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'Drink water, not soda': Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo takes a rebellious stance to promote health

There has always been a bit of a disconnect between the highly competitive and health-conscious world of sports and the brands that often sponsor events. The typical American sporting event will have sponsorships from fast-food chains, beer companies, and soft drinks.

In some cases, the brands will position themselves as being complementary to a healthy lifestyle. Like when Michael Jordan was a spokesperson for McDonald's or when LeBron James endorsed Coca-Cola.

While athletes and brands are free to make whatever business deals they like, the problem is that these partnerships use superstars who are the paragon of health to promote unhealthy lifestyles.

Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the biggest athletes on the planet, stood up to the pressure to promote unhealthy products on Monday when he scoffed at two bottles of Coca-Cola that were placed in front of him at a press conference ahead of Portugal's Euro 2020 opener with Hungary.

The Juventus star moved the two bottles of soda out of camera view and picked up a bottle of water saying, "Drink water, not Coca-Cola." Having one of the biggest stars of the championship denigrate a sponsor must have infuriated UEFA officials.

Do NOT put Coca Cola in front of Cristiano Ronaldo \n\nThis is absolutely brilliant pic.twitter.com/bw9FYlTOI4
— Goal (@Goal) 1623745546

The decision immediately affected Coca-Cola.

The soda manufacturer's stock shares experienced a 1.6% drop in price after Ronaldo's comments, costing the company $4 billion. However, the stock price was back up at the end of the day.

Coca-Cola responded to the initial comments by saying "everyone is entitled to their drink preferences" and that everyone has different "tastes and needs."

It is a little anachronistic to see bottles of Coca-Cola placed in front of the world's greatest athletes. Drinks like Coca-Cola have an incredible amount of high-fructose corn syrup and are linked to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

In one study on children, each daily serving of sugar-sweetened beverages was linked to a 60% increased risk of obesity.

Ronaldo once endorsed Coca-Cola back in the day but now is an advocate for healthy living, evidenced by the fact he's still at the top of his game at the age of 36. He's known for having an intense health regimen and an incredibly toned physique.

Cristiano Ronaldo:\n\nHas 3% less body fat than a supermodel\n\nThigh circumference of 61.7cm\n\nCan run 25m in 3.61 seconds\n\nJumps 78cm, higher than an average NBA player \n\nThe force he uses to push off is almost 5g \u2013 similar to what an astronaut experiences during take-off.\n\npic.twitter.com/TI4xvBJfmP
— CRSEVN.7 (@CRSEVN.7) 1570550498

Ronaldo is known for eating six small meals a day to keep his metabolism going while avoiding hunger or feeling sluggish. He trains five days a week for three to four hours a day.

He's spoken publicly about how he gets frustrated when his son has a sugary drink.

"I'm hard with him sometimes because he drinks Coca-Cola and Fanta sometimes and I'm pissed with him," Ronaldo said according to The Mirror.

Ronaldo's refusal to promote Coca-Cola struck a chord with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, 43-year-old Tom Brady, an athlete who's also known for prolonging his career through an intense health regimen.

It\u2019s almost like the veterans know what they\u2019re doing.... @Cristiano @TB12sportshttps://twitter.com/cbssportsgolazo/status/1404548997579264006\u00a0\u2026
— Tom Brady (@Tom Brady) 1623711099

Caroline Cerny, Alliance Lead at Obesity Health Alliance, perfectly summed up Ronaldo's bold move. "It's great to see a role model like Cristiano Ronaldo reject Coca-Cola for water, setting a positive example for young fans and showing his disdain for a cynical marketing attempt to link him with a sugary drink," she said.

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Coca-Cola won't give up plastic bottles because people want them. And that's the problem.

Photo by maria mendiola on Unsplash

Coca-Cola was recently named the world's largest plastic waste producer in a global plastic audit, and it appears that won't be changing any time soon. The drink giant produces about three million tons of plastic packaging each year, or the equivalent of 200,000 bottles per minute, according to the BBC.

Global studies show that 9 out of 10 plastic bottles don't get recycled. We know that a huge percentage of our plastic waste ends up in the ocean, filling up the bellies of whales and breaking down into harmful microplastics. And with changes in how and where recycling gets processed, recycling itself has proven to be a non-solution to the planet's plastic pollution problem.

