The Calgary Board of Education has recently opened the door to the naming of classrooms to corporate sponsorship. Naming of classrooms or programs leads to some very fundamental questions about public education and has many drawbacks. One of which is if you allow Coca Cola a five year deal on a school gym, why not another school sponsored by Pepsi? If they can sponsor a high school gym, how about a junior high? A middle school? An elementary?
Coca-Cola Canada has come out this week accusing the City of Ottawa of unfairly targeting its products in the city's campaign to promote healthy living. By crafting this attack on the city's healthy lifestyle campaign, Coca-Cola, has shifted the heart of the discussion away from evaluating the nutritional content of fizzy sugary water to the city government's intrusion on the rights and liberties of its citizens. Somehow, amidst attempts to fight obesity, diabetes and heart disease, the City of Ottawa, and not Coca-Cola has become the bad guy!