa. Some have waited for up to an hour simply to pose in front of the truck for a photograph, holding aloft their free can of Coke.
'When you see the red truck, you know Christmas is coming,' says Melanie Richardson, a 34-year-old mother of two. 'It gets into your brain. It makes Coke seem festive.'
Her daughter Millie, who's three, is merrily glugging from a full-fat can.
'I don't normally let her drink it,' says her mother, 'but it was free.'
Others are less defensive. 'We love Coke!' says seven-year-old Harvey-Jay Campbell and his classmates. 'I drink it nearly every day. It makes me feel happy.'
The Coca-Cola truck that travels throughout England, giving away free soft drink to children. Photo / Getty
His mother, Jodie, 35, says they have come to see the truck for the past couple of years. 'He looks forward to it,' she tells me. 'We make a night of it. All the kids get a Coke and then we go to McDonald's.'
New parents Olivia Smurthwaite, 18, and Jordan Parker, 21, have brought along their seven-month-old son Ashton. 'It's his first Christmas so we wanted him to see the red lorry,' says his mother.
There are three security guards patrolling the queue, but there's no trouble here. Families line up obediently, the loop of Christmas songs punctuated only by squeals from giddy toddlers high on sugar and excitement.
But the Santa truck hasn't been welcomed with such open arms everywhere. In Leicester, local MP Keith Vaz has attempted to ban its visit, declaring it a 'health hazard' in a society that is hooked on junk food and snacks.
In Cornwall, the county's public health chief has condemned Coca-Cola for handing out sugary drinks to children too young to know better. Meanwhile, protests are being planned for when the lorry arrives in London on its final leg, with anti-sugar campaigners hoping to discourage parents from bringing along their families.
'There is evidence to show that when children see an advert or sign for a fizzy drink, they will ask their parents to buy it for them,' says Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator of the Children's Food Campaign, which is leading the protests.
'Coca-Cola knows exactly what it's doing. It has linked the brand so closely with Christmas that children have come to see them as one and the same.'
Seeing the smiles on the faces of sticky-fingered toddlers in Gateshead, it would be easy to dismiss this as the voice of a mean-spirited Scrooge. After all, these parents are taking their children out for a fun afternoon. But when those children leave with a can of sugar-filled pop in their hands, something more questionable is at play.
Coca-Cola knows exactly what it's doing. It has linked the brand so closely with Christmas that children have come to see them as one and the same.
Some say the Coke truck tour is the all-singing, all-dancing embodiment of everything that is wrong with food and drink marketing at a time when our national health is in crisis.
It's also the clearest example of the insidious techniques employed by large companies to appeal directly to children and teenagers by disguising the consumption of a sugary snack with the trappings of a tradition they love.
For behind the festive facade, the truth about our sugar consumption could not be starker.
One in three children in Britain is classed as obese and one in every five overweight. Tooth decay affects a third of five-year-olds and diet-linked type 2 diabetes is soaring among adults and children alike.
In Gateshead, the situation is more alarming still. More than 60 per cent of the population is overweight, including 10 per cent of four to five-year-olds and 20 per cent of those aged ten to 17.
Concerns are so high that the council recently banned the opening of new takeaways in the town.
Why would Coca-Cola chiefs choose to stop here ?
So why, one might ask, would the Coca-Cola chiefs choose to stop here on their nationwide tour? Studies show that unhealthy eating habits are more prevalent in deprived areas, with residents twice as likely to be obese or overweight. Gateshead falls into this category.
So, too, do Manchester, Liverpool, Great Yarmouth, Gloucester, Middlesbrough and Nottingham - all stops on Coca-Cola's jaunt around Britain.
By visiting these areas, the company is guaranteed demand even before the Santa 1 truck rolls into town. The fact that the Coke being doled out is free is another.
Colin Michie, a paediatrician and chair of the Nutrition Committee at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, says it is a 'sinister' business.
'The problem is not the truck itself, but what it starts - a craving avalanche in a child's brain. Children try Coke, become addicted to the sugar in it and need to drink more and more. Before you know it they're an overweight 16-year-old.'
The drink is easy to vilify. A full-size, full-fat can of Coca-Cola contains 35g of sugar - that's nine teaspoons of sugar. That exceeds your entire recommended daily allowance for sugar, which is 30g for adults and 19g to 24g for children.
And the brand has a stranglehold over Christmas like no other. It claims to have come up with the image of Father Christmas as he is depicted today - the company having commissioned an American artist to paint him back in 1931. It has been shown that children as young as 18 months can recognise brand names - and once they see a product, then it's only a matter of time before they want it for themselves.
'Even one advert is enough to strike home in a young brain,' Dr Michie tells me. 'Children treat it as fact and go around the house singing the song or impersonating the character until their parents can no longer ignore it and give in.'
In Gateshead, parents seem nonplussed about the health risks of their offspring guzzling cans of Coke. They are, it must be said, mini cans - just 150ml - and the Coca-Cola staff aren't allowed to give them to under-12s without a parent's permission.
Even one advert is enough to strike home in a young brain. Children treat it as fact and go around the house singing the song or impersonating the character until their parents can no longer ignore it and give in.
All this means, however, is that an adult is given two and then they are given to the child for whom they were always intended.
To be fair, there are four varieties available: 'Full-fat', Diet, Zero (which does not contain any calories or sugar) and Life (which has natural sweeteners rather than sugar). But when asked which they would like, the children's answer is invariably to point to the red, full-fat cans.
'I drink about ten cans of full-fat Coke a day,' says mother of two Claire-Louise Jones, 33, queuing with son Camereon, ten, and Chloe, 12. 'But the children are only allowed it as a special treat. It used to make them hyper, so I stopped giving it to them.'
'You love drinking Mum's fizzy pop, don't you?' Gail Shield, 38, from the nearby village of Swalwell, asks her daughter. Five-year-old India nods.
Faced with such blasé attitudes, it might seem fair to blame the parents. But the problem is much bigger, according to Professor Ian Macdonald, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, the Government panel that in June argued in favour of cutting our sugar intake in half.
'The companies selling these sugary foods and drinks are very big companies that make up a large part of this country's economy,' he says. 'They are very difficult to oppose.
'I would never blame the parents because most of them are simply doing what they think is in their child's best interests.
'It's all very well for companies such as Coke to hide behind the "it's your choice" message, but that simply isn't good enough until you explain to parents exactly what are the consequences of that choice.'
Demonising single ingredients or products isn't constructive when we really need to be improving overall diets.
And where Coca-Cola leads, others are following. Cadbury is introducing its own fleet of 24 Christmas trucks to travel around Britain next month.
So what do snacks and beverage firms have to say for themselves?
The Food and Drink Federation, which represents the interests of big companies in this sector, admits it has 'a part to play in helping [parents] make good diet choices for themselves and their families'.
But corporate affairs director Tim Rycroft adds: 'Demonising single ingredients or products isn't constructive when we really need to be improving overall diets.'
For its part, Coke insists it's had a 'positive response from people across Britain' about its truck tour, which is in its fifth year.
'Each year we receive hundreds of requests from local councils and members of the public asking us to visit,' a spokesman tells me.
He has a point. Six hours into the truck's arrival in Gateshead and the clamour hasn't died down. As darkness falls and the lights on the lorry are switched on, more and more people stop to stare.
When, later on, the twinkling truck packs up and trundles on to the next of its 37 locations, its job here will be done.
The children of Gateshead, clutching their cans, will go to bed tonight dreaming not of Christmas - but of Coke.
