May 2 2007 - Pepsi Executives and Shareholders Urged to Think Outside the Bottle at Annual Shareholders' Meeting

As Pepsi shareholders and executives gathered for the corporation’s annual meeting, Corporate Accountability International brought a powerful message from consumers across the U.S.

The organization’s Think Outside the Bottle campaign, which challenges the marketing muscle of bottled water corporations, has reached tens of millions of people over the past year. Corporate Accountability International members are concerned that marketing of Aquafina and other brand names leads consumers to choose bottled over tap water.

Read the press release

April 26 2007 - Activists From Across Globe Confront Philip Morris/Altria Executives at Annual Shareholders' Meeting

As Philip Morris/Altria executives try to paint a picture of a rosy future at the corporation’s annual shareholders’ meeting, the worldwide challenge to the corporation’s abuses continues to build. Nurses, students and corporate accountability advocates from across the U.S. and from as far as Indonesia gathered on April 26, 2007 in East Hanover, NJ to challenge the top decisiomakers of the world’s largest tobacco corporation to stop their abuses around the world.   Yul Francisco Dorado (second from right), Corporate Accountability International Latin America Coordinator, brought stories and photos from Colombia, a country targeted by the corporation as an “expansion market” with the recent purchase of the country’s largest tobacco corporation, Coltobaco.

Read the statement read by Corporate Accountability International Executive Director Kathryn Mulvey

Read the statement read by Corporate Accountability International Latin America Coordinator Yul Francisco Dorado - English

Read the statement read by Corporate Accountability International Latin America Coordinator Yul Francisco Dorado - Spanish

Read the statement read by Corporate Accountability International Organizer Sherri Racine

Click here to read the press release

Meeting April 18 2007 - Coca-Cola Shareholders' Meeting

Five-year-old Madeline Steinnagel Taylor attended her first annual Coca-Cola shareholders meeting in Wilmington, Delaware on April 18, 2007.

Surrounded by Teamsters, United Students Against Sweatshops, Campaign to Stop Killer Coke and Corporate Accountability International members and staff, Madeline joined the coalition of activists calling on Coke to end its abuses.

The poster she held – a scenic drawing of rolling hills and water with the message, “What if the river was gone?” – is part of an ongoing children’s letter-writing activity that helps younger generations understand the importance of protecting our water. It was one of many letters hand-delivered to Coke executives along with thousands of Think Outside the Bottle campaign postcards collected by student, faith and community leaders over the last several months.

Inside the Coke shareholders meeting, Associate Campaigns Director Gigi Kellett presented a shareholders resolution calling on Coca-Cola to disclose quality test results for its beverages, like the EPA requires for tap water. The first-year proposal received seven percent of the votes from participating shareholders. The language of the resolution generated press coverage from Portland, Oregon to New York City, reaching millions of Americans with information about the poor oversight of Dasani bottled water in comparison to our tap water.

Other key aspects of the Think Outside the Bottle campaign were represented by student leader Jane Olszewski of Tufts University and Franciscan Federation Executive Director Sister Sharon Dillon, who further highlighted the growing international movement challenging corporate control of our water with their own statements.

Click here to read stories from inside the Coke Shareholders' Meeting.

Click here to read the news story from Delaware's News Journal: "Protesters greet Coca-Cola execs at meeting."

Click here to read the Statement read by Gigi Kellet, Associate Campaigns Director, Corporate Accountability International.

Click here to read the Statement read by Sister Sharon Dillon, Executive Director, Franciscan Federation

Click here to read the Statement read by Jane Olszewski, Tufts University (Medford, MA)

Click here for the press release 

Resolution filed for 2007 Coke shareholders' meeting

In April 2007, Coca-Cola shareholders voted on a shareholder proposal submitted by Corporate Accountability International member Allie Perry.

The proposal asks Coke to publish reports on the bacterial and chemical testing of its beverages, similar to the water quality reports the EPA requires of tap water.

Though Coke and other water bottlers are fond of marketing their products as safer and purer than tap water, they offer no evidence. Our resolution simply says, "prove it."

Last fall, Coke products were banned in seven states in India after they were found to contain pesticides. Two years earlier, Coke had to recall half a million bottles of Dasani in the United Kingdom that were contaminated with potentially cancer-causing bromates.

Click here for the full resolution. 

See the 2006 Annual Meeting Season News

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