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by
Ralph Nader
September
18, 2003
Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg held a news conference on September 9th which was
described by the New York Post this way: "Looking more like a pitchman
than a politician, the mayor bought an orange-mango juice drink from a Snapple
machine, opened it and took a sip."
In
so doing, the Mayor's common sense snapped, as he committed New York City
unilaterally to naming Snapple as the official water, juice and iced tea
provider for the nation's largest metropolis. The elaborate five-year agreement
-- not publically available -- transferred $166 million from Snapple to the
City in return for exclusive selling rights of these and other products in the
public schools and public buildings. Snapple's logo is to go on ferries and
garbage cans.
About
forty million dollars of this sum would go to the Schools and the rest to the
city's general budget. Snapple won the selection contest over seven other
beverage sellers which the Mayor refused to name.
The
City's chief marketing officer (that's his title) said that the Snapple
agreement was both "relevant" and "tasteful". The Mayor
flagged the future of selling New York City without asking its citizens:
"This agreement is the first in a limited number of high-quality
partnerships that we think will greatly enhance our efforts to promote and
market New York City," he enthused.
Old-timers
years ago would have wondered what the Mayor means by marketing New York City.
Cities were viewed more benignly when they were more livable, more employable
at good wages, more replete with public institutions like good libraries, good
public transit, good schools, good hospitals and clinics and good recreational
facilities in the neighborhoods. New York City is crumbling on these
measurements.
Its
officials, including the Mayor, cannot even protect its poor children from the
chronic, brain and body damaging lead-based paint poisoning in ageing
tenements. But he can provide them with Snapple drinks of dubious nutritional
quality and water in the vending machines. Water??? New York City has regularly
tested as delivering about the finest water of any city in the country,
according to Consumers Union. The schools' water coolers dispense it.
Obviously
in this age of over-weening corporate commercialism and the placement of their
executives in public office, marketing New York City means partnerships that
promote products. What's next? Mayor Bloomberg isn't saying. Let's guess. Will
New York City have its official cars, sports equipment, jeans, sneakers,
computers, colas, hot dogs, pens and cereal? And what intriguing new areas for
corporate logos will be made available? In his fervent quest for budget dollars
(never mind the massive tax abatements the City has given to corporations),
Mayor Bloomberg might want to make City Hall and his own backside available.
Imagine what price a huge banner for GM or Apple Computer in front of City Hall
will fetch year after year?
Unlike
his uncanny ability to think through the demand for financial information that
marked the rise of his Bloomberg communications Empire, the Mayor has not
thought through the slippery slope that the City is now on.
Giving
a company a monopoly over certain products sold to the City means preventing
better products from superior competitors coming along to demonstrate what free
enterprise means. What will happen if your designated monopolist -- say Snapple
-- or its parent conglomerate Cadbury-Schweppes (a British company) gets into
trouble with the law -- a criminal conviction, an Enron type scandal, a
covered-up product defect? Does thesecret agreement with Snapple have an
"out" clause? Who pays to remove the stigmatized company logos and
signs all over the Big Apple?
What
happens when the City government is wrestling with a policy that affects
vending machine products? Will Snapple appear to have special influence in the
Mayor's administration? Will the Mayor avoid doing the right thing for
consumers because of some provision in the Snapple agreement that immunizes the
company from some later public policy?
Already,
the Snapple deal is making otherwise adult politicians look foolish. Mayor
Bloomberg, according to the New York Times, announced the agreement "on
the athletic field at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, with a
bright-orange Snapple vending machine and the high school's football team
standing behind him." The Mayor said: "Given the global popularity of
Snapple products, this will present the city with countless new opportunities
to make positive impressions on people around the world" So reassuring!
What
happens when people and students take issue, as they surely will, with
Snapple's president's blanket statement that "New York City loves
Snapple," and start rebelling against this fiat by City Hall, start
wearing t-Shirts in school saying awful things about Snapple, boycotting the
products, examining the contents of the drinks and showing that commercialism
and public government do not mix. Who will Mayor Bloomberg's props be then?
For
more information, log onto www.commercialalert.org.
Ralph Nader is America’s
leading consumer advocate. He is the founder of numerous public interest groups
including Public Citizen, and has twice
run for President as a Green Party candidate. His
latest book is Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for
President (St. Martin’s Press, 2002)
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