In light of this information, pumping out more and more single-use plastic bottles seems like a ridiculously irresponsible move. And yet, Coca-Cola recently announced that it will be sticking with single-use plastic bottles. Their reasoning? Because people like them.

Like any business, Coca-Cola's top priority is its bottom line. Though the company has pledged to use at least 50% recycled material in its packaging by 2030 and to partner with NGOs to improve waste collection, they are beholden to the demands of its customers. As Bea Perez, Coca-Cola's head of sustainability said at the World Economic Forum, "Business won't be in business if we don't accommodate consumers."

RELATED: A dead whale just washed ashore with 88 pounds of plastic waste in its stomach. This needs to stop.

The problem is, she's right. And that, kids, is one reason why "free market environmentalism"—the idea that capitalism will eventually lead to environmental responsibility because consumers will demand it—simply doesn't work. The free market is great for a lot of things, but protecting the planet isn't one of them. Humans are creatures of habit. We like what we are familiar with and we tend to resist change, even when we know it's ideal or even necessary. If we're used to drinking soda from a lightweight, resealable plastic bottle, that's what we're going to want. Since companies are in the business of giving (or rather, selling) people what they want, the free market equation will never add up to truly sustainable change.

Companies like Coca-Cola find themselves in a position of having to appease the social movement toward sustainability while also appeasing customers who don't want to make the changes necessary to support that movement. Perez makes it sound like Coca-Cola is trying to gently nudge consumers in a more environmentally responsible direction. "As we change our bottling infrastructure, move into recycling and innovate, we also have to show the consumer what the opportunities are," she says. "They will change with us."

Is that enough, though? Not according to people on the front line of the plastic crisis. "Recent commitments by corporations like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and PepsiCo to address the crisis unfortunately continue to rely on false solutions like replacing plastic with paper or bioplastics and relying more heavily on a broken global recycling system," Abigail Aguilar, Greenpeace Southeast Asia plastic campaign coordinator, said in a press release in October. "These strategies largely protect the outdated throwaway business model that caused the plastic pollution crisis, and will do nothing to prevent these brands from being named the top polluters again in the future."

RELATED: We haven't just paved paradise—we've plastered it in plastic

Of course, the question of what would replace plastic bottles and whether or not the alternatives are sustainable remains. Perez claims that switching to glass and aluminum may actually increase the company's carbon footprint—a related but separate issue from the plastic pollution problem.

But ultimately, the question we all need to ask ourselves is, "Whose problem is this and who needs to solve it?" Some people don't want the government to implement regulations forcing companies to adopt sustainable practices. Some put faith in individuals and industry to figure out how to get what we all want while not destroying the earth in the process. But we have plenty of evidence that consumerism (i.e., capitalism) is what got us here, and also evidence that laws and regulations can effect real change. Remember the ozone layer crisis? The Montreal Protocol of 1987, which required countries to phase out ozone-depleting substances like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), proved successful at mitigating a clear environmental challenge. Would companies have voluntarily eliminated CFCs and found alternatives if they weren't obligated to by law? In the 1980s? When Aqua Net hair spray was at its prime? Not likely.

That being said, regulations are only effective if they are actually implemented, and the current method of making international agreements that aren't really binding can only go so far. As climate change activist Greta Thunberg keeps pointing out, the politics and processes needed to truly address our environmental crises do not currently exist. It's vital that we consult about how to actually solve problems like plastic pollution, but one thing is clear—relying on the free market isn't going to get us there.

coca-cola

Sustainability

Coca-Cola has stopped supporting a pro-plastic lobbying firm after pressure from Greenpeace

via Mike Mozart / Flickr

By the end of the decade, over half a trillion single-use plastic bottles will be sold annually. In 2016, fewer than half those bottles were picked up for recycling and just seven percent were turned into new bottles.

The Coca-Cola Company, which owns Coke products and some of the biggest brands in the beverage industry, including Minute Maid, Sprite, Dasani, and Smart Water, is responsible for over 100 billion single-use plastic bottles produced annually.

