Coca-Killer .3

Shake it up.



There's the story of the guy who's something of an anti-Coke campaigner... who's a not insignificant share holder. He uses the profit from his shares to run a large homeless shelter, and he uses his position as share holder to attend annual stock holder meetings to attempt to shape policy. He's not alone, there are a band of people who own shares so they can get to these meetings and do likewise. All you need is one share to get into these meetings. As i was reading this i thought how brilliant a means of addressing the issues of Coke's, um, fallibility.

Doing such a thing of course means that you'd be actively looking to get a reduced return on your investment. Would it be charity? Could it be seen, in a different light, as buying human rights? Would it be effective?

On the one hand Coke is painted out to be (by itself) a company going through the growing pains of corporate social responsibility. This is verified by this share-owning-protestor character acknowledging that a speech delivered by Coke's CEO wouldn't have happened even 3 years previous. However, on the other hand, this guy's pitching of the idea of Coke appointing a human rights board comittee is met with derision, and noises of massive support are instead given to the gentleman who says "to the naysayers, The Coca-Cola Company is not the conscience of the world, or the policeman of the world. The mission of The Coca-Cola Company is to enhance shareowner value and I think they do a terrific job in that. And I have another personal message for the naysayers: Sell your shares and get out of the way. Thank you".

It seems that Coke will only begin to pay attention when their profits are lessened due to their immoral practises. The way to do this? Abstain from Coca-Cola products and let Coke know why, thus supporting those looking to affect change from the inside.

Do check out and get hold of Belching Out The Devil, it is very compelling and well researched (although, infuriatingly, all his footnotes are at the back of the book), as well as being very moving and funny.