Abstract
In a few years, soft drinks became the symbol of our modern, globalized and standardized foodstuffs. These generally fizzy and very sweet drinks are made water-based, charged with carbonic acid, with fruit syrup or plant extracts. Regarding the soft drinks market, it is dominated by three huge corporations, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Orangina-Schweppes which hold 77 % of sales in volume of sodas in the world. We can also note that sports and energy drinks, as Gatorade or Red Bull, present an increase of 47% in product sales launched. The consumption of soft drinks was a little more than 8 litres in the 1950s and increased to 40 litres in 2000s and young people consume twice more than the rest of the population. Huge increase in the soft drink consumption did not happen by chance, they are due to intense marketing efforts by Soft Drink Companies. However, what are the real impacts of their soft drinks and advertising on the consumers and our environment? From a business point of view, what companies in this industry have an ethical behaviour face to face with the society with a good financial return on investment?