Americans, especially millennials, are becoming increasingly concerned with the dangers caused by single-use plastics. A study published in Market Watch found 73 percent of millennials would pay more for sustainable products compared with 66 percent among all generations.

Feeling the heat from the country's growing plastic concerns, Coca-Cola has left the Plastics Industry Association, a lobbying firm that worked to prevent plastic-bag bans in the U.S. Pepsi said it is planning on leaving the organization later this year. The alliance helped push 15 states in the U.S. to pass laws to prevent bag bans from taking effect.

Related: Joe Rogan called out SeaWorld's treatment of dolphins and whales and he makes a great point.

Greenpeace said the two beverage giants left the trade association after environmental groups raised concerns about plastics industry environmental policies. https://t.co/arElNcuLkQ via @plasticsnews
— Don Loepp (@donloepp) July 23, 2019

Greenpeace is claiming victory over Coca-Cola's decision. In 2018, the environmentalist group highlighted the lobbying firm's role in undermining progress of plastic pollution.

"Companies understand that they cannot publicly say they want to end plastic pollution, while financially supporting an association that lobbies for our continued reliance on throwaway plastics," said Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar.

"This is a victory for every person that spoke up and asked Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to put their money where their mouths are and tell the Plastics Industry Association to stop preventing plastic reduction efforts," Hocevar continued.

Last year Coca-Cola announced an ambitious plan to create packaging made of at least 50 percent recycled material by 2030; to help collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one the company sells by 2030; and to partner with industry, governments, and local communities to tackle the global issue of plastic waste. Coca-Cola's association with a lobbying firm that aggressively works to undermine efforts to reduce plastic pollution seemed hypocritical to say the least.

The company's decision to leave the lobbying organization is noble, but it comes at a time when global plastic production is well past 350 million tons a year with no signs of slowing. Greenpeace's work to stop Coca-Cola's support of an environmentally harmful organization shows the power environmentalists and consumers have to cull the efforts of gross polluters.

Coca-Cola, 1971 - 'Hilltop' | "I'd like to buy the world a Coke"www.youtube.com

Hopefully, in the future consumers can wise up and realize if we want the world in harmony, it's probably best to buy it a Coke.

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Greenpeace just named the best and worst grocery stores for the ... ›

Opponents of a new anti-gay law in Georgia might actually be able to stop it now that they have actual superheroes on their side.

HB 757 is the latest in a line of state "religious freedom" bills that provide faith-adjacent organizations more latitude to discriminate against LGBT Americans.

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.

According to a report in the Daily Beast, the proposed Georgia law "gives faith-based organizations the right to hire and fire people who violate their 'sincerely held religious beliefs,' as well as the right to refuse to rent facilities for events they find 'objectionable.'"

The bill has passed the state legislature and is awaiting Gov. Nathan Deal's signature — or veto.

But Disney and Marvel, which are shooting "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" in the state, have announced they plan to boycott Georgia should the law go into effect.

Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images.

"Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law," a Disney spokesman said on Wednesday, according to Variety.

They're not the only ones.

Georgia-based Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines have also issued strong statements against the pending law. The NFL has said the state could lose out on future Super Bowls should the bill become law.

When Indiana tried to pass a similar law last year, a hugely diverse array of people rallied to defeat it.

A broad coalition of influential Americans and organizations, including governors of three states, mayors of five cities, activists, businesses, universities, sports conferences, and even church groups were instrumental in raising the specter of a mass boycott that ultimately helped persuade Gov. Mike Pence and legislators to narrow the scope of the law.

The reaction didn't come out of nowhere. Local and national LGBT rights groups painstakingly made the case against the bill to businesses for months so that when the time came to throw down, corporate America had their backs.

This time around, the response from big business was even bigger — and clearer. That's awesome progress.

A group takes a photo at Disney World's "Gay Days" in 2003. Photo by Chris Livingston/Getty Images.

Their message: Discrimination hurts our employees and our bottom line.

For that, companies like Disney and Marvel — and the activists who worked tirelessly to get them to pay attention — deserve a big round of applause.

Several companies got a little bit gayer in 2015.

2015 was a big (gay) year in the LGBT rights movement.

