Posted by kathryn in Labels & advertising

Lisa Pryor had an excellent rant in the weekend herald – on the current advertising campaign for Cottee’s cordial. Their slogan is “Kids need water. Cottee’s makes it fun”. As Lisa says:

The brilliance and the bastardry of this slogan is that it never actually claims cordial is healthy, while implying it all the same. Is it true that kids need water to be healthy? Yes. Is it true that Cottees makes water fun? You could argue the point.

By the same logic you could run also run ads claiming “Kids need food. Deep fried lard makes it fun” or “Kids need energy. Caffeine tablets are pretty cheap”.

Cordial is not healthy, it is not the best way to get kids to have their daily intake of water. If you make up cordial, to the bottle directions your kid is getting just under 20g of sugar – that’s one whole tablespoon folks, per glass of cordial. That’s a LOT of sugar in one drink. If you’re then giving your kid six glasses of cordial, they’re getting six tablespoons, which is half a cup of sugar each day and this is in drinks. Cordial is not a meal, it’s not a snack, it’s not providing any other nutrition.

Those six glasses of cordial, with their half a cup of sugar, also contain 1,760kJ. This is about the equivalent of a normal meal. For the same amount of kilojoules you could eat almost a whole serve of this risotto, three of these fritters, most of a serve of this pasta and almost two of these muffins.

Last December the Advertising Standards Board dismissed a complaint against Cottee’s on the grounds that the advert “does not state that people should replace water consumption with cordial” and therefore they were “not promoting unhealthy drinking habits”. Lisa again:

The usual excuse of junk food companies is that their products are supposed to be treats consumed only occasionally. Cottee’s can hardly mount this defence when it promotes a beverage nearly as sugary as Coke as an “everyday” drink. If a child got half her daily recommended water intake from cordial, she would consume nearly 2½ kilograms of sugar in a month.

Sorry, but cordial is just not a good way for kid’s to get their water intake. Occasionally, as a treat maybe, but not in most of their drinks. As it is for adults, straight water is the best choice to keep children hydrated.

06 December, 2006