NYC Health Department Expands Campaign to All Sweetened Beverages

The New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has
reportedly launched an ad campaign targeting beverages with added sugars,
such as sports drinks, teas and energy drinks. Part of a four-year “Pouring on
the Pounds” campaign that has compared sweetened soft drinks to sugar
packets and fat globs, the new TV ads apparently feature the physical effects
of diabetes, an overweight man drinking a neon-blue beverage and a surgeon
manipulating a diseased heart with tweezers. The effort comes on the eve of
the city’s appearance before a state appeals court to defend its vacated limits
on the size of sugar-sweetened beverages sold in certain retail venues. Oral
argument is scheduled for June 11, 2013. Additional information about the
lower court’s ruling appears in Issue 475 of this Update. See Bloomberg News,
June 3, 2013.