The Supreme Court decided that, yep, same-sex couples should be able to get married, and the number of Americans who agreed reached record highs. More and more LGBT characters appeared on our TV screens. (If you haven't binge-watched "Orange Is the New Black," "Transparent," and "How to Get Away With Murder," cancel your weekend plans. Now.) And, thanks to advocates like Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner, transgender visibility is finally going mainstream.

The cast of "How to Get Away With Murder." Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images.

But progress was also apparent in the private sector, where companies learned going gay isn't just the right thing to do — it's great for business.

According to the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index released earlier this year, more businesses than ever before earned top ratings on internal policies, like implementing sexual orientation nondiscrimination protections and providing transgender-inclusive benefits to workers.

And, as a study released last week found, plenty of those businesses incorporated those inclusive attitudes into the consumer-facing side of their brands as well.

Logo TV partnered with Witeck Communications to produce its 25 Trailblazing Companies report. You'll probably recognize many of the brands that topped the list.

The study began by analyzing businesses that have already prioritized LGBT equality in the workplace — examining roughly 200 businesses that earned 100% scores on the the HRC Corporate Equality Index — and allotted points dependent on how each demonstrated their commitment to equality in public ways (think diverse advertising, support for inclusive public policy, what causes they chose to donate to, etc.).

Here are the top 10 companies that made the list:

10. General Motors (tied)

Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images.

Hey, gay folks like cars too. So it only seems right that General Motors has included LGBT people and themes in its advertising for years, like this ad for Chevy shown during the Olympics opening ceremony.

Read more about why GM made the cut here.

10. Unilever (tied)

Photo by John Thys/AFP/Getty Images.

According to the report, Unilever has been "an early and active supporter of LGBT rights," and one of their brands in particular, ice cream duo Ben & Jerry’s, was the first major employer in Vermont that actually did the right thing by offering health insurance to spouses of LGBT employees.

Read more about why Unilever made the cut here.

9. Coca-Cola

Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for iHeartMedia.

Coke may be as classically American as apple pie, but the soda company has "kept pace with the times," according to the LOGO study, prioritizing diversity in its campaigns for years.

Read more about why Coca-Cola made the cut here.

7. Hilton Worldwide (tied)

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Hilton doesn't just reach out to queer communities through its marketing efforts, it "goes a step further by creating original travel-related content for an LGBT audience." That's why it landed on the list at #7.

Read more about why Hilton Worldwide made the cut here.

7. Anheuser-Busch (tied)

Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

Anheuser-Busch loves celebrating equality. Sponsoring more than 40 different LGBT pride events across the country, it's the biggest event sponsor on Logo's list.

Read more about why Anheuser-Busch made the cut here.

6. E. & J. Gallo Winery

Photo via iStock.

And speaking of pride ... E. & J. Gallo Winery does its part too, sponsoring dozens of pride celebrations across the U.S., in places like Los Angeles, Charlotte, and Fort Wayne.

Read more about why E. & J. Gallo Winery made the cut here.

5. Gap

Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images.

Gap keeps it campaigns bright, colorful ... and gay. And it makes sure to include LGBT personalities in its commercials, too.

Read more about why Gap made the cut here.

4. Marriott International, Inc.

Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for Marriott International.

Marriott International actually dedicates an entire website to its LGBT guests, providing useful resources and popular destinations for customers looking to maximize their traveling adventures. That's one reason why it's #4 on the list.

Read more about why Marriott made the cut here.

3. Wells Fargo

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Wells Fargo became the first American bank to feature an LGBT couple in a national TV campaign this year. Bravo!

Read more about why Wells Fargo made the cut here.

2. Johnson & Johnson

Photo Illustration by Chris Hondros/Getty Images.

"Their heartfelt advertisements feature diverse families — including LGBT parents and children — and expand the public's understanding of what it means to be a family."

Read more about why Johnson & Johnson made the cut here.

1. Google

Photo by Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images.

Google is behind many of the digital platforms — like YouTube — that has pushed LGBT equality forward in recent years, helping queer communities "share their stories with the world."

Read more about why Google took the top spot here.

Head on over to Logo TV to see which other companies cracked the top 25.