Last time we explored the possibility of using advertising jingles for good instead of evil. They do have a proven track record of influencing human behaviour. Besides people are already conditioned to them, so it would only take flipping the context a little. The jingle selected was "I'd like to teach the world to sing...". Now let's take a look at how carbonated sugar water has helped shape the world we live in. In the following video clip you'll run into some familiar names, Like Donald Rumsfeld (former CEO for Serle) and Richard M Nixon - a form Pepsi Co corporate lawyer, and a former American Pres. In the latter capacity, he helped his Pepsi friends get a little food additive called Aspartame pushed through.
Now maybe this is just something that you pick up on the street, but I hear that Aspartame can turn into formaldehyde at temperatures of 85 degrees and above (Formaldehyde has no place in our foods - in belongs in our shampoos and roll on deodorants)! There have been rumours about it's effects on the human body and mind for years too - like that lawsuit back in the 80's when a formerly bright, popular cheerleader brought the soft drink companies to court, claiming the artificial sweetener had fried her brain and destroyed her metabolism. The soft drink makers pointed out that, by her own admission, she was drinking over thirty tins of Diet Tab a day. That much of anything - even fresh air and sunshine - could fuck you up. So Big Cola couldn't they maintained be held responsible. However others pointed out that tolerance depends on body mass, and that in a small child danger levels might be much less, perhaps something like 2 tins of diet cola a day. In the case of our hapless cheerleader, she went from losing weight to gaining it, as the additive altered her body chemistry. Her grades also fell from honours level to barely pass.
Nor was that the only law suit. One more current occurred circa 2004 when a group of California litigants dragged a dozen companies into court for using Aspartame, which they described in their law suit as a 'neurotoxin'. Among the villains in the piece were such house hold brand names as Bayer, Phillip Morris, Walmart, Nutrasweet, Dannon, and our old friend Pepsi Co. In their suit the claimants also asserted that Aspartame was linked to the cardiac deaths that were being blamed on ephedra, that there was an Aspatame connection to some brain tumors, that it causes serotonin depletion (bi polar disorder), that it can react with drugs, and that it causes cancer in laboratory mice. They also cited an array of experts like Dr Russell Blaylock, and Dr Ralph Walton, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, who's done some work on the whole serotonin & Asparatame issue.
Aspartame has been dogged by controversy since it's creation back in 1965. Back then friends in high places got the substance pushed through the FDA processes. By 1980 it was authorized for use in carbonated beverages. There was no looking back. These days you'd be hard pressed to find anything that doesn't contain that pesky little ingredient. The controversies and the law suits persist too. However it doesn't look like Aspartame is going away anytime soon. It still has friends in high places. For a molecule it's surprising well connected. Still, going from something that rots your teeth to something that rots your head hardly seems like progress. Hansel & Gretel's witch could never have dreamed of such a thing.
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