Coca-Cola has launched a new print advertising campaign which some have called a “propaganda campaign” in an attempt to reverse declining sales. The ads show the company defending the use of its sweetener, aspartame. The ad reads, “time and again, these low and no calorie sweeteners have shown to be safe, high-quality alternatives to sugar”.

The sales for diet drink sales are decreasing at a faster rate than sugar-sweetened soft drinks. Beverage Digest reported that Coke showed a 2% sales volume decrease, while Diet Coke sales fell 3%.

There have been no studies that show the sweetener to be harmful to humans, and the American Cancer Society along with the Food and Drug Administration both agreed that consumption of aspartame in normal levels is safe. The Cancer Society website reads:

A typical adult would have to drink about 21 cans of diet soda a day to go over the recommended level. One early study suggested that an increased rate of brain tumors in the US during the 1980s might have been related to aspartame use. However, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the increase in brain tumor rates actually began back in the early 1970s, well before aspartame was in use.

While Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest said:

Aspartame has been found to cause cancer – leukemia, lymphoma, and other tumors—in laboratory animals, and it shouldn’t be in the food supply.

That said, consumers should know that the greater and more immediate danger to their health is posed not by artificial sweetened products, but by the full-calorie versions of Coke, Pepsi, and other sugar drinks. Rather than posing small risks of cancer, the high-fructose corn syrup or other sugars in these drinks cause obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems. Everyone would be better off drinking water or seltzer water instead.

Caren Pasquale Seckler, vice president of social commitment at Coca-Cola said:

This is a beginning and it’s a learning process. But we do have plans to do more.

[Source: NBC News]