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Statement by Stefanie Lynch, Emerson College (Boston, Massachusetts) Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Coca-Cola, Wilmington, DE - April 16, 2008 My name is Stefanie Lynch, and I am a graduating senior at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. This spring I joined the Think Outside the Bottlecampaign and organized activities on campus to educate students, faculty and the administration about the social and environmental impacts of bottled water. In the week leading up to World Water Day, my student organization, Emerson Peace and Justice, organized water related events each day on campus to raise awareness about the human right to water and to mobilize people to take action challenging the corporate control of water. Last month, the Emerson College Student Government Association (SGA) recognized water as a human right and declared that SGA recognized organizations are not allowed to use their funds for the purchase of bottled water. My student government is not alone. I have been working with students at more than 60 colleges and universities across North America that are advancing similar initiatives to get their campuses to Think Outside the Bottle. These students are part of a growing number of people taking action on this campaign. Today, more than 27,000 individuals have taken the Pledge to Think Outside the Bottle and choose tap water over bottled water. I have more than 6,000 public comments here that I would like to deliver to you after the meeting. There are also more than 30 restaurants across the country that are no longer serving bottled water and a growing number of cities that are canceling bottled water contracts. I have organized several Tap Water Challenges on campus and in my community, pitting bottled water against tap water. Most everyone who takes the challenge cannot tell the difference between the tap and leading bottled water brands. This is not surprising when you consider that brands like Dasani use municipal tap water as their source. However, the source of bottled water is still a surprise to most people. One of the biggest complaints I hear from students is about how misleading bottled water marketing is, whether it’s Coke’s Dasani, Pepsi’s Aquafina or Nestlé’s bottled water brands. Still, your corporation responds to these widespread concerns by dismissing them, telling hundreds who have called that Coke does not believe its advertising to be misleading. But the fact is tens of thousands of Americans feel otherwise – now is not the time to ignore their concerns. Last summer, Pepsi took steps to address concerns about its advertising of Aquafina and announced that it would reveal the sources and sites of the water used for the bottled water brand. Your corporation is refusing to provide similar information on labels for Dasani consumers. I ask you, Mr. Isdell, if Aquafina—the number one selling brand of bottled water in the U.S.— can reveal this information to its customers, why does Coke refuse to follow Pepsi’s lead and make this information available to its customers?
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