KEY POINTS:
The idea that "things go better with Coke" has long been humorously linked to the fact that the world's best-selling soft drink once contained traces of cocaine. "Once" and "traces" are the operative words, of course. It was first sold as a patent medicine in an age when many such potions contained cocaine. Just before Coke became completely coke-free in 1929, the proportion of the drug was more theoretical than therapeutic - by some calculations about a fifth of a teaspoon in the entire annual output.
Now the soft-drink giant has announced that it wants to make things go better again, in particular on the company's balance sheet, by entering the lucrative alcopop market. This doesn't mean that the familiar red cans of fizzy drink will come with a nip of something stronger; rather, the makers of Coke will be marketing a range of RTDs (for ready-to-drink) as they are known in the business.
Alcohol watchdogs are warning that the soft drink's mammoth appeal to the youth market makes the move dangerous; alcopops are traditionally aimed at young women and widely consumed by under-age drinkers.
They have a point, which the makers of Coke should heed. At least they should ensure that, in the packaging and marketing, their RTDs do not seek to prosper by association with the soft drink. To do otherwise would be the height of cynicism.
